Aporreado Guerrerense con Huevo

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Dry cast iron comal or clay comal for chiles and jitomate
• •Smooth river stone, tejolote, or meat mallet for pounding the cecina
• •Volcanic stone molcajete or high-powered blender
• •Wide 12-inch cazuela de barro or heavy skillet
• •Wooden spoon

Instructions

1. 1

   Pound the cecina

   Taste a tiny corner of the cecina. If it is aggressively salty, rinse it quickly under cold water and pat it completely dry. Do not soak it like laundry. Lay the cecina on a stone slab or heavy cutting board, cover it with a clean towel, and pound it with a smooth stone or meat mallet until the fibers loosen. Tear it into thin shreds. Aporreado means hit. That is not decoration, it is the technique.

   Buy plain salted cecina de res or carne seca. Do not buy orange cecina enchilada for this dish. That chile paste belongs to another preparation.
2. 2

   Toast the chiles

   Heat a dry comal over medium. Toast the guajillos one at a time, about 15 seconds per side, just until the skin darkens slightly and smells fruity. Toast the chile de árbol for only a few seconds. It burns fast and turns sharp in a bad way. Put the toasted chiles in a bowl and cover with the hot water for 12 minutes. Hot water softens the flesh. Boiling water punishes it.

3. 3

   Tatema the vegetables

   On the same comal, roast the jitomates, onion wedges, and unpeeled garlic until the skins blister and blacken in spots, 8 to 10 minutes. Turn them as they soften. Peel the garlic. Toast the cumin seeds and pimienta gorda for 30 seconds, shaking the comal so they do not scorch. The salsa should taste roasted, not burned. There is a difference, and your nose knows it.

4. 4

   Make the salsa

   Drain the chiles, saving the soaking liquid. Blend the guajillo, chile de árbol, roasted jitomates, roasted onion, peeled garlic, toasted cumin, pimienta gorda, 1/4 cup cilantro, 1 teaspoon salt, and 3/4 cup chile soaking liquid until smooth. A molcajete gives you a rougher salsa and more authority. A blender works when you blend long enough. No me vengas con atajos that leave chile skins in the sauce.

   If the salsa is thick like paste, add a little more soaking liquid. If it tastes thin, the jitomates were weak. Roast them harder next time and buy from a better puesto.
5. 5

   Fry the meat

   Melt the manteca de cerdo in a wide cazuela de barro or heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the sliced onion and cook until it softens at the edges, about 3 minutes. Add the shredded cecina and fry, stirring often, until the meat darkens and the edges catch a little color, 4 to 6 minutes. La manteca es el sabor. Oil will cook it. Manteca will make it taste like almuerzo.

6. 6

   Set the eggs

   Lower the heat to medium-low. Pour in the beaten eggs slowly while stirring with a wooden spoon, so the egg forms small curds around the cecina instead of one dry sheet. Cook just until the eggs are barely set. They will finish in the salsa. If you overcook them now, the final guiso will be tough. The señora looking over your shoulder would tell you the same thing.

7. 7

   Simmer with salsa

   Pour the red salsa over the cecina and eggs. Rinse the blender with 1/2 cup water and add that to the cazuela. Stir gently, bring to a low simmer, and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, until the salsa thickens, the chile stains the eggs red-orange, and small dots of fat shine at the surface. Taste for salt only at the end. Cecina keeps giving salt as it cooks.

8. 8

   Serve the almuerzo

   Turn off the heat and fold in the remaining 1/4 cup cilantro. Serve straight from the cazuela with warm corn tortillas, frijoles de la olla, white rice or morisqueta, and queso fresco de rancho on the side. Corn tortillas, not flour. This is Guerrero, not the northern border. Cada estado, su propia cocina.

Chef Tips

• •Ask for cecina de res oreada, carne seca salada, or tasajo seco. If the butcher offers sweet, smoked beef jerky with sugar, walk away or accept that you are making a compromise, not an upgrade.
• •The red salsa needs guajillo and chile de árbol. Serrano makes a green aporreado, also legitimate in the region, but it is not this red Guerrerense version. Name the chile or you don't know the dish.
• •Use ripe jitomate guaje. If the tomatoes are hard and pale, roast them hard on the comal and let the guajillo carry the color. The mercado tells you what kind of salsa you can make that day.
• •Do not fear the manteca. Two tablespoons for four people is not the problem in anyone's diet. The lard rounds the chile, coats the egg, and gives the cecina a proper edge. Así se hace y punto.
• •Serve this as almuerzo with beans, rice or morisqueta, and corn tortillas. Aporreado is budget cooking with discipline: dried meat stretched with eggs and salsa until the whole table is fed.

Advance Preparation

• •The cecina can be pounded and shredded one day ahead. Wrap it tightly and refrigerate so it does not dry into splinters.
• •The red salsa can be made up to two days ahead without the final cilantro. Refrigerate it, then warm it before adding to the eggs and cecina.
• •Do not cook the eggs ahead. Reheated aporreado is edible, but the eggs tighten. Make the salsa and meat ahead, then finish the egg fresh.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 505g)