Atole de Pechita Norteño

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 4-quart olla or clay pot
• •Fine-mesh strainer
• •Wooden spoon or molinillo
• •Box grater for the piloncillo
• •Clay jarritos or heavy enamel cups for serving

Instructions

1. 1

   Inspect and break the pechitas

   Look over each pod. Discard any that are blackened, mildewed, or full of holes from weevils. The good ones are dry, golden-amber to dark brown, and snap with a clean sound when you bend them. Break them into 2-inch pieces with your hands so the water can reach the sweet pulp inside. Pechitas are mesquite pods, the dried beans of the mesquite tree that grows wild across Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, and the northern Bajio. The Comcáac, the Tohono O'odham, and the Yaqui have been eating them for thousands of years. You are not inventing anything here. You are inheriting it.

   If your pechitas have a fine white bloom on them, that is natural sugar crystallizing out of the pod, not mold. It means the pods were harvested ripe and dried well. That is what you want.
2. 2

   Simmer the pods

   Place the broken pechitas in a heavy 4-quart olla or stockpot. Add 8 cups of water and the cinnamon stick. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce to a steady low simmer. Cook uncovered for 60 to 75 minutes, until the water turns the color of strong coffee with a red-amber edge and the pods have softened and given up their sugar. The kitchen will smell like molasses, burnt sugar, and something woodsy. That smell is the desert.

3. 3

   Mash and strain

   Turn off the heat. Use a wooden spoon or a potato masher to press the softened pods against the side of the pot, breaking them up further so any remaining pulp releases into the liquid. Let it sit ten minutes. Strain the liquid through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean pot, pressing hard on the solids with the back of a ladle. The pods contain woody fibers and seeds that you do not want in the finished atole. Discard the spent solids. You should have about 5 to 6 cups of dark mesquite extract.

4. 4

   Make the masa slurry

   In a small bowl, whisk the masa harina with the remaining 2 cups of cool water until completely smooth. No lumps. Lumps in atole are unforgivable. The masa is what makes this an atole and not a tea. It carries the body, the cling, the way the drink coats the cup. Pre-Hispanic atoles were thickened with corn long before any sugar reached the north.

5. 5

   Combine and thicken

   Return the strained mesquite liquid to medium heat. Whisk in the masa slurry in a slow stream, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon so the bottom does not catch. Add the piloncillo and the salt. Keep stirring as the atole comes back to a gentle simmer. After 8 to 10 minutes, it will thicken visibly and coat the back of the spoon. The piloncillo will dissolve into the dark liquid and deepen the color almost to black-brown. Taste it. Pechitas are sweet on their own, so the piloncillo is a supporting note, not the lead.

   Never stop stirring once the masa goes in. The starch wants to settle on the bottom of the pot and scorch. Scorched atole tastes like burned popcorn and there is no recovering from it. No me vengas con atajos.
6. 6

   Add the milk and finish

   Lower the heat. Pour in the milk in a slow stream, stirring the whole time. Warm it through without letting the atole come back to a boil. Boiling milk in atole curdles the surface and gives you a skin you do not want. Stir in the vanilla. Taste once more for salt and sweetness. The finished atole should be the color of cajeta, thick enough to coat a spoon, with a flavor that runs from caramel to molasses to something faintly smoky from the mesquite itself.

7. 7

   Serve in clay

   Ladle into clay jarritos or heavy enamel cups. Dust the top with a pinch of ground Mexican cinnamon. Drink it slowly. This is a winter drink in the sierras of Sonora and Chihuahua, where the nights drop cold and the mesquite trees stand bare. It is breakfast, supper, and medicine, depending on the household. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.

Chef Tips

• •Pechitas are sold in mercados across Sonora, Chihuahua, and Coahuila in late summer and fall, usually in bulk by the kilo. Outside the north of Mexico, look at specialty importers, Tohono O'odham Community Action in Arizona, or mesquite pod suppliers from the U.S. Southwest. If you find mesquite flour (harina de mezquite) instead of whole pods, you can use 1/2 cup of flour whisked into the water, but you skip the simmer-and-strain and you lose some of the depth. A compromise, not an upgrade.
• •Piloncillo is non-negotiable. Brown sugar will get you a sweet drink, but it will not get you the molasses-mineral depth that makes this taste like the north. Buy a cone of piloncillo from any Mexican grocery and grate it on the large holes of a box grater.
• •Some ranchero cooks finish this atole with a knob of butter or a spoonful of cream instead of milk. In the Sierra Tarahumara, others skip the dairy entirely and serve it pure with the masa and water. Both are correct. La leche es para el frío, the dairy is for the cold, as the senora in Ures told me.

Advance Preparation

• •The strained mesquite extract can be made up to two days ahead and refrigerated. Bring it back to a simmer before adding the masa slurry.
• •Finished atole keeps in the refrigerator for two days. Reheat gently over low heat, whisking constantly. Add a splash of milk or water to loosen it back to drinking consistency.
• •Dried pechitas keep for a year in a sealed jar in a cool dry place. Buy them when you see them. The harvest is short.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 350g)