Ko'ko'ibaki Yaqui

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 8-quart stockpot or olla de peltre
• •Cast iron comal or heavy skillet for toasting chiles and charring tomato
• •High-powered blender
• •Fine-mesh strainer
• •Wooden spoon for stirring the chile paste

Instructions

1. 1

   Start the bone broth

   Place the shank, short ribs, and neck bones in a large heavy stockpot or olla de peltre. Cover with cold water by three inches. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat. Skim the gray foam that rises in the first twenty minutes and discard it. Cold water draws the flavor from the bones slowly. A rolling boil clouds the broth and toughens the meat. The Yaqui women in Vicam build this broth over a mesquite fire and let it work for hours. You will do the same.

   The marrow bones are not optional. The fat that renders from them is what gives ko'ko'ibaki its body and its richness. No me vengas con atajos.
2. 2

   Add the aromatics

   Once the broth runs clear, add the halved onion, halved head of garlic, bay leaves, and salt. Reduce the heat until you see lazy bubbles every few seconds. Cover partially and cook for two hours. The meat should be tender but still clinging to the bone. The broth should taste of beef and not much else yet. That blank canvas is what the chiles are going to paint.

3. 3

   Toast the chiles

   Heat a dry comal or heavy skillet over medium. Toast the pasilla and guajillo separately, about 20 to 30 seconds per side. The skin will puff and the kitchen will smell dark and dried-fruit sweet. The pasilla is the chile that defines this stew. It carries the deep, almost raisined flavor that turns the broth that signature near-black color. Watch it. The pasilla is thin and burns fast.

   Burned chile is bitter chile. If one goes black, throw it out and toast another. There is no recovering from it later.
4. 4

   Char the tomato and garlic

   On the same comal, char the four Roma tomatoes whole and the four reserved garlic cloves in their skins. The tomatoes should blacken in patches and soften. The garlic skins should darken and the cloves should turn soft inside. This dry-roasting is a noroeste habit. It pulls sweetness out of the tomato and tames the bite of the garlic. Peel the garlic once cool enough to handle.

5. 5

   Soak and blend the chile base

   Place the toasted chiles in a heatproof bowl and cover with hot tap water. Hot water, not boiling. Boiling water bitters the skins. Soak for 20 minutes until pliable. Drain and transfer to a blender with the charred tomatoes, the peeled roasted garlic, and one cup of the beef broth. Blend until completely smooth. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve, pressing on the solids. Discard the skins. You want a deep, dark puree the color of wet earth.

6. 6

   Fry the chile paste

   In a small skillet, melt the manteca de cerdo over medium heat. Add the strained chile and tomato puree. It will sputter. Cook for six to eight minutes, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the puree darkens and the fat starts to separate at the edges. La manteca es el sabor. This step is what turns a thin chile water into the dark broth that ko'ko'ibaki is named for. Skip it and the stew tastes raw.

7. 7

   Marry the broth

   Stir the fried chile paste into the simmering broth. The pot will turn from blonde to mahogany in seconds. Crumble the oregano between your palms and add it now. Simmer uncovered for 30 to 40 minutes more. The bones should be giving up their last marrow, the broth should be running dark and faintly oily on the surface, and the meat should pull away from the bone with a fork. Taste for salt. The broth needs to be assertive. It is the dish.

8. 8

   Serve at the table

   Ladle into deep bowls, making sure each one gets a piece of meat and a marrow bone. Set the warm tortillas de harina sobaqueras in a cloth-lined basket on the table. The diner tears the tortilla, scoops the meat from the bone, and sops the dark broth. The chiltepín goes on the table for those who want to crumble a little heat into their bowl. The lime, onion, and cilantro are there for whoever wants them. Asi se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •Use chile pasilla, the long dark dried chilaca, not chile pasilla de Oaxaca and not ancho. They get confused at supermarkets outside Mexico. The pasilla you want is nearly black, wrinkled, and about six inches long. If your vendor calls it chile negro, that is the one.
• •If you can find oregano de monte from Sonora or Chihuahua, use it. The northern oregano is more pungent and slightly mintier than the central Mexican oregano. It is the right note for this stew. If you cannot find it, regular Mexican oregano is the compromise.
• •Sobaqueras are not optional. If you cannot find them, make them or buy the largest, thinnest flour tortillas you can. Corn tortillas are wrong here. This is noroeste cooking and the wheat is part of the identity of the region.
• •Chiltepín stays at the table. The Yaqui way is to let each diner crumble their own into the bowl. The chile is wild-harvested in the Sonoran sierra and it is sacred enough that you do not waste it by cooking it down.

Advance Preparation

• •The bone broth and the chile-tomato base can each be made one day ahead and refrigerated separately. Combine and simmer together on serving day.
• •Ko'ko'ibaki is better the second day. The marrow continues to melt into the broth overnight and the chile mellows. Keeps refrigerated for four days. The stew freezes well for up to three months.
• •Sobaqueras can be made the morning of and held wrapped in a clean cloth. Reheat briefly on a dry comal just before serving.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 450g)