My brother-in-law Pete loves to cook and he's very skilled at it! His Mom, my mother-in-law, recently brought recado home after a trip to Belize. If you're not familiar with this ingredient, I am going to borrow heavily from Wikipedia. And by "borrow" I mean copy and paste:
Recado rojo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Recado rojo or achiote paste is a popular blend of spices. It is now strongly associated with the Mexican and Belizean cuisines, especially of Yucatán and Oaxaca. The spice mixture usually includes annatto, oregano, cumin, clove, cinnamon, black pepper, allspice, garlic, and salt.[1][2] The annatto seeds dye the mixture red, and impart a distinctive red-orange color to the food.
The paste is dissolved in either lemon juice, water, oil, or vinegar, used as a marinade for meat, or rubbed directly upon it. The meat is then grilled, baked, barbecued, or broiled. Sometimes, it is added to corn dough to create a zesty flavor and color in empanadas and red tamales.
So, that's what it is. That's what it looks like. Pete is great at experimental cooking, we both had recado to play with, here's what he came up with, and what I made for supper tonight:
2 Tbsp recado rojo
1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar or white vinegar
1 tsp cumin*
10 chicken thighs with drumsticks attached
I combined the first four ingredients in a large Corning Ware dish, mashing the recado with a fork until it dissolved in the liquids. I added the chicken into the marinade. It probably would have been a better idea to mix it all in a bowl and pour it over the meat.
I covered the dish with foil, popped it into the oven for over an hour. The meat was very flavourful and tender!
Notes:
Pete says he likes a bold hit of cumin, so he would have used 2 tsp for this recipe. We prefer it as a milder flavour, and I only used 1 tsp.
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