Asado de Res Costeño

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Dry comal or heavy cast iron skillet
• •Heavy 6-quart clay cazuela or Dutch oven
• •High-powered blender
• •Fine-mesh strainer
• •Wooden spoon stained by chile and broth

Instructions

1. 1

   Soak the beef

   Rinse the salt-dried beef under cool water, then cover it with fresh cold water in a bowl. Soak 8 to 12 hours in the refrigerator, changing the water once if the beef is very salty. This is not a shortcut dish. The salt preserved the meat, but now you have to bring it back gently or the broth will taste like seawater.

2. 2

   Build the broth

   Drain the beef and put it in a heavy pot with 10 cups cold water, the halved onion, 3 whole garlic cloves, and bay leaves. Bring to a gentle simmer and skim the first foam that rises. Cook 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until the beef is tender but still holds together. Taste the broth before adding salt. Salt-dried beef speaks for itself.

3. 3

   Toast the chiles

   Heat a dry comal over medium. Toast the guajillo and chile costeño separately, about 20 to 30 seconds per side, just until the skins darken slightly and smell deep. Do not blacken them. Chile costeño is small and direct, and it burns fast. Burned chile turns bitter. Throw it out and start again if you have to.

   Chile costeño is the coastal signature here. Guajillo gives body and color, but costeño gives the bite that makes this Costa Chica, not a generic red stew.
4. 4

   Blend the sauce

   Soak the toasted chiles in hot water for 15 minutes. Roast the tomatoes on the comal until the skins blister and the flesh softens. Blend the drained chiles with the roasted tomatoes, 2 peeled garlic cloves, cumin seed, peppercorns, and 1 cup of the beef broth until completely smooth. Strain it. You want a red sauce, not chile skins floating in the pot.

5. 5

   Fry the sauce

   Melt the manteca in a wide cazuela or heavy pot over medium heat. Add the strained chile-tomato sauce carefully. It will sputter. Cook 8 to 10 minutes, stirring often, until the color deepens and the fat begins to show at the edges. La manteca es el sabor. If you pour raw salsa into broth, it tastes raw in the bowl.

6. 6

   Return the beef

   Lift the tender beef from its broth and add it to the fried sauce. Strain in 5 cups of the beef broth, saving the rest in case the stew needs loosening. Add the yuca. Simmer 25 minutes, until the yuca starts to turn creamy at the edges but does not fall apart.

7. 7

   Make chochoyotes

   Mix the masa with 2 tablespoons lard and 1/2 teaspoon salt until soft and smooth. Roll into small balls, then press a dimple into each one with your thumb. That dimple catches the broth. Drop the chochoyotes into the simmering stew one by one. Masa thickens this kind of coastal pot properly. Flour belongs somewhere else.

8. 8

   Add plantain and herbs

   Add the plátano macho rounds, hoja santa, and epazote. Simmer 15 to 20 minutes more, until the chochoyotes float and feel firm, the plantain is tender, and the sauce has a red sheen on top. Taste now. Add salt only if the beef did not give enough. Most pots will need none.

9. 9

   Serve it wet

   Ladle the stew into deep bowls with beef, yuca, plantain, chochoyotes, and plenty of red broth in every serving. Set warm corn tortillas, lime halves, and diced white onion on the table. This is plated wet, the way the Costa Chica eats it. No me vengas con atajos.

Chef Tips

• •Ask for carne de res salada or tasajo costeño from a Mexican butcher who understands coastal drying. If all they offer is American corned beef, walk away. That is another animal in another story.
• •If chile costeño is hard to find, buy it from a Oaxacan or Guerrero vendor before you substitute. Chile de árbol gives heat but not the same coastal flavor. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
• •The Costa Chica pantry is not decoration: yuca, plátano macho, epazote, hoja santa, chile costeño, masa, and manteca all carry history. Leave out half of them and you have beef in red sauce, not Asado de Res Costeño.
• •Do not confuse this wet asado with taquería barbacoa. Barbacoa Costa Chica can be served wet in its own seasoned juices, while taquería barbacoa is usually pulled meat for tacos. Different table, different logic.
• •When you read about tichindas, know what they are: black-shell mangrove mussels foraged around Laguna de Chacahua and Corralero, not generic mussels from a supermarket bag. The same precision matters here with salt beef.
• •Chilpachole from the coast is thickened with masa, not flour. Mondongo jarocho in Veracruz Sotavento carries the Atlantic slave-trade lineage into the port cities, especially around Tlacotalpan and Los Tuxtlas. Name these things. Visibility is part of the work.

Advance Preparation

• •Soak the salt-dried beef the night before. That is planning, not fussiness.
• •The beef broth can be made one day ahead. Refrigerate the beef in its strained broth so it stays moist.
• •The finished stew keeps 3 days refrigerated. Reheat gently and add a little saved broth or water if the chochoyotes have thickened the sauce too much.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 680g)