Caldo de Chaca Colimense

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •12-inch clay cazuela or heavy 5-quart pot
• •Cast iron comal for toasting chiles and roasting vegetables
• •Volcanic stone molcajete or blender for crushing shells
• •High-powered blender
• •Fine-mesh strainer

Instructions

1. 1

   Clean the chacales

   Pull the heads and shells from the chacales, keeping the tail meat separate. Leave a few whole if you want the bowl to show what it is. Split the back of each tail and remove the dark vein. Save every head, shell, claw, and leg. That is not trash. That is broth.

2. 2

   Make shell broth

   Put the heads, shells, claws, and legs in a pot with the water, half the onion, 3 garlic cloves, and the salt. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 25 minutes, pressing the shells against the side of the pot with a spoon. The broth should smell sweet and mineral, like clean river shellfish. Strain it and reserve the liquid. Pick out a handful of softened claws and shells, pound them in a molcajete or pulse them in a blender with 1 cup of the broth, then strain hard. That thick strained liquid goes back into the broth.

3. 3

   Toast the chiles

   Heat a dry comal over medium. Toast the chile guajillo one at a time, about 20 to 30 seconds per side, just until the skin darkens slightly and the chile smells fruity. Toast the chile de arbol for only a few seconds if using it. Do not blacken them. Burned chile makes bitter caldo and nobody at the table can fix your impatience.

   Good guajillo should be flexible and deep red, not dusty and brittle. If it cracks into dry flakes before it hits the comal, your chile vendor sold you old chiles.
4. 4

   Soak and char

   Cover the toasted chiles with hot water and let them soften for 15 minutes. Hot, not boiling. While they soak, roast the tomatoes, serrano, remaining onion, and remaining garlic on the comal until blistered in spots. The tomato skins should wrinkle and the onion should pick up brown edges. That little bit of char gives the broth depth without covering the prawn.

5. 5

   Blend the recaudo

   Drain the soaked chiles. In a blender, combine the chiles, roasted tomatoes, serrano, onion, garlic, oregano, cumin seeds, peppercorns, and 1 cup of the shell broth. Blend until completely smooth. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve. Press on the solids. A proper caldo is not full of chile skins. Así se hace y punto.

6. 6

   Fry the base

   Melt the manteca de cerdo in a wide clay cazuela or heavy pot over medium heat. Pour in the strained recaudo. It will sputter, so stir with purpose. Cook for 8 to 10 minutes, until the color deepens from tomato red to brick red and the fat begins to shine at the edges. This step cooks out the raw tomato and wakes up the guajillo. No me vengas con atajos.

7. 7

   Build the caldo

   Add the reserved shell broth to the fried recaudo and stir well, scraping the bottom of the cazuela. Bring to a gentle simmer. Add the carrot and cook for 8 minutes, until almost tender. Add the squash and simmer 4 minutes more. Taste for salt now. The broth should be savory first, then sweet from the shellfish, then red from the chile.

8. 8

   Cook the prawns

   Add the prawn tails and any whole chacales to the simmering broth. Cook gently for 3 to 5 minutes, just until the meat turns opaque and firm and the shells turn bright orange. Do not boil hard. Chacal is expensive and overcooked prawn turns rubbery. The women who perfected this dish knew when to stop.

9. 9

   Fry the bolillo

   While the prawns cook, heat the extra manteca or aceite de maiz in a small skillet. Fry the bolillo cubes until golden and crisp at the edges. Drain on paper towels and salt lightly. Fried bread belongs to older Colima soup tables, and it catches the red broth better than a spoonful of apology.

10. 10

    Serve in barro

    Ladle the caldo into deep barro bowls. Make sure every bowl gets broth, vegetables, prawn meat, and at least one claw or whole chacal if you saved them. Scatter parsley over the top and set lime halves, fried bolillo cubes, and warm corn tortillas on the table. This is a 32-state cuisine. Colima is small, but this bowl is not.

Chef Tips

• •Buy chacales fresh if you are anywhere near Colima's river towns or the markets around Manzanillo. In the United States, head-on freshwater prawns are the closest choice. Head-on shrimp will work as a compromise, not an upgrade, and they need less time in the pot.
• •Do not confuse these chacales with northern dried corn dishes also called chacales or chuales. Same country, different ingredient, different state, different kitchen. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
• •The shell paste is the old step people skip because it takes a few extra minutes. Do not skip it. The broth gets its body from the heads and claws, not from bouillon powder.
• •If your tomatoes are pale and hard, use good canned whole tomatoes before you use bad fresh ones. The market decides the recipe. If the mercado is not giving you ripe jitomate, do not pretend.
• •The chile de arbol is optional. This caldo should taste like river prawn first. Not all Mexican food is about heat. Sometimes the chile is there for color, body, and fragrance.

Advance Preparation

• •The shell broth and strained guajillo recaudo can be made one day ahead and refrigerated separately. Fry the recaudo and cook the prawns on the day you serve the caldo.
• •Clean the chacales up to 6 hours ahead and keep the meat covered over ice in the refrigerator. Keep the shells and heads cold too, because they are the broth.
• •Fry the bolillo cubes up to 4 hours ahead. Keep them uncovered at room temperature so they stay crisp.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 540g)