Pipián Rojo Conventual de Almendra

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •12-inch cast iron comal or clay comal for toasting chiles
• •Volcanic stone metate with metlapil, or a high-powered blender as a modern compromise
• •Wide barro rojo cazuela or heavy Dutch oven
• •Wooden spoon with a flat edge for scraping the bottom
• •Fine-mesh or medium sieve for refining the paste
• •Heatproof bowl for soaking chiles

Instructions

1. 1

   Clean the chiles

   Wipe the ancho, guajillo, and mulato chiles with a dry cloth. Do not rinse them. Remove the stems, open them flat, and shake out the seeds. The ancho is the base, the guajillo gives red brightness, and the mulato gives dark fruit underneath. This is Puebla's register for this sauce. Chilhuacle belongs to Oaxaca. Cada estado, su propia cocina.

2. 2

   Toast and soak

   Heat a dry comal over medium. Toast the chiles one type at a time, pressing them flat with tongs for 15 to 25 seconds per side. They should soften, puff in spots, and smell deep, never burned. Put them in a bowl and cover with hot water for 20 minutes. Hot water, not boiling. Boiling roughens the skins and can make the sauce bitter.

   The guajillo burns fastest. If a chile blackens, throw it out. One burned chile can drag the whole cazuela into bitterness.
3. 3

   Roast the vegetables

   On the same comal, roast the tomatoes, onion, and unpeeled garlic. Turn them until the tomatoes collapse in places, the onion has dark patches, and the garlic is soft inside its skin. Peel the garlic. The tomato gives acidity and body, but it is not the soul of the sauce. The seed and almond paste is.

4. 4

   Toast seeds and spices

   Toast the pepita roja in a dry skillet until it smells nutty and some seeds begin to jump. Move it to a tray. Toast the almonds until pale gold, then the sesame until golden. Reserve 2 tablespoons of sesame for finishing. Toast the canela, cloves, and peppercorns for 30 seconds, just until fragrant. Watch everything. Nuts forgive laziness less than chiles do.

5. 5

   Fry the bread

   Melt 2 tablespoons of the lard in a small skillet. Fry the bolillo slices and torn tortilla until golden and crisp at the edges. Add the raisins for the last minute, just until they swell. This is convent cooking: bread for body, raisins for quiet sweetness, lard for depth. La manteca es el sabor.

6. 6

   Grind the paste

   Drain the soaked chiles. On a metate, grind the toasted spices first, then the sesame, pepita, and almonds until they become a thick paste. Work in the chiles, roasted tomatoes, onion, garlic, fried bread, tortilla, and raisins. El metate es la regla. If you are using a blender, work in small batches with just enough stock to move the blades. You want paste, not soup.

   If the blender leaves grit, pass the paste through a medium sieve. Conventual sauces are not rough. They are disciplined.
7. 7

   Fry the base

   Melt the remaining lard in a wide barro rojo cazuela or heavy Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the ground paste carefully. It will sputter. Stir with a wooden spoon for 25 to 35 minutes, scraping the bottom and sides, until the paste darkens to brick red and the fat begins to separate at the edges. This is where the raw seed taste leaves. No me vengas con atajos.

8. 8

   Lengthen the sauce

   Add the stock one cup at a time, stirring each addition fully into the paste before adding the next. Add the thyme, marjoram, bay leaves, and salt. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for about 2 hours, stirring every 10 minutes. A seed sauce sticks when you stop paying attention. The finished texture should coat a spoon heavily and fall back into the pot in slow ribbons.

9. 9

   Finish with jerez

   Stir in the dry jerez during the last 15 minutes. Taste for salt. If the tomatoes are harsh, add the grated piloncillo, but only enough to round the edge. Do not make it sweet. Remove the bay leaves. The sauce should be glossy, red-brown, and deep with almond, chile, sesame, and canela.

10. 10

    Rest and use

    Turn off the heat and let the pipián rest for 30 minutes before using. Finish with the reserved toasted sesame. This is a mother sauce, not a plate. It dresses turkey, chicken, pork, chayotes, cauliflower, or whatever main dish you are making elsewhere. Here you learned the sauce. Así se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •In Puebla, start at Mercado La Acocota or the old 5 de Mayo market and ask for pepita para pipián, not salted snack pepitas. In Ciudad de México, ask the seed vendors at La Merced. Pregúntale a las señoras del mercado.
• •This Puebla sauce uses ancho, guajillo, and mulato. Do not add chilhuacle negro or chilhuacle rojo because the names sound serious. Those chiles belong to Oaxaca, especially in mole negro and coloradito. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
• •Use blanched whole almonds, not almond flour. Almond flour makes a dusty sauce and tells me you wanted speed more than texture.
• •A blender is allowed when the cook understands what the metate is doing: crushing oils out of seeds and chiles, not just chopping them. Blend too fast with too much liquid and you get thin red paste. That is not the same thing.
• •There is no chocolate here. If you want mole poblano, make mole poblano. This is pipián rojo de almendra, and the seed, almond, sesame, and lard carry the sauce.
• •The sauce is better the next day. Conventual food was built for planning, not panic.

Advance Preparation

• •Best two-day method: toast, roast, fry, and grind the paste on day one, then refrigerate it overnight. Fry the paste in lard and simmer the sauce on day two. The flavor deepens and the cook stays civilized.
• •Finished pipián keeps refrigerated for 4 days. Reheat it slowly over low heat and thin with a little stock if it tightens.
• •The sauce can be frozen for 2 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, warm gently, and whisk until the seed oils come back together.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 125g)