Achiote - A Mexican Food Ingredient

Achiote - A Mexican Food Ingredient

Achiote is one of the most ancient, useful, and interesting Mexican food ingredients and is also one of the least known. The name refers to the seeds of the annatto tree (Bixa orellana), or to the paste into which it is sometimes ground with herbs and spices. Although the shrub-like tree’s fruit is inedible it produces seeds of a deep rust-red that, when heated with oil or water, produce a bright red-orange color and a mild, earthy taste.

Achiote was used by the Aztecs to color and flavor chocolate. It was also used by Indians for cosmetic purposes, including as lipstick. In America’s First Cuisines, (University of Texas Press,1994) anthropologist, Sophie Coe, speculates that Indians may have been called “redskins,” not because of their natural color, but because of the achiote they put on their skins. Today, achiote is used to color butter, margarine and cheese, and as a key ingredient in two of Mexico’s most famous dishes: Cochinita Pibil and Pollo pibil, pit-cooked pork and chicken from the Yucatan. It also has many other culinary uses, some of which have undoubtedly not yet been discovered.

Achiote is sold either as seeds or ground to a paste with vinegar and various spices. In my opinion the seeds are by far the best alternative. They keep indefinitely, and are easily made into many different Yucatan-style recados (seasoning pastes) using your recipes and your ingredients, just the way you want them. They can also be used as an Aztec-style addition to hot chocolate. In my kitchen I use them nearly every day in what may be their most valuable form: as a key ingredient in a special flavored cooking oil. The resulting oil is not only packed with flavor but is a delightful red-orange color, which it passes on to just about anything it touches. It is one of those deceptively simple chef’s secrets that, with little effort and at a low cost, can significantly improve the appearance and taste of many otherwise ordinary dishes. For example, the oil can be used to prepare different marinades for shrimp, fish, chicken, beef, lamb, pork and vegetables. It can be used to make terrific, low fat flour tortillas, and for stir-frying and sauteing. It can be drizzled on just-cooked pizza, used to fry corn tortillas, as a base for mayonnaise, used to make an unforgettable rice pilaf, and in many more ways. Recipes for all the above, including cochinita pibil, pollo pibil, and flavored oil are included with the purchase of one or more jars of annatto seeds.