Aporreado Costeño Guerrerense

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Comal or heavy cast iron skillet
• •Metate, large molcajete, or meat mallet for pounding the cecina
• •Cazuela de barro or heavy pot
• •Blender
• •Fine-mesh strainer

Instructions

1. 1

   Toast the cecina

   Heat a dry comal or heavy skillet over medium. If your cecina tastes very salty, rinse it quickly under cold water and pat it completely dry first. Lay the sheets on the comal and toast a few seconds per side until they darken, stiffen, and smell toasty and beefy. You are not cooking it through. You are drying it brittle so it will break apart. Work in batches and set the pieces aside to cool.

2. 2

   Pound the beef (aporrear)

   This is the step that names the dish. On a metate, in a large molcajete, or on a sturdy board with a meat mallet or a smooth heavy stone, pound the cooled cecina until it cracks and breaks into coarse fibers. Pull and tear the bigger pieces apart with your hands. You want a loose tangle of shreds, not whole sheets and not powder.

   Do not reach for the food processor. It turns the beef to dust and you lose the texture that makes this aporreado. The old cooks do it on a stone, by hand, and so should you.
3. 3

   Toast the chiles

   On the same comal over medium heat, toast the costeño, guajillo, and pasilla oaxaqueño separately, pressing each flat for a few seconds per side until it puffs slightly and turns fragrant. The costeño and the pasilla oaxaqueño are thin and burn fast. Watch them.

   Burned chile turns the whole pot bitter and there is no fixing it later. If one goes black, throw it out and toast another.
4. 4

   Soak the chiles

   Put the toasted chiles in a bowl and cover them with hot tap water, not boiling. Boiling water cooks the skins and turns the sauce bitter. Hot water softens the flesh and keeps the flavor clean. Soak 15 to 20 minutes, until pliable.

5. 5

   Char the tomatoes and aromatics

   While the chiles soak, char the tomatoes, the half onion, and the unpeeled garlic on the comal, turning, until blackened in spots and softened. Peel the garlic once it cools. This roasting builds the backbone of the chile rojo. Raw tomato gives you a flat sauce. Charred tomato gives you depth.

6. 6

   Blend the sauce

   Drain the chiles and save the soaking water. Blend the chiles, tomatoes, onion, garlic, cumin, peppercorns, and clove with about 1 cup of the soaking liquid until completely smooth. Strain through a fine sieve, pressing on the solids, to leave the skins behind. You want a clean, deep chile rojo, not a chunky soup.

7. 7

   Fry the sauce

   In a cazuela de barro or heavy pot, melt the lard over medium heat until it shimmers. Pour in the strained sauce and stand back, because it will spatter. Fry, stirring, 8 to 10 minutes, until the color deepens to brick red and a rim of red fat separates at the edge. This is the sazón. La manteca es el sabor. Skip this and the chile tastes raw.

8. 8

   Stew the beef

   Stir the pounded cecina into the sauce until every fiber is coated. Lay in the epazote and pour in enough water or broth to loosen it into a stew, starting with 2 cups. Simmer gently 20 to 30 minutes, until the dried beef softens and drinks in the chile. Add more liquid if it tightens. Taste for salt only now, at the end.

   Salt last, always. The cecina is salt-cured and carries its own. Many a good pot has been ruined by a cook who salted it like fresh meat at the start.
9. 9

   Serve the comida

   Serve hot from the cazuela with warm corn tortillas, black beans, white rice, and slices of ripe plátano macho fried in lard. No eggs in the noon version. A squeeze of lime if you like. This is how they eat it in Cuajinicuilapa at midday. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •The dried beef is the dish. Look for cecina de res or tasajo at a Mexican carnicería or mercado. In the United States, Mexican butcher counters carry it, sometimes just labeled cecina. If you truly can't find it, salt thin slices of beef top round, lay them on a rack, and dry them uncovered in the refrigerator overnight. It's a compromise, not the real thing, but it will pound and shred.
• •Chile costeño is what makes this Costa Chica and not Tierra Caliente. It grows on this coast and carries a clean, fruity heat. Mexican groceries and online sellers stock it. If you're stuck, more guajillo plus a couple of chile de árbol gets you the color and the burn, but you lose the coast in the flavor. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
• •The pasilla oaxaqueño is a smoked chile from the Oaxacan sierra, and it's in this pot because the Costa Chica crosses the state line. Want it less smoky? Drop it and add another guajillo. Want more of the coast? Add a third costeño. No me vengas con atajos, but do cook it to your own table's heat.
• •Two rules from the Cuajinicuilapa kitchen. Salt at the very end, because the cecina is already cured. And no eggs in the noon version. The egg-scrambled aporreado is the breakfast plate. Both are real. Don't mix them up.
• •Use real manteca de cerdo, rendered, not the shelf-stable hydrogenated brick. Render your own from pork fat if you can. On this coast the frying fat is half the flavor, and the Afro-Caribbean habit of cooking in lard is the reason this food tastes the way it does.

Advance Preparation

• •The chile sauce can be made 2 to 3 days ahead and refrigerated. The flavor settles and improves.
• •Toast and pound the cecina up to a day ahead. Store the shredded beef covered in the refrigerator.
• •Aporreado is better the next day. The dried beef keeps drinking in the chile overnight. Reheat with a splash of water or broth, since it tightens as it sits. It keeps about four days refrigerated and freezes acceptably.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 560g)