How to Make Rodrigo Cervantes’ Unifying, Ingenious Pastel Azteca

My parents divorced 20 years ago and to this day whenever I speak to my dad he asks me for my mother’s recipe for pastel Azteca (Aztec cake). My mother, on the other hand, barely remembers ever making it, or even eating one for that matter. What’s more, unfortunately she threw away her old recipe book years ago in a decluttering fit that I resented harshly at the time and will probably never forgive.

I hazily remember eating it at home or grandma’s home maybe. Because in Mexico, pastel Azteca is a dish you eat at home mostly and speaks of the versatility of a tortilla. A few weeks ago, with a touch of nostalgia and a lot of “Mexican ingenuity”, my wife made up a version of pastel Azteca using leftovers from the fridge.

Pastel Azteca is a Mexican lasagne of sorts, but more likely a close cousin of enchiladas: layers of corn tortillas, refried beans, requeson (ricotta-like cheese), quesillo (mozzarella -like cheese), shredded chicken in a poblano chilli sauce.

Traditionally, pastel Azteca is green due to the poblano chillies, which are hard to find in London. So with poetic license in this — my version — I turned it red, as dried chillies are easier to find.

THE RECIPE

The sauce

4 plum tomatoes (quartered)
2 small yellow onion (diced)
2 cloves of garlic (minced)
5 guajillo chilli (deseeded)
1 ancho (dried poblano) chilli (deseeded)
1l chicken stock or water.
4 chicken breasts, skin removed (or peel the skin and slow roast or fry to make crispy chicken skin to crumble on top)

Toast the guajillo and ancho chillies in a pan at a medium heat until you can smell them, careful not to burn them, as they will make the sauce slightly bitter. Around 15 to 20 seconds each side.

Remove the chillies from the pan add a dash of oil let it heat up and sauté the onions until soft. Save half of the onions for the beans. To the onion in the pan add the garlic and cook for a minute. Drop the tomatoes and toasted chillies and let all the juices from the tomatoes release onto the pan.

When the tomatoes are cooked add the stock and let everything come to a boil and then turn down to a simmer for 15 to 20 mins and finally blend the salsa and season with salt. Put the salsa back in either the same pan or a pot and bring to a boil before adding the chicken breasts. Cook for 20 mins or until chicken is easy to pull.

Once done, take the chicken out of the sauce and shred it and put back into the sauce. Taste and season again if needed.

*Consider that chicken could easily be replaced with the meat or vegetables at hand.

Refried beans

2 cans of beans (pinto or black)
Drain half the brine from the beans and blend the beans to a smooth thick paste.
2 tbsp lard (butter or any nice fat)

In a new pan, on a medium heat, add the fat of your choice and let it warm up: you want to hear the sizzle when you pour down the blended beans. In a weird way, you are searing the beans as you would a steak to pack in the flavour. Add the cooked onion and cook for  a minute, then fold the beans and cook for another minute. Let it bubble and thicken, adding water if needed. You want the beans to be slightly runny like a very thick sauce but you don’t want hummus consistency. Season with salt.

*Can also add a dried chilli or two to the fat before adding the beans, for a little kick. I’d suggest an arbor chilli.

Assemble

18 corn tortillas
250g Mozzarella cheese (quesillo)
250g Ricotta (requeson)

Start heating up your tortillas: use a pan, the microwave or the oven. You just want them to be pliable and easy to work with.

Oil up a baking dish to avoid the pastel sticking to it. Start with the tortillas, you’d probably be able to fit five tortillas if you cut one in half for the edges, as seen in the photo.

Add a layer of beans evenly spread. Add a layer of shredded chicken and sauce. Add a layer of mozzarella and ricotta. Add a layer of tortillas again. Repeat this process two more times and finish with a lot of cheese on top.

Bake at 180C for 20 minutes and the crack the oven to the max for 5 mins or until you achieve a nice brown gratin on the cheese. Garnish with sliced red onion (sliced lengthwise), a bunch of chopped coriander and sour cream. And serve. 

Rodrigo Cervantes is from Mexico City, but lives in east London with his family. He is head chef at Bad Manners in Clapton.

All photos by Rodrigo Cervantes.