Enchiladas de Cacahuate Huastecas

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Cast iron comal or heavy skillet for toasting and charring
• •High-powered blender
• •Fine-mesh strainer
• •Wide clay cazuela or deep skillet for frying the sauce
• •Heavy olla or pot for the black beans
• •Tongs

Instructions

1. 1

   Cook the black beans (make ahead)

   Rinse the dried black beans and put them in a heavy olla or pot with the 1/4 onion, 2 garlic cloves, and water to cover by three inches. Bring to a boil, then drop to a low simmer and cook partially covered for about two hours, adding hot water as needed to keep the beans submerged. When they are soft and the broth has turned dark, stir in the epazote and salt to taste and cook fifteen minutes more. Salt early and the skins toughen, so wait. Black beans, not pinto. This is the Gulf, and the bean rules the pot here.

   Make these the day before. Frijoles negros de la olla deepen overnight and the broth turns darker and richer. Reheat with a fresh sprig of epazote.
2. 2

   Toast the peanuts

   Heat a dry comal or heavy skillet over medium. Add the raw peanuts with their skins and toast them, stirring often, for five to eight minutes, until the skins darken and the kitchen smells like a roadside peanut stand. Raw peanuts taste flat. Toasting is what gives the sauce its backbone, so do not skip it. Keep the skins on for color and depth.

   Pull them off the heat the moment they smell nutty and look golden under the skin. Scorched peanuts turn the whole sauce bitter and there is no fixing it later.
3. 3

   Toast and soak the cascabel

   Stem the chile cascabel and shake out the seeds. Toast them on the same comal for just a few seconds a side, pressing them flat, until they puff slightly and smell toasty. Cascabel is small and thin-fleshed, so it scorches in a blink. Cover them with hot water, not boiling, and soak twenty minutes until soft. Boiling water cooks the skins and turns the sauce bitter. Hot water softens the flesh and keeps the flavor clean.

4. 4

   Char the tomato, onion, and garlic

   On the comal over medium-high, char the whole tomatoes, the 1/4 onion, and the unpeeled garlic, turning them, until the tomato skins blister and blacken in spots and the garlic softens in its papery skin. This is the Veracruz hand: you char, you do not boil. The blistered skins give the sauce a quiet smokiness that no raw tomato can. Peel the garlic once it is cool enough to handle.

5. 5

   Blend the sauce smooth

   Drain the cascabel. In the blender, combine the toasted peanuts, drained chiles, charred tomatoes, onion, garlic, the allspice berries, the chiltepin or chipotle if you want heat, and two cups of the warm broth. Blend several minutes until very smooth. Now strain it through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl, pressing hard on the solids. Peanuts are gritty, and the strain is what gives you a sauce smooth as a mole. Discard what stays in the sieve.

   If your blender struggles, work in two batches with extra broth. A smooth sauce is the whole point here, so take the time.
6. 6

   Fry and season the sauce

   Melt 3 tablespoons of the manteca in a wide cazuela or deep skillet over medium heat. When it shimmers, pour in the strained sauce. It will sputter, so stand back. Cook twenty to twenty-five minutes, stirring often so it does not catch on the bottom, until the sauce darkens to a deep brick-brown, thickens, and you see the fat rise and separate at the edges. That is when it is sazonada. La manteca es el sabor. Add warm broth a little at a time to hold it at the consistency of a loose mole, one that coats a spoon but still pours. Season with salt. Keep it warm and loose for dipping.

7. 7

   Sear the cecina

   Heat a comal or skillet over high with 1 tablespoon of the manteca. Lay the cecina in a single layer and sear it one to two minutes a side, until the edges brown and curl. It is thin and already salted, so it cooks fast and needs nothing else. Pull it off, let it rest a minute, and cut it into wide strips. Cecina is the beef of the Huasteca, and it belongs on this plate.

8. 8

   Dip and fold the tortillas

   Warm the remaining manteca on the comal. Pass each corn tortilla through it for a few seconds a side, just until soft and pliable. A cold tortilla cracks when you fold it, and the fat makes it supple and carries flavor. Working one at a time, dip the warm tortilla fully through the peanut sauce to coat both sides, then fold it in half and in half again. Arrange the folded enchiladas overlapping on warm plates. Move quickly so they stay soft.

   Keep the sauce warm and loose the whole time you assemble. If it tightens in the pot, stir in a splash of warm broth so every tortilla goes in coated, not dragged.
9. 9

   Plate and serve

   Ladle more of the warm peanut sauce over the folded enchiladas until they are well covered. Scatter the crumbled queso fresco and the raw onion rings over the top, and drizzle with crema if you like. Set the seared cecina alongside and spoon a bowlful of the black beans with their dark broth next to it. Serve right away, while the sauce is glossy and the tortillas are soft. Cada estado, su propia cocina, and this plate belongs to the Huasteca veracruzana.

Chef Tips

• •Chile cascabel is the soul of this sauce, not guajillo, not ancho. Look for it at a Mexican grocer or order it dried online. It is the small round chile that rattles. If you truly cannot find it, a mix of guajillo with a little ancho will get you a sauce, but you lose the woodsy, nutty edge that makes cascabel and peanut belong together. That is a compromise, not an upgrade.
• •Buy raw peanuts, not roasted and salted. You want to toast them yourself and control the salt, and the skins add color and a little tannin that rounds the sauce out. Salted cocktail peanuts will throw the whole seasoning off.
• •The sauce thickens as it sits and thickens more in the refrigerator. Keep a cup of warm broth nearby and loosen it whenever it tightens past the point of pouring. A peanut sauce that turns to paste on the plate has been left too thick.
• •For the cecina, find a Mexican carnicería that sells it thin and salted. If you cannot, salt thin-sliced beef round generously, lay it on a rack overnight in the refrigerator, and pat it dry before searing. It is a compromise, but a fair one.

Advance Preparation

• •The black beans should be made ahead. Frijoles negros de la olla only get better overnight, the broth deepens and darkens, so cook them the day before and reheat with a fresh sprig of epazote.
• •The peanut sauce can be made up to two days ahead and refrigerated. The flavor deepens. Reheat gently and thin with warm broth until it pours again.
• •Toast the peanuts and chiles a day ahead if it helps. Store them airtight once fully cool so they stay crisp.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 540g)