Clemole Morelense

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 6 to 8-quart stockpot or wide clay cazuela
• •Cast iron comal or heavy skillet for toasting
• •High-powered blender
• •Fine-mesh strainer
• •Wooden spoon long enough to reach the bottom of the pot

Instructions

1. 1

   Build the pork broth

   Place the pork shoulder and ribs in a heavy stockpot. Cover with cold water by two inches. Add the halved onion, halved garlic head, bay leaves, and salt. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat. Skim the gray foam that rises in the first fifteen minutes. Lower the heat and cook at a lazy simmer for one hour, until the meat is tender but not falling apart. Lift the pork out with a slotted spoon and reserve. Strain the broth and keep it warm. You will need every drop.

   Cold water draws the flavor out slowly and keeps the broth clear. A rolling boil clouds it and toughens the meat. There is no fixing a cloudy broth later.
2. 2

   Toast the chiles and the tortilla

   Heat a dry comal or heavy skillet over medium. Toast the guajillo, pasilla, and ancho chiles separately, about 20 to 30 seconds per side. The skin will puff and turn fragrant. They should never blacken. On the same comal, toast the day-old tortilla until it is dry and brown at the edges, almost like a tostada. The toasted tortilla is the body of the clemole. It is what makes this a clemole and not a sopa de chile.

3. 3

   Soak the chiles

   Move the toasted chiles to a heatproof bowl and cover with hot tap water. Hot, not boiling. Boiling water cooks the skin and turns the salsa bitter. Let them soften for 20 minutes while you toast the rest.

4. 4

   Char the tomatoes and tomatillos, toast the spices

   On the same comal, char the tomatoes and tomatillos until the skins blister and blacken in patches and the flesh softens. Turn them with tongs so they color all over. Set them aside. In a small dry skillet, toast the cumin, peppercorns, and cloves over low heat for about a minute, until they smell awake. Pull them off the heat the moment you can smell them. Burned spice is bitter spice.

5. 5

   Blend the clemole base

   Drain the soaked chiles. Combine them in a blender with the charred tomatoes and tomatillos, the reserved 1/4 onion, the 3 raw garlic cloves, the toasted spices, the broken-up toasted tortilla, the masa harina, and one and a half cups of the warm pork broth. Blend on high until completely smooth. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl, pressing on the solids with a wooden spoon. Discard the skins. You want a clean, deep brick-red puree with body.

6. 6

   Fry the chile paste

   In a wide cazuela or heavy Dutch oven, melt the manteca de cerdo over medium heat until it shimmers. Pour in the strained chile puree. Stand back. It will sputter and pop. Cook for eight to ten minutes, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, scraping the bottom so nothing sticks. The puree will darken, the color will deepen from brick to a rich red-brown, and the lard will start to separate at the edges. La manteca es el sabor. This step is the difference between a clemole that tastes like the kitchen of a señora in Tepoztlan and one that tastes like raw chile.

7. 7

   Add the broth and meat

   Pour in the remaining warm pork broth, about six cups. Whisk to combine. The clemole should be the thickness of heavy cream, not a thick mole. If it is too thick, add a little more broth or hot water. If it is too thin, let it reduce a few minutes more. Return the reserved pork to the pot. Simmer gently for 15 minutes so the meat drinks the chile back in. Taste for salt now. The vegetables will need a broth that is already well-seasoned.

8. 8

   Add the vegetables in order

   Add the chayotes first. They are the firmest and need the most time, about 10 minutes. Then add the ejotes. They take about 6 to 7 more minutes. Finally add the calabacitas and the epazote sprigs. Calabacita cooks fast and falls apart if you forget about it. Five more minutes and everything should be tender but still holding its shape. This is the order the señoras in the mercado of Cuautla will tell you, and they are right.

   Out of season, calabacita gets watery and tasteless. Use whatever squash is good at your mercado right now. Mexican grandmothers cook with what is in front of them, not what looks good on a Pinterest board.
9. 9

   Rest and serve

   Pull the pot off the heat and let it sit for five minutes. The masa-thickened broth will settle and the flavors will marry. Ladle into deep clay cuencos, making sure each bowl gets pork, ejote, chayote, and calabacita. Serve with warm hand-pressed corn tortillas, lime wedges, and diced white onion at the table. This is everyday food in Morelos. No fanfare. Así se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •Buy your dried chiles from a vendor who sells them quickly. Old chiles are dusty, brittle, and bitter. A good guajillo is pliable, deep red, and smells like dried fruit when you hold it to your nose. If your chiles snap instead of bend, find another vendor.
• •The toasted tortilla and the masa harina are both there for body. Do not skip one and double the other. The tortilla brings toasted corn flavor, the masa brings smooth thickening. Together they make the clemole what it is.
• •Manteca de cerdo is not negotiable here. Vegetable oil will not bloom the chile the same way and the broth will taste flat. If you cannot find rendered lard at the carniceria, render it yourself from pork fatback. It takes 30 minutes and lasts months.
• •Epazote does not have a real substitute. If you cannot find it fresh, dried epazote will do in a pinch, but use half the amount. Cilantro is not the same plant and it does not belong in clemole.

Advance Preparation

• •The clemole can be made up to two days ahead through the end of step 7, before the vegetables go in. Refrigerate the pot of pork and chile broth. On serving day, bring it back to a simmer and add the vegetables in order. The chile flavor only deepens overnight.
• •Once the vegetables are in, eat the clemole the same day or the next. The calabacita will turn to mush by day three. Make the base ahead, finish on the day.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 520g)