Burro Percherón Ahogado Hermosillense

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 6-quart Dutch oven for the carne con chile
• •Cast iron comal for charring tomatoes and warming sobaqueras
• •High-powered blender
• •Fine-mesh strainer
• •Oven-safe plates or shallow gratin dishes for broiling
• •Sharp 12-inch chef's knife

Instructions

1. 1

   Brown the beef

   Pat the chuck cubes dry and season with one teaspoon of the salt. Heat 3 tablespoons of the manteca in a heavy Dutch oven over medium-high until it shimmers. Brown the beef in two batches, about 4 minutes per batch, turning to color all sides. Do not crowd the pot. Crowded meat steams instead of browns and you lose the fond at the bottom that is going to feed the whole stew. Transfer to a plate.

   Chuck is the right cut. Sirloin is too lean. The collagen in chuck is what gives the filling its body once it cooks down.
2. 2

   Toast and soak the chiles for the meat

   Heat a dry comal over medium. Toast the chile colorado and chile ancho separately, about 20 to 30 seconds per side, just until they puff and turn fragrant. The chile colorado is what gives Sonoran red stews their color, do not let it blacken. Place the toasted chiles in a heatproof bowl and cover with hot tap water for 15 minutes. Hot water, not boiling. Boiling water cooks the skin and turns the puree bitter.

3. 3

   Build the carne con chile

   In the same Dutch oven, add 2 more tablespoons manteca. Cook half the chopped onion and half the minced garlic until soft and golden, about 5 minutes. Drain the soaked chiles and transfer to a blender with the onion-garlic mixture, one teaspoon of the oregano, the cumin, and one cup of fresh water. Blend until completely smooth. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve back into the pot, pressing on the solids. Cook the puree for 5 minutes until it darkens and the fat separates.

4. 4

   Stew the meat with potatoes

   Return the browned beef and any juices to the pot. Add the bay leaves and enough water or beef broth to barely cover the meat. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook for one hour. Add the diced potatoes and continue cooking uncovered for 30 to 40 more minutes, until the beef pulls apart with a fork and the potatoes are tender. The liquid should reduce to a thick, clinging sauce. If it looks soupy at the end, raise the heat and reduce. The filling for a percherón must be wet but not watery. Sprinkle in the flour and stir for 2 minutes to thicken if needed. Taste for salt.

5. 5

   Make the caldillo de tomate

   Char the roma tomatoes, the quartered small onion, and the three peeled garlic cloves on a dry comal over medium-high heat, turning until the tomato skins blister and split and the onion takes on dark spots, about 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer everything to a blender with the remaining teaspoon of oregano, half a teaspoon of salt, and one cup of the beef broth. Blend until smooth. Heat the tablespoon of manteca in a saucepan, add the puree, and fry it for 5 minutes until it deepens in color. Add the remaining cup of broth, simmer 10 minutes, and adjust salt. The caldillo should be loose, the consistency of a thin tomato sauce, not a soup and not a paste. This is what drowns the burro.

6. 6

   Make the chipotle salsa

   If using dried chipotle mora, toast them lightly on the comal and soak in hot water for 15 minutes. Drain. Blend the chipotles (dried-and-soaked or canned in adobo) with one cup of the caldillo you just made, half a clove of garlic, and a pinch of salt until smooth. The salsa should be thick enough to spoon over the burro and stay where you put it. Set aside in a small bowl.

7. 7

   Warm the sobaqueras

   Heat a dry comal over medium. Warm each Sonoran flour tortilla for about 20 seconds per side, just enough to make it pliable. Do not toast it crisp. The sobaquera should fold like cloth, that is the whole point. If your tortilla cracks when you fold it, it is too dry and your burrito is going to split open in the caldillo. Stack the warmed tortillas under a clean kitchen towel.

   If you cannot find a true sobaquera, look for the largest flour tortilla your Mexican grocer sells, ideally hand-stretched and labeled 'estilo Sonora.' A 10-inch supermarket flour tortilla is not a sobaquera and it will not hold a percherón. The percherón takes its name from the Percheron draft horse for a reason. The tortilla has to be huge.
8. 8

   Roll the burros

   Lay one warm sobaquera flat. Spoon about a cup and a half of the carne con chile across the lower third of the tortilla, leaving two inches clear on each side. Sprinkle with about two tablespoons of the shredded asadero. Fold the bottom edge up and over the filling, fold both sides in, and roll tightly away from you, finishing with the seam down. The roll should be tight enough to hold its shape on the plate. Repeat with the remaining tortillas.

9. 9

   Drown the burro

   Set each rolled burrito seam-side down on an oven-safe plate or shallow gratin dish. Ladle the warm caldillo over and around the burro until it is half-submerged. Spoon two or three tablespoons of the chipotle salsa across the top in a wide stripe. Cover the burro with a generous handful of shredded asadero. Slide the plates under a hot broiler for 2 to 3 minutes, just until the cheese melts and pulls. Pull them the moment the cheese goes glossy. The tortilla underneath has to stay soft.

10. 10

    Finish with crema and serve

    Drizzle Mexican crema across the top in a zigzag. Set pickled jalapeños and a lime wedge on the side. This is a knife-and-fork burrito, which the rest of Mexico does not understand and Hermosillo refuses to apologize for. Serve immediately, while the cheese is still pulling and the caldillo is hot under the tortilla. Asi se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •The sobaquera is the dish. If you can find a Sonoran or Chihuahuan grocer who makes them by hand, drive across town for them. A frozen 'extra-large' supermarket flour tortilla is a compromise, and you will taste it. The good ones are stretched thin enough that you can read newsprint through them.
• •Chile colorado, also sold as chile california, is the workhorse dried chile of Sonoran cooking. It is mild, fruity, and gives the deep red color the carne con chile depends on. Do not substitute guajillo unless you have nothing else, the flavor is more acidic and the color is wrong.
• •Asadero is the cheese of the Noroeste. If you cannot find it, queso Chihuahua is the closest substitute, also from the region. Monterey Jack is a distant fallback. Cheddar does not melt right and the flavor is wrong for this dish. La cocina no es decoracion, es trabajo.
• •Manteca de cerdo, real rendered pork lard, is what fries the chile puree and the caldillo. La manteca es el sabor. If you use vegetable oil, the dish loses the round, savory backbone that makes the difference between a Sonoran burro and a generic burrito with red sauce.

Advance Preparation

• •The carne con chile colorado can be made two days ahead and refrigerated. The flavor deepens overnight, the way a stew should. Reheat gently on the stove with a splash of broth before assembling.
• •The caldillo de tomate keeps three days refrigerated. Reheat to a bare simmer before drowning the burros.
• •The chipotle salsa keeps a week refrigerated in a jar.
• •Warm the sobaqueras and assemble the burros immediately before serving. The drowning and broiling are last-minute work.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 870g)