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holiday seasons), begin to wear on the palate. I always search for something that will give my taste buds a break — something fresh that doesn’t taste like everything else I’ve been eating. It’s a time I head to places like the Mayan Café where a set of soft salbutes topped with paperthin slices of butternut squash, a piquant pico de gallo and a few shreds of cabbage let my palate take a refreshing vacaciones from the holidays’ sugar and spice and everything over the top. If you’re not quite so Grinch-like, you’ll find salbutes can play a major role in your holiday cocktail party, or dinner party. They are unbelievably easy to make. The masa flour is easily found in supermarkets, the dough is pliable and forgiving, you can make the disks ahead and freeze them, make toppings and sauces ahead and freeze or refrigerate them. Last-minute preparation requires frying the disks and topping them. One trouble: they will be gobbled up in seconds. People love salbutes. Every one of the 700 or so salbutes served by Ucan are handmade on the restaurant’s single tortilla press. They are stacked and frozen ready to be cooked when an order is placed. If you want a tortilla press you can buy them at Mexican supermarkets, or use the bottom of a flat skillet to press your salbutes.
Black Bean & Goat Cheese Salbutes, topped with pico de gallo and cabbage (ABOUT 40 3-INCH SALBUTES)
This is the same dough that Ucan uses to make his chilaquiles, which holds a vegetable filling between disks of corn masa. 4 cups masa flour (Maseca brand) 1 cup all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon salt 2 to 3 cups water 3 cups neutral oil for frying Pico de gallo 2 medium tomatoes 1 /2 white onion 1 bunch cilantro 1 /2 teaspoon salt Juice of 2 limes
Toppings 2 cups slivered Savoy cabbage, chopped 2 limes 1 /2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon olive oil 2 cups mashed black or refried beans 8 ounces Capriole or other fresh goat cheese Instructions Measure the masa, all-purpose flour and salt into a bowl. Add water a bit at a time, stirring (Ucan uses his fingers, spread wide apart like a claw), until it’s firm like pizza dough but soft and pliable. It should not be sticky, and should not crack when you press your finger into it. Cover dough with plastic and set aside. Make pico de gallo by dicing tomatoes, onion and cilantro very small. Add salt and juice of two limes. Place chopped cabbage in a bowl. Add juice of two limes, salt and olive oil. Stir and set aside. To make salbutes: Cut the top and sides off a plastic sandwich bag to make two pieces of plastic (plastic wrap is not strong enough for making salbutes). Make a small ball with the dough (about an ounce or the size of a walnut). Place the dough between the plastic on a tortilla press or on the counter. Press with the tortilla press or the flat bottom of a skillet until the disk is about three inches wide and about an 1/8-inch thick. Repeat with remaining dough, stacking them separated by plastic wrap. Disks may be frozen at this point (do not thaw before cooking, just put them directly in oil). Pour oil into a wide, deep skillet (or electric skillet) to about 3/4-inch deep. Heat oil. Add patties and cook about 30 seconds on each side. They will still be blonde. Remove and set on absorbent towels. Repeat with all disks or as many as you would like. Place a small scoop of beans on each salbute, then add a small scoop of goat cheese. Top with a teaspoon or so of pico de gallo and cabbage. Add hot sauce if desired. F&D
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