Ayocotes en Adobo

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large clay olla or heavy 5-quart pot for simmering the ayocotes
• •Cast iron comal for toasting chiles and roasting vegetables
• •High-powered blender
• •Fine-mesh strainer
• •Wide clay cazuela for frying the adobo and finishing the beans

Instructions

1. 1

   Soak the ayocotes

   Rinse the ayocotes and pick through them for stones. Cover with at least 3 inches of cool water and soak overnight, 10 to 12 hours. These beans are large and dense. If you skip the soak, you can cook them, yes, but you will wait half the day and the skins may split before the centers soften. No me vengas con atajos.

2. 2

   Simmer the beans

   Drain the soaked beans and place them in a heavy pot or clay olla. Cover with fresh water by 2 inches. Add the half onion, 3 peeled garlic cloves, and epazote. Bring to a gentle simmer, then lower the heat and cook partially covered for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until the beans are tender but still hold their shape. Salt them after the first hour. The broth should taste earthy and clean, with the epazote sitting in the background, not shouting.

3. 3

   Toast the chiles

   Heat a dry comal over medium. Toast the guajillo, ancho, and pasilla mexicano separately, about 20 to 30 seconds per side, pressing lightly with tongs. The skins should puff and turn fragrant. Do not blacken them. Burned chile makes bitter adobo, and there is no fixing that later.

   Pasilla mexicano is thin and burns faster than ancho. Watch it closely. The chile vendor at La Merced will tell you the same thing if you ask the right questions.
4. 4

   Soften and blend

   Place the toasted chiles in a bowl and cover with hot water, not boiling water. Let them soften for 20 minutes. Drain and transfer to a blender with the roasted tomatoes, roasted onion, roasted garlic, cloves, toasted cumin, Mexican oregano, vinegar, and 1/2 cup bean broth. Blend until completely smooth. If the blender struggles, add a little more bean broth, just enough to move the blades.

5. 5

   Strain the adobo

   Pass the blended adobo through a fine-mesh strainer into a bowl, pressing hard with a spoon. Discard the skins and seeds left behind. This is not fussiness. Ayocotes are creamy inside and thick-skinned outside, so the sauce needs to be smooth enough to coat them without turning sandy.

6. 6

   Fry the adobo

   Melt the manteca de cerdo in a wide cazuela or heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the strained adobo carefully. It will sputter. Cook, stirring often, for 8 to 10 minutes, until the color deepens to brick red and the fat begins to glisten at the edges. This frying step wakes up the chile and rounds out the vinegar. Skip it and the adobo tastes raw. Así se hace y punto.

7. 7

   Coat the beans

   Lift the cooked ayocotes from their broth with a slotted spoon and add them to the fried adobo. Add 1 cup of bean broth and fold gently so you do not break the beans. Simmer 15 to 20 minutes, until the adobo clings to the ayocotes and the sauce thickens around them. Taste for salt. The beans should be meaty, smoky, and just sharp enough from the vinegar to stand beside roast pork.

8. 8

   Rest and serve

   Turn off the heat and let the cazuela rest for 10 minutes before serving. Ayocotes drink the sauce as they sit. Spoon them into a Puebla talavera bowl or serve straight from the cazuela, with crumbled queso fresco if you use it and warm corn tortillas on the table. Flour tortillas belong to the north. Here, you bring corn.

Chef Tips

• •Look for ayocotes morados, blancos, or pintos at Mexican markets, especially vendors who sell beans from Puebla, Tlaxcala, Hidalgo, or the State of Mexico. If the beans are very old, they may never soften properly. Ask when they were harvested. Preguntale a las senoras del mercado.
• •Chile pasilla mexicano is not the same as fresh poblano, even if some U.S. supermarkets confuse the names. You need the long, dark, wrinkled dried chile. It brings smoke and raisin depth, not aggressive heat.
• •The adobo should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. If it tightens too much, loosen it with bean broth, not plain water. The broth carries the bean flavor back into the sauce.
• •Queso fresco is optional. Good ayocotes en adobo do not need decoration, but a small crumble of fresh cheese is common at the table in the central highlands.

Advance Preparation

• •The ayocotes can be cooked one day ahead in their broth. Refrigerate the beans and broth together so the skins stay tender.
• •The adobo can be blended and strained one day ahead, but fry it in manteca on the day you finish the dish. That is when the flavor deepens.
• •Finished ayocotes en adobo keep for 4 days refrigerated. Reheat gently with a splash of bean broth. They taste better on the second day, which is why working kitchens make them ahead.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 300g)