Caldo de Xoconostle Hidalguense

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 8-quart stockpot or olla de barro
• •Cast iron comal or heavy skillet for toasting chiles and charring tomatoes
• •High-powered blender
• •Fine-mesh strainer
• •Sharp paring knife for the xoconostle
• •Cazuelas de barro from the central highlands for serving

Instructions

1. 1

   Start the chambarete broth

   Place the beef shank rounds and neck bones in a heavy 8-quart stockpot. Cover with cold water by three inches. Bring to a slow simmer over medium heat. Skim the gray foam that rises in the first twenty minutes. This step is not optional. The foam carries the impurities that cloud the broth. Cold water draws the flavor out of the marrow slowly. A hard boil seals it inside the bone and toughens the meat.

   Ask your carnicero for chambarete with a generous marrow bone. The marrow is what gives this caldo its body. Without it, you have soup. With it, you have a caldo hidalguense.
2. 2

   Add aromatics and garbanzo

   Once the broth runs clear, add the halved onion, halved head of garlic, bay leaves, and salt. Add the soaked garbanzo beans. Lower the heat until the broth shows lazy bubbles every few seconds. Cover partially and cook for one and a half hours. The chambarete needs time to surrender. The garbanzo needs even longer than that. They will finish together.

3. 3

   Toast the chiles

   While the broth simmers, heat a dry comal over medium. Toast the guajillo, pasilla, and de arbol chiles separately, about 20 to 30 seconds per side. The skin will puff and the kitchen will smell like the chile vendor's stall at the Mercado Hidalgo in Pachuca. That smell is the oils releasing. Watch the pasilla. It is thin and burns faster than the guajillo. Burned chile is bitter chile and there is no fixing it later.

4. 4

   Char the tomatoes and build the chile base

   On the same comal, char the tomatoes and the three peeled garlic cloves until the tomato skins blister black in patches and the garlic softens. Place the toasted chiles in a heatproof bowl and cover with hot tap water, not boiling. Let them soften for 20 minutes. Drain and transfer the chiles to a blender with the charred tomatoes, garlic, and one cup of the beef broth. Blend until completely smooth. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve, pressing on the solids. You want a clean, deep red puree with no skin left behind.

5. 5

   Fry the chile paste

   In a small skillet, melt the manteca over medium heat. Pour in the strained chile and tomato puree. It will sputter. Cook for five to seven minutes, stirring constantly, until the puree darkens and the fat starts to separate at the edges. La manteca es el sabor. Skip this step and the chile will taste raw and thin in the broth.

   If you replace the manteca with vegetable oil, the caldo loses the pork sweetness that ties the Hidalgo version together. Manteca o nada.
6. 6

   Prepare the xoconostle

   Xoconostle is not tuna dulce, the sweet prickly pear fruit. It is the sour one. Peel each xoconostle with a paring knife, halve it, and scrape out the cluster of seeds in the center. The flesh should be pale green to pink and firm. This is the ingredient that defines a caldo hidalguense and you do not skip it. If you cannot find xoconostle, this is the wrong recipe for you today. Make pozole. Try this another week.

7. 7

   Combine and add the vegetables

   Stir the fried chile base into the simmering broth. The color will deepen to a russet red. Add the carrots and chayote. Simmer 15 minutes. Add the calabacitas and the xoconostle. Simmer 15 minutes more. The xoconostle softens but holds its shape. Its acidity infuses the broth slowly, which is exactly the point. This is what cuts through the richness of the marrow and the beef fat.

8. 8

   Finish with epazote and adjust salt

   Drop the epazote sprigs into the pot in the last five minutes. Epazote, not cilantro. Epazote has a sharp, almost medicinal note that belongs to caldos of the Altiplano. Taste the broth. The salt should be assertive because the garbanzo and vegetables absorb it. The xoconostle should be present but not aggressive. If the broth tastes flat, it needs salt, not more chile.

   If the xoconostle is not sour enough, you can squeeze a little lime into the pot at the end. But good xoconostle does not need help.
9. 9

   Serve at the table

   Ladle the caldo into deep cazuelas de barro. Make sure each bowl gets a piece of chambarete with its marrow bone, a chunk of every vegetable, and at least one piece of xoconostle. Set the diced onion, cilantro, oregano, lime wedges, and warm tortillas in small platitos around the table. Each person finishes their own bowl. This is how it is eaten in Pachuca, in Real del Monte, in the small towns of the Valle del Mezquital. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.

Chef Tips

• •Find a real Mexican mercado for the xoconostle. Large Latin grocery stores in cities with Mexican communities often stock them, usually labeled in Spanish only. They are smaller than a sweet tuna, with a duller skin and a paler interior. If the vendor sells nopales, they almost certainly sell xoconostles too. Ask.
• •Chambarete is the cut. Not stew meat, not chuck. Chambarete is beef shank with the marrow bone in the center, and the marrow is what makes the broth Hidalguense. If your butcher does not know the word, ask for beef shank cross-cut into two-inch rounds with the bone intact.
• •Soak the garbanzo overnight. Canned garbanzo is a compromise, not an upgrade, and it never has the bite of the dried bean cooked slowly in the broth. If you must use canned, add them in the last 30 minutes only and reduce the salt.
• •Epazote is not cilantro. Cilantro is the finishing herb. Epazote is the cooking herb. It belongs in the pot, not on top of the bowl. Fresh epazote can be found at Mexican markets in the herb section, often near the cilantro and hoja santa.

Advance Preparation

• •The chambarete broth and the chile base can both be made one day ahead and refrigerated separately. The flavor improves overnight. Combine and add the vegetables and xoconostle on serving day.
• •Do not add the calabacitas or the xoconostle until the day you serve. The calabacitas turn to mush if they sit overnight in the broth, and the xoconostle's acidity dulls.
• •The caldo keeps refrigerated for three days. Reheat gently over low heat. It does not freeze well because the vegetables suffer.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 500g)