Almendrado de Santa Clara

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Volcanic stone metate with tejolote, or a high-powered blender as a modern compromise
• •Dry comal for toasting chiles, almonds, sesame, and spices
• •Wide clay cazuela for frying and simmering the sauce
• •Wooden spoon
• •Fine-mesh strainer, only if the paste is not smooth enough

Instructions

1. 1

   Toast the chiles

   Heat a dry comal over medium. Toast the ancho chiles one at a time, about 20 to 30 seconds per side, pressing them flat with a spatula until the skin softens, darkens slightly, and smells like dried fruit and tobacco. Do not blacken them. Burned ancho turns bitter and will bully the almonds.

2. 2

   Soak the chiles

   Put the toasted chiles in a bowl and cover with hot water, not boiling water. Let them soften for 20 minutes. Drain them and discard the soaking water if it tastes bitter. If it tastes clean and fruity, save 1/4 cup in case the paste needs help moving on the metate or in the blender.

   Hot water softens the chile flesh. Boiling water cooks the skin and can pull out bitterness. This is a small decision, and small decisions make the sauce.
3. 3

   Toast the seeds

   On the same comal, toast the almonds until they take on pale gold spots and smell sweet, 4 to 6 minutes. Move them constantly. Toast the sesame seeds separately until golden, about 1 minute. Toast the canela, cloves, peppercorns, and anise for 30 seconds, just until fragrant. Each ingredient has its own time. Treat them all the same and you will burn something.

4. 4

   Fry the bread

   Melt 1 tablespoon of lard in a cazuela or heavy skillet over medium heat. Fry the torn bolillo and tortilla until golden and crisp at the edges. Remove them to a plate. In the same fat, cook the onion and garlic until the onion softens and takes a little color. This gives body to the sauce and keeps the paste from tasting raw.

5. 5

   Plump the raisins

   Add the raisins to the warm skillet for 30 to 45 seconds, only until they swell and shine. Do not scorch them. Raisins in Puebla's conventual sauces are not candy. They are a quiet sweetness that rounds the chile and almond.

6. 6

   Grind the paste

   Grind the almonds, sesame, spices, fried bread, tortilla, onion, garlic, raisins, soaked ancho chiles, salt, and nutmeg on a metate until you have a thick, smooth paste. Work in small amounts and scrape often. If using a blender, add just enough warm milk and stock to move the blades, then blend longer than you think you need. Grainy almendrado is unfinished work.

   The almond paste should feel heavy and smooth between your fingers, not sandy. The metate tells the truth. A blender hides laziness only until the sauce reaches the tongue.
7. 7

   Fry the paste

   Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons lard in a wide clay cazuela over medium-low heat. Add the almond-chile paste carefully. It will sputter because the paste is thick. Stir with a wooden spoon for 12 to 15 minutes, until the color deepens from pale brick to warm ocher and the fat begins to glisten at the edges. This frying is where the sauce becomes serious.

8. 8

   Simmer the sauce

   Whisk in the warm milk little by little, then the warm stock. Add the jerez. Lower the heat and simmer gently for 45 to 60 minutes, stirring often so the almond does not catch on the bottom. The sauce should thicken enough to coat the spoon and fall back into the cazuela in a slow ribbon. If it tightens too much, loosen with warm stock, not cold water.

9. 9

   Balance and rest

   Taste for salt. If the ancho tastes harsh instead of fruity, add the teaspoon of piloncillo and simmer 5 minutes more. Strain only if you failed to grind it smooth. A proper almendrado should have body, not grit. Rest the sauce 30 minutes before serving so the almond, chile, milk, and spices settle into one flavor.

10. 10

    Finish the cazuela

    Spoon the sauce into a warm Puebla talavera serving bowl or keep it in the clay cazuela. Scatter the reserved toasted sesame seeds over the surface. Serve as a sauce for the appropriate festive main dish, not as a soup, not as a dip, and not as decoration. Asi se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •Buy almonds where turnover is high. Old almonds taste dusty and no amount of canela will rescue them. At La Merced or a good Puebla mercado, ask to taste one before buying. Si no conoces el mercado, no conoces la cocina.
• •Chile ancho is the right chile here: ripe poblano dried to a deep raisin sweetness. Guajillo makes the sauce sharper and redder. Mulato makes it darker and heavier. Those are different sauces, not improvements.
• •Use Mexican canela, not hard cassia sticks if you can avoid them. Canela is softer, more floral, and easier to grind on the metate. In conventual sauces, the spice should perfume the sauce, not punish it.
• •Jerez marks the criollo-conventual register. If you cannot use alcohol, leave it out and understand what is missing: that dry, nutty edge that ties the almond to the spice.
• •Do not rush the frying of the paste. Raw almond and raw chile taste flat together. The lard carries the flavor and rounds the sauce. La manteca es el sabor.

Advance Preparation

• •The sauce can be made two days ahead. Cool it completely, refrigerate it in a covered container, and reheat slowly with warm stock or milk until it returns to a spoon-coating texture.
• •The almonds, sesame, spices, bread, tortilla, onion, garlic, and chiles can be toasted and fried one day ahead. Grind the paste and fry it on the day you finish the sauce.
• •Almendrado thickens as it sits because almonds keep absorbing liquid. Reheat gently and loosen with warm stock in small amounts. Do not boil it hard or the milk can roughen the texture.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 120g)