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A Lenten caldo from Oaxaca's Valles Centrales built on dried shrimp and chile costeño, thickened with a whisper of masa, and finished with chepil leaves that taste like nothing outside that state.
This is an Oaxacan caldo. Valles Centrales, specifically, though versions of it run down to the Istmo. It shows up every Cuaresma, when the church says no meat and the dried shrimp steps in as if it had been waiting all year for its turn.
Chepil is the ingredient that makes this Oaxacan and not just another shrimp soup. It is a leaf that grows wild in the milpas and along roadsides across the valleys. The flavor is impossible to describe by comparison because it does not taste like anything else: mineral, green, slightly bitter, with a depth that spinach or chard cannot approach. Outside Oaxaca, almost nobody knows what chepil is. Inside Oaxaca, it goes into tamales de chepil, arroz con chepil, and this caldo, where it meets the brine of dried shrimp and the bright, direct heat of chile costeño.
The chile costeño comes from Oaxaca's Pacific coast, dried under the sun in the villages between Pinotepa Nacional and Jamiltepec. It is thinner than guajillo, hotter, more direct. The masa stirred into the broth at the end is not there to turn it into something heavy. It rounds the edges, gives the liquid just enough body to coat the back of a spoon. The caldo should be thin, briny, aromatic. A bowl you drink as much as eat.
I learned this from a señora at the mercado de Etla who made it every Friday during Lent. She kept a bag of dried shrimp from the coast under her stall and a bundle of chepil she grew in her own solar. She stirred the masa into the pot with one hand and stripped chepil leaves off their stems with the other. No recipe card. No measurements. She'd been making it since before I was born. I wrote it down because somebody has to. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
Chepil (Crotalaria longirostrata) is a leguminous herb cultivated and foraged across Oaxaca's Valles Centrales since pre-Columbian times, documented in Zapotec agricultural traditions as a nitrogen-fixing companion plant within the milpa. The dried shrimp trade between Oaxaca's Pacific coast and the inland valleys created a centuries-old protein supply chain that sustained Cuaresma cooking after Catholic dietary prohibitions on meat took hold in colonial New Spain. Caldos built on camarón seco and seasonal herbs, chepil in the rainy months, hierba santa and pitiona at other times, became the foundation of Oaxacan Lenten cuisine, a tradition that continues in mercados like Benito Juárez and Etla every spring.
Quantity
6 ounces
Quantity
8 cups
Quantity
4
stemmed and seeded
Quantity
3 medium
Quantity
1/4 medium
Quantity
2
unpeeled
Quantity
1 tablespoon
Quantity
3 tablespoons (or 1 1/2 tablespoons masa harina dissolved in 1/4 cup warm water)
Quantity
3 cups, loosely packed
thick stems removed
Quantity
to taste
Quantity
for serving
Quantity
for serving
warmed
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| dried shrimp (camarón seco) | 6 ounces |
| water | 8 cups |
| dried chile costeño amarillostemmed and seeded | 4 |
| ripe Roma tomatoes (jitomates) | 3 medium |
| white onion | 1/4 medium |
| garlic clovesunpeeled | 2 |
| manteca de cerdo (pork lard) | 1 tablespoon |
| fresh corn masa | 3 tablespoons (or 1 1/2 tablespoons masa harina dissolved in 1/4 cup warm water) |
| fresh chepil leavesthick stems removed | 3 cups, loosely packed |
| kosher salt | to taste |
| lime wedges (optional) | for serving |
| hand-pressed corn tortillas (optional)warmed | for serving |
Rinse the dried shrimp briefly under cold running water to remove excess salt and grit. Do not soak them. Soaking pulls out the flavor you want in the broth, not in the sink. Place the rinsed shrimp in a pot with 8 cups of cold water. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat and cook for 15 minutes. The water will turn a deep amber-orange and smell like the coast. That color is your broth. Leave the shrimp in the pot.
While the shrimp simmers, heat a dry comal or heavy skillet over medium. Toast the chile costeño for about 20 seconds per side. They are thin-skinned and burn faster than guajillo, so do not walk away. The moment they puff and the kitchen fills with a sharp, bright chile smell, pull them off. Place them in a small bowl and cover with hot water from the kettle. Let them soak for 10 minutes, no more.
On the same comal, roast the whole tomatoes, onion quarter, and unpeeled garlic cloves. Turn the tomatoes as their skins blister and char in spots, about 8 minutes total. The onion and garlic take less time, about 5 minutes. The skins should be blackened in patches but not burned through. Peel the garlic. Transfer the roasted vegetables to a blender with the drained soaked chiles and half a cup of the shrimp broth. Blend until smooth. Do not strain. The body from the chile skins and tomato pulp belongs in this caldo.
Heat the tablespoon of manteca in the bottom of a heavy pot or clay cazuela over medium heat. When the lard shimmers, pour in the blended sauce. It will sputter and pop, so stand back. Stir and cook for 5 minutes until the sauce darkens a shade and the fat begins to separate at the edges. This step changes the raw, sharp taste of the tomato and chile into something rounder and deeper. La manteca es el sabor. A tablespoon is all it takes.
Pour the shrimp broth, shrimp and all, into the pot with the fried sauce. Stir to combine. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 10 minutes. Taste for salt now. Go carefully. Dried shrimp carries its own brine, and you may need very little salt or none at all. The broth should taste firmly of the sea with the chile warming the back of your throat.
In a small bowl, work the fresh masa smooth with a quarter cup of warm water, pressing it between your fingers until no lumps remain. If using masa harina, whisk it into the water. Pour the mixture into the simmering broth in a thin, steady stream, stirring constantly so it does not clump. Cook for 5 minutes. The broth will thicken just enough to feel round on the tongue, enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon but still thin enough to drink from the bowl. If it feels too thick, add a splash of water. This caldo is a broth, not a porridge.
Add the chepil leaves to the pot. Stir once, gently, and cook for no more than 3 to 4 minutes. Chepil wilts quickly and overcooking turns it dark and dull, which kills its mineral brightness. The leaves should be vivid green and tender when you ladle the caldo into bowls. Make sure each serving gets shrimp, chepil, and a full bowl of broth. Set lime wedges on the table and a stack of warm corn tortillas. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.
1 serving (about 400g)
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