Tatemado de Puerco Colimote

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •12-inch lead-free cazuela de barro or oven-safe olla de barro
• •Cast iron comal for toasting chiles and tatemando vegetables
• •Molcajete or spice grinder
• •High-powered blender
• •Fine-mesh strainer
• •Deep plates or shallow bowls for serving with sauce

Instructions

1. 1

   Salt the pork

   Put the pork shoulder, chamorro, and ribs in a large nonreactive bowl. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of the sal de Colima and turn the pieces with your hands so the salt reaches the bone, the fat, and the lean meat. You want bone in this dish. Bone gives the broth body, and tatemado should be caldoso, spoonable, not dry.

2. 2

   Toast the chiles

   Heat a dry comal over medium. Toast the chile guajillo one or two at a time, about 20 to 30 seconds per side, just until the skin darkens a shade and smells fruity. Toast the chile ancho the same way, then pass the chile pico de pajaro over the comal for only a few seconds. Do not blacken them. Burned chile makes bitter adobo, and no amount of pork fat will save it.

   Reserve only 1 teaspoon of guajillo seeds for the spice mix. More than that pushes the sauce toward harsh bitterness. The senoras who know this dish measure bitterness with restraint, not with bravado.
3. 3

   Soften the chiles

   Place the toasted guajillo, ancho, and pico de pajaro in a bowl and cover with hot water. Hot, not boiling. Let them soften for 20 minutes, then drain. Boiling water toughens the chile skins and pulls out bitterness. Hot water gives you flesh that blends clean.

4. 4

   Toast the spices

   On the same comal, toast the reserved guajillo seeds, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, peppercorns, cloves, and Mexican cinnamon for 60 to 90 seconds, moving them constantly. They should smell warm and sharp, never scorched. Grind them in a molcajete or spice grinder until fine. This is the backbone of the adobo.

5. 5

   Tatemar the vegetables

   Set the jitomates, tomates de cascara, garlic cloves, and onion on the hot comal. Turn them until they have blackened spots and the tomatoes soften at the edges, 8 to 10 minutes. The verb tatemar is not decoration. It tells you what to do: put the ingredient to the fire until the raw edge leaves.

6. 6

   Blend the adobo

   In a blender, combine the softened chiles, tatemados vegetables, ground spices, ginger, oregano orejon, dried Mexican oregano, vinagre de tuba, 1 cup of broth, and the remaining 1/2 tablespoon salt. If you have true laurel Colima, crumble it in and blend it; if you are using common bay leaves, keep them whole and add them to the pot later. Blend until very smooth, then strain through a fine-mesh sieve. Press hard on the solids. You want a red adobo that almost shines.

7. 7

   Marinate overnight

   Pour the strained adobo over the salted pork and turn every piece until coated. The meat should be surrounded by sauce; add 1/2 cup broth if the adobo is too thick to move around the pork. Cover and refrigerate for 12 to 18 hours. This is where the vinegar enters the meat and the chile stops sitting on the surface. No me vengas con atajos.

8. 8

   Load the cazuela

   Take the pork out of the refrigerator 30 minutes before cooking. Grease a lead-free, oven-safe cazuela de barro with the manteca de cerdo. Add the pork, all the adobo, any whole bay leaves, and enough broth to come about three-quarters up the meat. Do not drown it, and do not leave it dry. Cover the cazuela with its lid, or with parchment and foil if the lid does not sit tight.

   Do not put a cold clay pot straight into a hot oven. Barro cracks when you abuse it. Let the pot temper on the counter while the meat loses its refrigerator chill.
9. 9

   Cook in barro

   Place the covered cazuela in a cold oven, then set the oven to 325F. Once the oven reaches temperature, cook for 2 1/2 hours. Check once halfway through and spoon sauce over the top pieces. The pork is ready for the next step when a rib bone wiggles easily and the shoulder begins to loosen when pressed with a spoon.

10. 10

    Brown and loosen

    Uncover the cazuela and raise the oven to 375F. Cook 25 to 35 minutes more, basting twice, until the top pieces darken to brick red and the sauce thickens slightly around the edges. If the sauce reduces too much, add hot broth by the half cup. Chayito from the Pancho Villa market was right about this kind of tatemado: it should be consistent, but caldoso. You eat it with a spoon.

11. 11

    Serve with sauce

    Rest the cazuela for 15 minutes. Spoon the pork into deep plates with plenty of red sauce. Serve with cebolla morada desflemada, cilantro leaves, chiles en vinagre or fruit in vinegar, limon de Colima, frijoles refritos, and warm corn tortillas. Flour tortillas belong where they belong, mostly the north. This table is Colima. Asi se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •Vinagre de tuba is the real souring agent. Ask at Mexican markets that carry Colima, Jalisco, Michoacan, or Guerrero products, and look for coconut-palm vinegar. Outside Mexico, Filipino sukang tuba is often closer than generic white vinegar because the history crossed the same Pacific. White cane vinegar works only as a compromise.
• •Laurel Colima is not the same as the small bay leaf in a supermarket jar. The Colima leaf is larger and more aromatic, almost like a mango leaf in size. If you cannot get it, use Mexican bay leaves, but know what you are missing.
• •Chile pico de pajaro gives a pointed heat without taking over the stew. If your chile vendor has none, use 1 or 2 chile de arbol. Do not turn this into a punishment. Tatemado is deep and sour and red before it is hot.
• •Use shoulder, chamorro, ribs, or a mix. Loin is wrong here. It dries before the adobo finishes cooking, then people blame the recipe instead of the cut.
• •The dish is not supposed to reduce into a dry shred. If the sauce drops below the halfway mark during cooking, add hot broth. A Colima tatemado plate should carry meat and enough adobo to stain the spoon.
• •Use only lead-free barro for acidic adobos. Vinegar and old glazed clay are not a game. If you do not own safe barro, use an enameled Dutch oven and admit the compromise.

Advance Preparation

• •The adobo can be made up to 2 days ahead and refrigerated. Stir it before using because the chile solids settle.
• •The pork must marinate at least 12 hours. Eighteen hours is better. Past 24 hours, the vinegar starts to push too hard on the texture.
• •Finished tatemado keeps refrigerated for 4 days and tastes better the next day. Reheat gently in a covered pot with a splash of broth so the sauce loosens back up.
• •Freeze the pork and sauce together for up to 2 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and reheat slowly. Make the onion, cilantro, tortillas, and frijoles fresh.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 500g)