Caldo de Pescado Costeño de Cuajinicuilapa

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Wide 6- to 8-quart enamel peltre pot or clay cazuela
• •Cast iron comal for toasting chiles and roasting vegetables
• •Blender
• •Fine-mesh strainer
• •Wide ladle and slotted spoon for lifting fish without breaking it

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare the fish

   Ask the fish vendor to scale and gut the fish, cut the body into thick steaks, and leave you the head and tail. Rinse the head, tail, and steaks under cold water, then pat dry. Salt the steaks lightly and keep them cold while you start the broth. If using tichindas, scrub the black shells well and discard any that stay open when tapped.

   Fillets make a weak caldo. You need the head, bones, and skin for the broth to taste like the coast instead of salted water.
2. 2

   Start the broth

   Put the fish head and tail in a wide pot with the cold water, half the onion, 2 garlic cloves, the cilantro stems, and 1 teaspoon salt. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat and cook 20 minutes, skimming the gray foam during the first 5 minutes. Do not boil it hard. A hard boil breaks the fish apart and muddies the broth. Strain the broth into a bowl and wipe out the pot.

3. 3

   Toast the chiles

   While the broth simmers, heat a dry comal over medium. Toast the chile costeño and guajillo separately, about 15 to 25 seconds per side, just until the skins darken slightly and smell fruity. The chile costeño is small and burns fast, watch it. Put the toasted chiles in a bowl and cover with hot water for 10 minutes.

   Burned chile turns bitter. If one goes black, throw it away and toast another. The market women in Costa Chica will not rescue burned chile with sugar or tricks.
4. 4

   Make the recaudo

   On the same comal, roast the tomatoes, the remaining half onion, and the remaining 2 garlic cloves until the tomatoes blister and the onion has dark spots. Drain the softened chiles. Blend the chiles, tomatoes, roasted onion, roasted garlic, and 1 cup of the strained fish broth until smooth. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve. This keeps the caldo clean instead of sandy with chile skin.

5. 5

   Fry the base

   Melt 1 tablespoon manteca de cerdo in the wiped pot over medium heat. Add the strained chile-tomato base. It will sputter, so stir with authority. Cook 5 to 6 minutes, until the color deepens to brick red and the fat begins to shine at the edges. La manteca es el sabor, even here. It blooms the chile without making the broth heavy.

6. 6

   Cook the yuca

   Pour the strained fish broth back into the pot and stir well. Add the yuca and bring the pot back to a gentle simmer. Cook 12 to 15 minutes, until the yuca is starting to turn tender at the edges but is not falling apart. Taste for salt now. Yuca is quiet until you season it properly.

7. 7

   Shape chochoyotes

   While the yuca cooks, knead the masa with the remaining 1 tablespoon manteca and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add warm water, 1 tablespoon at a time, only if the dough cracks. Roll into small balls the size of large marbles, then press a dimple into each one with your thumb. The dimple is not decoration. It catches broth. Así se hace y punto.

8. 8

   Add plantain and masa

   Add the plátano macho and the chochoyotes to the simmering pot. If using jaibas, add the cleaned split crabs now so they have time to cook through. Simmer 10 minutes, stirring only once or twice so the dumplings do not break. The chochoyotes will firm up and float, and the plantain will soften without dissolving.

9. 9

   Poach the fish

   Lower the fish steaks into the pot in a single layer. Add the epazote and hoja santa. If using tichindas, add them now. Keep the broth at a gentle simmer and cook 6 to 8 minutes, until the fish flakes cleanly at the bone and any tichindas have opened. Discard any tichindas that remain closed. Do not stir hard. Fish is not beef. Treat it like fish.

10. 10

    Serve the caldo

    Taste the broth one last time for salt. Remove the epazote stem if it is woody; leave the hoja santa pieces in the pot for anyone who wants them. Ladle into deep bowls with fish, yuca, plantain, chochoyotes, and broth in every serving. Finish with chopped cilantro, diced white onion, and lime at the table. Serve with warm corn tortillas. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.

Chef Tips

• •Buy the fish whole. If the vendor offers only fillets, ask for heads and bones from the same fish. A coastal caldo is built from the animal, not from a carton.
• •Chile costeño matters here. If you cannot find it, use 2 extra guajillos and 1 small chile de árbol, but know what happened: you made a compromise, not the same Costa Chica flavor.
• •Tichindas are black-shell mangrove mussels from Laguna de Chacahua and Corralero. They are not generic mussels. If you cannot get true tichindas, leave them out and keep your dignity.
• •This is not chilpachole. Chilpachole is a seafood caldo thickened with masa, never flour. These chochoyotes give the broth corn flavor and body without turning it into a thickened crab soup.
• •In Guerrero, chilate can mean the savory chicken stew and also the cacao, rice, and cinnamon drink. Both are Guerrero, only the stew belongs on the savory side of the table with dishes like this.
• •Wet barbacoa de la Costa Chica is served as a stew with broth, not as taqueria barbacoa piled into a tortilla. Different dish, same lesson: do not flatten regional cooking into one national blur.
• •Veracruz Sotavento, Tlacotalpan and Los Tuxtlas included, has its own Afro-Mexican and port cooking. Mondongo jarocho carries the Atlantic slave-trade lineage into the Gulf. Name it correctly and keep it distinct from this Pacific caldo.

Advance Preparation

• •The fish broth can be made 1 day ahead with the head and bones, then chilled quickly and refrigerated. Bring it back to a simmer before adding the yuca.
• •The chile-tomato recaudo can be toasted, blended, strained, and refrigerated up to 2 days ahead. Fry it in manteca the day you serve the caldo.
• •Chochoyotes can be shaped up to 4 hours ahead. Cover them with a damp cloth so the masa does not dry out.
• •Do not cook the fish ahead. Add it only when the table is nearly ready. Reheated fish caldo is edible, but the fish will tighten and you will know the difference.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 720g)