Red Recado Paste is a condiment made from Annatto Seeds common to the Yucatan region and Mayan cooking. Traditionally this was only found in the Yucatan but in more recent times it can occasionally be found elsewhere in Mexico. We have seen this used in dishes in both Mexico and Belize.

Annatto Seeds

Annatto is an orange-red condiment and food coloring derived from the seeds of the achiote tree, native to the Yucatan. It’s flavor is slightly nutty, sweet and peppery. The seeds are also sometimes used to make dyes. We have found Annatto Seeds at our local co-op store. They are also available on Amazon.com here.

This recipe is naturally gluten free, vegetarian and low cholesterol. You can easily scale this recipe to make more paste if you want to.

Watch a Video

Here is a video of 2 Cooks in the Kitchen making Red Recado Paste to use for a Mayan inspired whole fish recipe.

Ingredients For Red Redado Paste

• 1/8 Cup Annatto Seeds
• 1/8 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar
• 6 Cloves Garlic, Peeled
• 1 1/2 tsp Mexican Oregano
• 1/4 tsp Black Pepper
• 1/4 tsp Ground Cumin
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 1/8 tsp Ground Coriander
• 1/8 tsp Ground Allspice
• 1/8 tsp Ground Cloves
• 1/8 tsp Ground Cinnamon

Soak the Annatto Seeds In Vinegar

We will start by soaking the Annatto Seeds in Apple Cider Vinegar. This type of vinegar is widely used in Mexican cooking but you can substitute whatever vinegar you have on hand. We’ll use equal parts seeds and vinegar and soak for at least 30 minutes.

Toast the Garlic

While the seeds are soaking we can toast our garlic cloves. Put the whole, peeled cloves in a dry frying pan over medium heat. Let them cook, stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes. We want a little color on the garlic cloves which will add some flavor.

Sweat the Dried Spices

Measure all the spices into a bowl and then put them in a dry pan over medium heat for about 1 minute. Stir this often and don’t let it burn. You want it to toast a bit and become quite fragrant. This helps to bring the dried spices back to life and enriches the flavor.

Grind the Ingredients

Now we just take all the ingredients and grind them into a course paste. Even after soaking the annatto seeds they are fairly firm so it takes some doing to grind them. A mortar and pestle would be the traditional way to accomplish this. We used a small food processor for this and it didn’t seem to do the job right so we transferred it to a mortar and pestle. If you are multiplying this recipe it would probably work in a regular sized food processor but this is such a small amount it seems like it would be more effective.

Now that we have our paste we can find uses for it. We cooked a whole fish with it. We can use it as a sauce, marinade or rub for meat, chicken and fish. It adds an earthy, somewhat sweet and spicy, slightly smokey flavor.

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