Nope Sopes, Pseudo Panuchos – a Something or Other Tart
Pseudo Panuchos
I had about a cup of ground almonds left over from a batch of almond milk and I wanted to use them with masa to make a small tort. I didn’t have much produce on hand, except a pint of yellow grape tomatoes, a red onion, and an avocado, but all three of those are great with masa – so I gave it a shot.
You could think of this tart as a kind of pretentious sope, maybe even pseudo panuchos (because of the avocado) – but whatever you call it, know that it is rooted in my rough translation of Yucatecan food.
Anyway, here is what you will need for the recipe: (yields two 4-inch tartlets)
1 pint of yellow tomatoes
1 avocado
1 red onion
2 cups masa harina
1 cup ground almonds
1/8 cup water
1/3 cup of olive oil (for tomatoes)
1/8 cup of olive oil (for masa)
salt
cayenne
Wash and slice the tomatoes, cover them with 1/3 cup of olive oil, place them in a casserole and into a convection oven set at 450F for 10 minutes and then drop the temperature to 300F (or use your oven’s roast setting) for the remaining 20 minutes.
In a wooden bowl, mix the masa, almond meal, olive oil, water, and salt. Mix by hand with a fork – the result should look like creamed butter. While this recipe does not rise very much, I think the creamed butter appearance of the masa has a leavening effect. This crust had higher porosity than I expected and it wasn’t dense or chewy like a store-bought sope.
To form the crust take a removable bottom tartlet pan and press the almond-masa dough into the bottom and up around the edge of the pan. Dry bake the crust at 300 F using your convection oven (I didn’t use pie weights for this, I’ve never had a masa-based crust rise enough to fail). Remove the crust from the tartlet pan and carefully place it on your serving dish – a fast-baked low-moisture masa vehicle will crumble if you are rough with it. Leave it to cool while you prepare to assemble the tart. If making this crust stresses you out, try forming it by hand on sheet pan – it will be easier to remove after baking.
Whip an avocado with the dregs of olive oil from your measuring cup, add salt to taste and a little cayenne. Set aside until the crust is cool enough to fill without warming the avocado.
At this point your roasted tomatoes should be about finished, remove the casserole from the oven and set aside for a moment to cool.
Turn your broiler on (500F) and place a sheet pan with sliced red onions on the top shelf – monitor them, letting some of them shrivel and brown, and letting other become dry and crispy.
Assemble the tart by scooping a mound of avocado into the crust. Do this with one large scoop, and try to make the scoop look like a mountain (high in the center, spreading out evenly to the sides), if you have good proprioception it might be possible to do this with one flick of your wrist (failing that, smooth it into a mountain shape with the back of a spoon). Lay the tomatoes on top of the mound of avocado, but distribute the tomatoes in a pattern that leaves a good portion of the avocado visible. Mound a bird’s nest of broiled onions next to the tart and serve while the tomatoes are still hot, and before the avocado becomes warm.
Ryan Dewey - Kitchen Cognition 
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