Carne Oreada al Carbón Costeña

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Wire rack set over a sheet pan, for air-drying the beef
• •Charcoal grill, ideally burning coconut wood or lump charcoal
• •Volcanic stone molcajete for the salsa
• •Cast iron or clay comal for the memelas
• •Tortilla press lined with plastic, or your hands, for forming memelas
• •Heavy chef's knife for chopping the grilled meat

Instructions

1. 1

   Salt-cure the beef

   Lay the butterflied beef flat on a cutting board. If the butcher left it thick, slice it down into sheets no more than a quarter inch thick. The thinner it is, the better it dries. Coat both sides generously with coarse sea salt, pressing it in with your hands. This is not seasoning, it is curing. The salt draws the moisture to the surface and concentrates the flavor of the meat. On the Costa Chica they use sal de mar straight from the coastal salt flats. Use the coarsest sea salt you can find, and do not be shy with it.

2. 2

   Air-dry the meat (orearla)

   Lay the salted beef flat on a wire rack set over a sheet pan, in a single layer. Set it in the refrigerator, uncovered, for 8 to 24 hours. Overnight is the right amount. The surface will darken, dry to the touch, and the meat will turn firm and a little tacky. This is what oreada means: aired. In Cuaji the women hang the salted beef in the sea breeze and the coastal sun and let the salt air do the work over a day. At home, the cold dry air of the refrigerator does the same job safely. Do not skip this and do not rush it. The drying is the dish. Grill a fresh steak with salt and you have a fresh steak. Carne oreada is something else entirely.

   If you live on a dry, breezy coast and want to dry it in the open air the old way, keep it off the ground, in the shade during the hottest hours, and covered with cheesecloth against insects. If your climate is humid or warm, do not risk it. The refrigerator is the safe road and no one at the table will know the difference.
3. 3

   Build the salsa verde costeña

   Heat a dry comal or heavy skillet over medium-high. Char the tomatillos, the chiles, the garlic, and the onion, turning them until they blister and blacken in spots and the tomatillos slump and soften. The garlic is done when it is soft inside, then peel it. Now the molcajete. Grind the peeled garlic, the salt, and the chiles to a rough paste first. Add the onion, then crush in the tomatillos a few at a time until you have a loose, textured salsa. Fold in the cilantro at the end. A molcajete salsa is not a blender salsa. The stone tears the ingredients and the salsa holds its body. If all you have is a blender, pulse it, do not puree it. You want texture, not soup.

   Fresh green chile costeño is what they use on the coast when the harvest is in. Outside the region you will not find it fresh, so serrano stands in. It is a compromise, not an upgrade, but it keeps the heat and the green sharpness the salsa needs.
4. 4

   Mix the memela masa

   Combine the masa harina and fine salt in a bowl and work in the warm water until it comes together into a soft, smooth dough with the feel of wet clay. Knead it for a minute. Press a piece flat between your fingers: if the edges crack, the masa is too dry, so work in more warm water a spoonful at a time until it presses smooth. Cover with a damp cloth and let it rest 20 minutes. If you can buy fresh masa from a tortillería, use it and skip the mixing. Si no conoces el mercado, no conoces la cocina.

5. 5

   Light the coals

   Light the coconut wood or lump charcoal and let it burn down until the flames die and the coals glow under a coat of gray ash. You want steady, medium-high heat, not flames. Coconut wood is what they burn on the Costa Chica, leña de coco, and the smoke it throws is part of the flavor of the meat. Lump charcoal is the next best thing. Do not use a gas grill for this. There is no smoke in gas, and the smoke is the point.

6. 6

   Form and cook the memelas

   Divide the rested masa into balls a little smaller than a golf ball. Press each one into an oval about a quarter inch thick, by hand or in a tortilla press lined with plastic. Cook them on a hot comal until the underside sets and freckles with brown, about a minute. Flip, and as the second side cooks, pinch a low raised rim around the edge of each one so it can hold salsa later. Cook until both sides are firm and spotted with toasty brown. Brush the tops with manteca or, if you have it, asiento, the browned lard sediment left from making chicharrón. La manteca es el sabor. Spread a little warm refried black beans across each if you like, and keep them warm under a cloth.

   The pinched rim is not decoration. It builds a wall so the salsa and the juices from the meat pool on top of the memela instead of running off your hand. That is why the memela exists and the flat tortilla does not do this job.
7. 7

   Grill the carne oreada

   Lay the dried beef directly on the grate over the hot coals. If you want the garlic, rub it on first. The meat is thin and already cured, so it cooks fast, a minute or two a side at most. Press it down so it takes the heat evenly. You are after a hard, dark char on the outside and the smoke driven into the meat. The edges will curl and crisp. Pull it off the second it is charred and just cooked through. Overcook dried beef and it goes to leather, and there is no saving it. Así se hace y punto.

8. 8

   Chop, assemble, and serve

   Rest the meat a minute on the board, then chop it across the grain into rough strips with a heavy knife, the way they do it next to the fire. Pile the hot meat onto the memelas, spoon the salsa verde over the top, scatter a little crumbled queso if using, and squeeze lime across everything. Put the platter in the middle of the table with the extra limes and salsa and let people build their own. Eat it with your hands, standing around the coals, on a weekend, the way Cuajinicuilapa has always eaten it. La tercera raíz no es nota al pie. Es plato principal.

Chef Tips

• •Ask the butcher for top round or flank and have him butterfly it into a thin sheet, what the coast calls a sábana. The cut has to be thin and even, because thick spots dry slow and grill unevenly. Tell him you are drying it, and a good butcher will cut it right.
• •Chile costeño is the soul of this coast, thin, fruity, and hot, grown in red and yellow varieties from Guerrero to the Oaxaca line. For the true table salsa of the region, toast a handful of dried red chile costeño, soak them, and grind them with a roasted tomato and garlic in the molcajete. If your chile vendor does not stock it, the better Mexican grocers and online sellers carry it. Buy extra. It keeps.
• •Asiento beats plain lard for the memelas if you can get it. It is the dark, toasty sediment from rendering chicharrón, and it carries a depth that clean white lard does not. If you only have lard, use good lard, not the shelf-stable block. La manteca es el sabor.
• •If you cannot light a real fire, a cast iron grill pan screaming hot will char the meat, but understand what you are giving up. The coconut-wood smoke is half of carne oreada. A pan gets you the char and none of the smoke. It is a compromise, and I want you to know it.

Advance Preparation

• •This is a two-day plate by design. Salt the beef and set it to air-dry in the refrigerator the day before you grill, 8 to 24 hours ahead. The drying is the recipe and it cannot be rushed into the same afternoon.
• •The salsa verde holds a few hours in the refrigerator but loses its bright edge overnight. Grind it the day you serve, and grind it close to the meal.
• •Refried black beans can be made two or three days ahead and reheated. Mix the masa up to a few hours before, but form and cook the memelas at the last minute so they reach the table hot and soft.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 310g)