Atápakua Roja con Guajillo y Ancho

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Dry comal, preferably cast iron or clay, for toasting chiles and charring vegetables
• •Volcanic stone molcajete with tejolote, or a blender for larger batches
• •4-quart clay cazuela de barro from Cocucho or a heavy Dutch oven
• •Wooden spoon for stirring the masa-thickened sauce

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare the chiles

   Wipe the guajillo and ancho chiles with a dry cloth. Pull off the stems, open the chiles, and shake out the seeds. Do not rinse dried chiles under water. You wash away aroma and leave yourself with wet leather.

2. 2

   Toast the chiles

   Heat a dry comal over medium. Toast the guajillos first, 15 to 20 seconds per side, just until the skins turn glossy and smell fruity. Toast the anchos separately, 25 to 30 seconds per side, because they are thicker and sweeter. They should puff in spots, never blacken. Burned chile makes bitter atápakua, and no amount of masa will hide it.

   If a chile turns black, throw it out. No me vengas con atajos. One burned chile can ruin the whole cazuela.
3. 3

   Soften the chiles

   Place the toasted chiles in a bowl and cover with hot water, not boiling water. Put a small plate on top to keep them submerged and let them soften for 15 minutes. Drain them. Taste the soaking water with a spoon. If it tastes clean and sweet, keep 1/2 cup for blending. If it tastes bitter, discard it and use caldo instead.

4. 4

   Char the vegetables

   On the same comal, roast the jitomates, onion wedges, and unpeeled garlic until the skins blister and dark spots appear. Turn them with tongs so they soften evenly. If using chile perón, roast it now until the skin blisters, then peel and seed it. Peel the garlic. The char gives the sauce the taste of a Michoacán kitchen, especially when the comal sits over leña.

5. 5

   Grind the base

   For a molcajete, grind the salt and peeled garlic first until they become a paste, then work in the chiles piece by piece, followed by the onion, chile perón if using, and jitomates. For a blender, combine the softened chiles, charred vegetables, salt, and 1 cup caldo or clean soaking liquid. Blend until the sauce is smooth but still red and alive, not whipped pale. The molcajete gives martajada texture. The blender gives speed for a larger batch. Both can work, but they are not the same thing.

6. 6

   Loosen the masa

   Crumble the fresh masa de maíz into a bowl. Whisk in 1 1/2 cups of the caldo until smooth, pressing with your fingers if you feel lumps. If using masa harina dough, treat it the same way. This is the thickener. Not almonds. Not peanuts. Not sesame. Not pepita. Pepita belongs to pipián for flavor, not to thicken this atápakua.

   Fresh masa from a tortillería gives the clean nixtamal flavor. Masa harina is a compromise, not an upgrade, but it is better than thickening with flour or nuts. Flour has no business here.
7. 7

   Fry the chile

   Set a 4-quart clay cazuela or heavy pot over medium heat. Melt the manteca de cerdo. Add the chile and jitomate base carefully, because it will sputter. Stir with a wooden spoon for 7 to 9 minutes, until the color deepens to brick red and the fat begins to mark the edges of the sauce. La manteca es el sabor. This step cooks out the raw chile and makes the sauce settle into itself.

8. 8

   Simmer the atápakua

   Add the remaining 1 1/2 cups caldo and bring the sauce to a low simmer. Pour in the loosened masa in a thin stream while stirring constantly. Lower the heat and cook 18 to 22 minutes, scraping the bottom often. The sauce should thicken like a loose atole, glossy and spoonable, thick enough to leave a path when you drag the spoon through the cazuela but not so stiff that it sits like paste. Add more caldo by the spoonful if it tightens too much.

   Masa keeps thickening as it cooks and as it cools. Stop when it is slightly looser than you want at the table.
9. 9

   Season and use

   Add the epazote or nurite for the last 5 minutes of cooking, then remove the sprigs. Taste for salt. Let the atápakua rest 10 minutes before serving so the masa finishes hydrating. Spoon it over cooked calabacitas, mushrooms, beans, chicken, pork, charales, or warm tortillas. Refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •Buy guajillo and ancho chiles that bend without cracking and smell like raisins, dried fruit, and tobacco. If they smell dusty, they are old. You can have perfect technique and tired chiles and you will get tired sauce. Pregúntale a las señoras del mercado.
• •Fresh masa from a tortillería is the right choice. Ask for masa para tortillas, plain nixtamalized corn dough with no baking powder and no added fat. If the tortillería only sells prepared masa for tamales, do not use it here.
• •Atápakua is not mole. Do not add chocolate, almonds, peanuts, sesame, raisins, bolillo, or tortilla to thicken it. The body comes from masa de maíz. The corn is the architecture.
• •Chile perón is a Meseta P'urhépecha chile, yellow-orange, floral, citrusy, and grown around Uruapan, Pátzcuaro, and the avocado orchards. If you cannot find it, leave it out. Jalapeño or serrano will add green heat, but they will not give the same perfume.
• •A volcanic stone molcajete gives the sauce a martajada texture with tiny flecks of chile skin and charred jitomate. A blender makes a smoother batch and saves time. Use it without shame, but know what changed.
• •The best version is cooked over leña on a comal and in clay. A gas stove will feed you. A wood-fire kitchen gives the sauce the edge that made Michoacán the model for the 2010 UNESCO recognition. Do not fake it with liquid smoke.
• •If making a vigilia or vegetable version, use bean cooking liquid or vegetable caldo and cook the chile base in a well-seasoned cazuela with very little fat. That is a different pot. Do not replace manteca with butter and pretend nothing happened.

Advance Preparation

• •The finished atápakua can be made 3 days ahead and refrigerated. It will thicken as it rests, so reheat it slowly with splashes of hot caldo until it returns to a spoonable texture.
• •For the cleanest make-ahead version, prepare the chile and jitomate base up to 3 days ahead, refrigerate it, and add the masa only on the day you serve it.
• •You can freeze the chile and jitomate base for up to 2 months. Do not freeze the finished masa-thickened sauce unless you accept a looser texture after reheating. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 185g)