Aporreadillo Michoacano con Huevo

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Cast iron comal or clay comal for roasting the tomatoes and chiles
• •Volcanic stone molcajete or blender set to pulse
• •Metate stone, smooth pounding stone, or heavy meat mallet
• •12-inch clay cazuela or heavy skillet
• •Small saucepan with tight lid for morisqueta

Instructions

1. 1

   Cook the morisqueta

   Put the rinsed rice, 1 3/4 cups water, and fine sea salt in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, cover, and cook 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and let it rest, covered, 10 minutes more. Morisqueta should be tender and plain. It is there to catch the beans and the salsa, not to show off.

2. 2

   Soften the cecina

   Place the rinsed cecina in a saucepan with 4 cups water, 1/4 white onion, and 1 garlic clove. Simmer gently for 20 to 25 minutes, until the meat bends easily and the fibers start to loosen. Taste the broth before you salt anything later. Cecina decides the salt level, not you.

   If your cecina is leathery and very dry, soak it in cool water for 30 minutes before simmering. If it is fresh market cecina, a quick rinse and shorter simmer may be enough.
3. 3

   Pound and shred

   Drain the cecina and reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking broth. Discard the onion and garlic. Lay the meat on a metate, a heavy board, or the flat side of a molcajete base, then pound it with a stone or meat mallet until the fibers separate. Shred it with your fingers. This is why it is called aporreadillo. No me vengas con atajos.

4. 4

   Roast the salsa

   Heat a dry comal over medium. Roast the tomatoes, chile perón, 1/4 onion, and unpeeled garlic until the tomato skins blister, the onion chars at the edges, and the chile perón softens. Toast the chile de árbol for only a few seconds per side. It should smell sharp and nutty, never burned. Burned chile turns bitter and there is no fixing it.

5. 5

   Grind the salsa

   Peel the roasted garlic. Grind the tomatoes, chile perón, chile de árbol, onion, garlic, kosher salt, and reserved cecina broth in a molcajete until loose and rough. A blender works for a weeknight, but pulse it. You want a salsa with body, not baby food. The chile perón should announce Michoacán with that fruity bite.

6. 6

   Fry the beef

   Melt the manteca de cerdo in a 12-inch clay cazuela or heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the sliced onion and cook until it turns soft and translucent. Add the shredded cecina and fry 6 to 8 minutes, stirring often, until some edges turn crisp and the meat smells deep and salty. La manteca es el sabor. Oil will not give you this.

7. 7

   Add the salsa

   Pour the chile perón salsa into the cazuela. It will sputter when it hits the lard. Stir well and simmer 8 to 10 minutes, until the salsa thickens and clings to the meat. Taste now. Add salt only if the cecina did not give enough. Most of the time it has already done its work.

8. 8

   Fold in eggs

   Lower the heat to medium-low. Pour in the beaten eggs and fold slowly with a wooden spoon. Stop when the eggs form soft curds tangled with the cecina and salsa, 2 to 3 minutes. Do not cook them dry. This is almuerzo, not punishment.

9. 9

   Serve Michoacán style

   Spoon the aporreadillo straight from the cazuela. Serve it with morisqueta, warm frijoles de la olla, crumbled queso Cotija or queso añejo, chopped cilantro if you use it, and warm corn tortillas. Corn tortillas belong here. Flour tortillas are a northern habit. Cada estado, su propia cocina.

Chef Tips

• •Buy cecina de res salada from a Mexican carnicería if you can. Do not use deli beef, packaged jerky, or carne seca full of sugar. If the butcher has cecina from Michoacán or Guerrero, start there. Si no conoces el mercado, no conoces la cocina.
• •Chile perón is often sold as chile manzano outside Michoacán. It has thick flesh and black seeds. Jalapeño is not the same chile. Serrano can make a sharp salsa, yes, but it will not give you the same fruit and perfume. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
• •Do not salt the eggs before they go into the pan. Cecina is already salty and the broth carries that salt into the salsa. Taste at the end like a grown cook.
• •Morisqueta is not filler. In Tierra Caliente it is the plate's foundation: white rice, beans with broth, a little queso Cotija, and whatever sauce the main dish gives you. Respect the rice.

Advance Preparation

• •The cecina can be simmered, pounded, and shredded one day ahead. Refrigerate it with 1/2 cup of its cooking broth so it does not dry out.
• •The chile perón salsa can be roasted and ground one day ahead, but fry it with the cecina on the day you serve it. That is when the flavor comes together.
• •Frijoles de la olla can be cooked up to three days ahead. Reheat them with enough broth so they can spoon over the morisqueta.
• •Do not finish the aporreadillo with eggs ahead of time. Make the meat and salsa base in advance if you need to, then fold in the eggs just before serving.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 520g)