Kak'ik

As tradition built it

Kak'ik

Cobán, Alta Verapaz; Q'eqchi' Maya; ICH of the Nation, 2007

Ingredients

• 2 lb turkey, in large pieces
• 0.5 lb tomato
• 4 oz miltomate
• 2 chile guaque, large
• 1 chile pasa, large
• 1 red bell pepper, large
• 6 garlic cloves, large
• 1 onion, medium
• 4 sprigs cilantro
• 10 sprigs mint
• 4 oz cilantro seed
• 4 pimienta gorda (allspice) grains
• 4 to 5 black pepper grains
• 0.5 oz sesame
• 1 oz pepitoria
• to taste achiote and chile cobanero powder

Method

1. Simmer the turkey with garlic, cilantro and mint for roughly forty five minutes until tender.
2. Char-roast the tomato, miltomate, onion, peppers and garlic.
3. Deseed the guaque, pasa and cobanero chiles, toast briefly, then soften in hot broth.
4. Blend everything roasted and toasted, including the cilantro seed, pimienta gorda, black pepper, sesame and pepitoria, with the achiote and reserved broth.
5. Strain into the pot and simmer ten minutes.
6. Finish with salt, achiote and more chile cobanero.

Notes

It is consistently and specifically a Cobán, Alta Verapaz dish, and Q'eqchi' Maya, not K'iche' or Kaqchikel; it sits here as a named neighbour rather than this chapter's own territory.

What a modern chef changes

High heat, sharp chile, clarified broth

Rung 04

Method

1. Sear the char-roasted vegetables under a Big Green Egg run very hot and direct, closer to the real intensity of the traditional roasting than a domestic grill gives.
2. Toast the guaque, pasa and cobanero chiles in the spice grinder before softening them, sharpening the smoked cobanero's own character rather than letting it dilute into the broth undefined.
3. Cook the turkey sous vide to a precise, moist finish, then reduce its poaching liquid down hard as the base for the final broth rather than relying on a single long simmer to do both jobs.
4. Pass the finished broth through a chinois for real clarity, a genuinely different presentation from the rustic, thicker broth of the traditional pot while keeping every named flavour intact.