Salsa de Chicatanas

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Volcanic stone molcajete and tejolote
• •Heavy cast iron comal or clay comal de barro
• •Soft kitchen cloth for cleaning the chicatanas
• •Small clay cazuelita for serving

Instructions

1. 1

   Clean the chicatanas

   Spread the chicatanas on a clean dry cloth. Pinch off the wings and the long back legs. The wings turn to dust on the comal and the legs catch in your teeth. The body and the head are what you want, that is where the fat lives. The fat is the salsa.

   If you bought them from a vendor in the Mixteca, they are likely already cleaned. If you collected them yourself the morning after the first June rains, take the time. No me vengas con atajos.
2. 2

   Toast the chicatanas

   Heat a dry comal over medium-low. Spread the cleaned chicatanas in a single layer. Toast for five to seven minutes, shaking the comal often, until they turn deep brown, almost black, and the kitchen smells of roasted earth, of forest floor, of something between coffee and toasted nuts. This is the smell that tells the women of San Pedro Yucunama that the salsa is going to be right.

3. 3

   Toast the chiles costeños

   Push the chicatanas to one side of the comal or remove them. Lay the chile costeño flat. Toast for about 20 seconds per side, pressing gently with a spatula. The skin will blister and the chile will turn glossy red-brown. Costeño is thin and burns fast. If one goes black, throw it out and toast another. Burned chile is bitter chile, and bitter ruins this salsa.

4. 4

   Char the garlic and tomate

   On the same comal, char the unpeeled garlic and the tomate criollo. The garlic skin should blacken in patches and the cloves should soften inside, about eight minutes, turning often. The tomate should blister and collapse, the juices catching dark on the comal. Peel the garlic when cool enough to handle. Leave the tomate skin on. The char is flavor.

5. 5

   Grind on the molcajete

   This salsa is made on the molcajete. Not in a blender. The blender turns the chicatanas to paste and you lose the texture that is the whole point. Start with the salt and the garlic. Crush them into a rough paste. Add the chile costeño, broken into pieces, and grind in circles until the chiles break down and the paste turns deep red. Now add the chicatanas and grind again, slower this time. You want them broken but still recognizable, the small bodies still visible in the salsa. Last, work in the charred tomate. Loosen with water a tablespoon at a time until you have a coarse, spreadable salsa. Taste for salt. Asi se hace y punto.

   If you do not have a molcajete, find one before you make this salsa. Volcanic stone from Comonfort or San Salvador el Seco. The blender is not a substitute. The texture of stone-ground chicatana is what makes a Mixtec senora say yes when she tastes it.
6. 6

   Rest and serve

   Let the salsa rest in the molcajete for ten minutes before serving. The fat from the chicatanas works through the chile and the salt and everything settles. Serve directly in the molcajete with hot hand-pressed corn tortillas and sliced avocado. A spoonful of this salsa on a tortilla with avocado is one of the great tastes of the Mixteca. People who have not eaten chicatana think Mexican food is chile and lime. They are wrong. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.

Chef Tips

• •Chicatanas are seasonal and regional. They are not in your supermarket and they are not online year-round. Look for them at Mercado de Abastos in Oaxaca City, at the markets of Huajuapan de León, Tlaxiaco, or Juxtlahuaca in late May through early July. Outside that window, this salsa cannot be made. That is the rule of the dish.
• •Chile costeño rojo is from the Costa Chica of Oaxaca and southern Guerrero. Do not substitute chile de árbol. The flavor is wrong. If you cannot find costeño, wait. A good Oaxacan chile vendor will ship them. Asi se hace y punto.
• •The molcajete is not optional. The texture of stone-ground chicatana, with the small bodies still visible in the chile, is the signature of the salsa. A blender purees them into a sad brown paste and you lose what makes this dish what it is.
• •Eat the salsa the day you make it, or the next morning at the latest. The chicatana fat is delicate and the salsa loses its bloom after twenty-four hours. This is not a salsa that lives in the refrigerator for a week.

Advance Preparation

• •The chiles, garlic, and tomate can be toasted a few hours ahead and held at room temperature on a plate.
• •The chicatanas should be toasted the same day you make the salsa. Their fat goes stale once toasted and held overnight.
• •Make the finished salsa within an hour or two of serving. This is not a make-ahead condiment. It is a ritual that lives one day, the day after the rains and the day after the catch.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 35g)