Borrego Tatemado del Valle de Guadalupe

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 7-quart Dutch oven or cast iron pot with a tight-fitting lid
• •Cast iron comal or heavy skillet for the final crisp
• •High-powered blender
• •Fine-mesh strainer
• •Tongs and a slotted spoon
• •Mesquite charcoal and a covered pit, optional, for the traditional method

Instructions

1. 1

   Toast the chiles and spices

   Heat a dry comal or heavy skillet over medium. Toast the guajillo, ancho, and pasilla chiles separately, about 30 seconds per side. They should puff and turn fragrant. Pull each one off the moment the kitchen smells like a chile vendor's stall. Move the chiles to a heatproof bowl. On the same comal, toast the cumin, cloves, canela, peppercorns, and bay leaves for about a minute, until they wake up and the kitchen shifts smell. Asi se hace y punto.

   The pasilla burns the fastest. Watch it. Burned chile turns the adobo bitter and there is no rescuing it.
2. 2

   Build the adobo

   Cover the toasted chiles with hot tap water, not boiling, and let them soften for 20 minutes. Drain. Transfer to a blender with the garlic, onion, toasted spices, oregano, vinegar, salt, and one cup of fresh water. Blend on high until completely smooth. Push it through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl, pressing on the solids. Discard the skins. You should have a deep mahogany paste, thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Taste it. The adobo carries the dish. If it tastes shy, add salt now. The lamb cannot fix what the marinade lacks.

3. 3

   Marinate the lamb overnight

   Pat the lamb pieces dry. Rub the strained adobo into every surface with your hands, working it into the seams and around the bones. Use all of it. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 12 hours, ideally a full day. The lamb needs the time. The vinegar tenderizes, the chile penetrates, and the spices settle into the meat. No me vengas con atajos.

4. 4

   Set up the underground oven, or its kitchen substitute

   If you are working over an open pit in Baja, dig a hole two feet deep, line it with stones, and burn mesquite wood down to glowing coals. Lay the avocado leaves and softened banana leaf in the bottom of a heavy cast iron pot or roasting pan with a tight lid. The leaves are not decoration. The avocado leaf carries an anise-eucalyptus note that defines the flavor of borrego in northern Mexico. If you do not have an underground oven, your home oven set to 275F will give you a faithful result. Doña Esthela's neighbors in El Porvenir cook borrego both ways. The slow heat is the principle, not the hole in the ground.

5. 5

   Render the lard and sear

   Melt the lard in a heavy Dutch oven or wide cast iron pot over medium-high heat. Working in batches, lift the lamb pieces out of the marinade, letting excess drip off, and sear them on all sides until the adobo darkens and the edges turn deep brown. About four minutes per side. La manteca es el sabor. The sear builds the crust that the long cook will protect. Reserve the leftover marinade in the bowl.

6. 6

   Wrap and roast slowly

   Lay the seared lamb over the avocado leaves and banana leaf in your covered pot. Pour the reserved marinade over the meat, scraping every drop from the bowl. Fold the banana leaf up and over the lamb to wrap it. Cover with the lid. Slide into a 275F oven, or set over the buried coals if you are working pit-style. Cook for six hours. Do not peek before hour five. The seal traps the steam from the meat's own juices and the avocado leaves perfume the entire cut. This is the tatemado method, slow and quiet.

7. 7

   Check for tenderness

   After six hours, lift the lid. The lamb should pull off the bone with the gentle tug of two forks. The juices should be deep red, glossy, and thick. If the meat resists at all, close the pot and give it another hour. Some lambs take longer. The cook does not decide when it is done. The lamb does.

8. 8

   Crisp on the comal

   This is the step that turns slow-roasted lamb into tatemado. Heat a heavy comal or cast iron skillet over medium-high heat until it is screaming hot. Lift pieces of the cooked lamb out of the pot with a slotted spoon, letting the juices drip back. Lay the meat on the dry comal and let it sear, undisturbed, for two to three minutes a side. The edges should turn dark and crackle. The fat should sizzle and catch a few mahogany char marks. This is what tatemado means: the kiss of fire after the long cook. The texture is the dish.

9. 9

   Serve at sunrise

   Pile the crisped lamb on a warm platter. Spoon some of the dark cooking juices over the top, a few tablespoons, no more. Set out warm hand-pressed corn tortillas, diced white onion, chopped cilantro, lime, and salsa de chile de arbol. In El Porvenir, this is breakfast. The vineyards of the Valle de Guadalupe wake up to it. Build a taco. Pull off another piece. Drink strong black coffee alongside. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •The lamb has to be bone-in. Boneless lamb dries out over six hours and you lose the gelatin that makes the cooking juices thick and dark. Ask your butcher for a mix of shoulder and leg, cut into pieces the size of a man's fist.
• •Hojas de aguacate are non-negotiable. Without them, you are making slow-roasted lamb, not borrego tatemado. A good Mexican grocery will sell them dried in plastic bags, or fresh by the bunch in spring. Toast them lightly on the comal before you use them to wake up the oils.
• •If you cannot dig a hole in the ground, do not apologize for using your oven. The principle is slow, sealed heat. A 275F oven and a tight-lidded Dutch oven will give you a result that honors the dish. The crisping on the comal is what makes it tatemado, not the underground cook.
• •Save the adobo-stained cooking juices. Strain them, refrigerate, and use them within three days as the base for a quick consome to drink alongside leftovers, or to braise beans the next day. They are too good to throw away.

Advance Preparation

• •The lamb must marinate at least 12 hours and up to 36 hours. The longer it sits in the adobo, the deeper the flavor.
• •The adobo can be made up to three days ahead and refrigerated. It also freezes well for up to two months.
• •The cooked lamb can be made one day ahead, refrigerated in its juices, and crisped on the comal just before serving. Many would argue this is the better way, since the flavors settle overnight.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 165g)