Costa Chica Fish Stew (Caldo Largo de Pescado)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Lead-free 6-quart olla de barro or heavy enameled pot
• •Cast iron comal for toasting chiles and charring vegetables
• •High-powered blender
• •Fine-mesh strainer
• •Wide spoon or fish spatula for lifting the seafood gently

Instructions

1. 1

   Salt the seafood

   Season the snapper pieces and peeled shrimp with 1 teaspoon kosher salt. Keep them cold while you build the broth. Reserve the shrimp shells. Fish enters the pot near the end, not at the beginning. Boil it for an hour and you get rags, not caldo largo.

2. 2

   Make the stock

   Put the shrimp shells, fish head and bones, half onion, 3 smashed garlic cloves, cilantro stems, 10 cups cold water, and 1 teaspoon salt in a heavy olla. Bring slowly to a gentle simmer over medium heat. Skim the foam during the first 10 minutes, then simmer 25 minutes. Strain through a fine-mesh strainer. You should have about 8 cups of clean seafood stock.

   Remove the gills from the fish head. Gills make the stock taste muddy. Ask the fish vendor to do it, and watch once so you learn.
3. 3

   Cook the morisqueta

   While the stock simmers, combine the rinsed rice, 3 cups water, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, cover, lower the heat, and cook 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and let it rest 10 minutes without lifting the lid. This is morisqueta blanca: plain rice, not arroz rojo, not pilaf. It waits for the broth.

4. 4

   Toast the chiles

   Heat a dry comal over medium. Toast the chile guajillo one at a time, about 20 seconds per side, until the skins puff and the color deepens. Toast the chile costeño or puya faster, 10 to 15 seconds per side. Put the toasted chiles in a bowl and cover with hot water for 15 minutes. Hot water, not boiling. Boiling water pulls bitterness from the skins.

   If a chile turns black, throw it out. Burned chile makes bitter broth, and there is no fixing it later.
5. 5

   Char the recaudo

   On the same comal, char the tomatoes, sliced onion, and 3 unpeeled garlic cloves until blistered in spots and softened. Peel the garlic. Drain the soaked chiles and blend them with the charred tomatoes, onion, garlic, and 1 cup of the seafood stock until completely smooth. Strain the puree. The broth should taste like chile and tomato, not bits of skin.

6. 6

   Fry the sauce

   Heat the oil in a 6-quart olla or lead-free clay cazuela over medium heat. Pour in the strained chile-tomato puree. It will sputter. Cook 6 to 8 minutes, stirring often, until the color turns brick red and the raw tomato smell is gone. On this coast the fat is just enough oil to wake the chile. The fish stock does the heavy work.

7. 7

   Simmer the broth

   Add the remaining seafood stock to the fried sauce and stir well. Add the epazote sprigs. Simmer uncovered for 15 minutes so the guajillo, tomato, and seafood stock become one broth. Taste for salt. The flavor should be clear, red, and savory, with the epazote sitting in the background.

8. 8

   Poach the seafood

   Lower the heat until the broth barely moves. Slide in the snapper pieces in one layer. Cook 5 minutes without stirring. Add the shrimp and cook 3 to 4 minutes more, until the fish is opaque and flakes at the edge and the shrimp curl into loose C shapes. Tight O-shaped shrimp are overcooked. Así se hace y punto.

9. 9

   Serve Costa Chica

   Ladle the fish, shrimp, and red broth into deep clay bowls. Scatter chopped cilantro over the top and put lime halves at the table. Serve the morisqueta rice on the side so each person can spoon rice into the broth as they eat. Warm corn tortillas belong here if you want them. Flour tortillas are a northern tradition, and this is Guerrero.

Chef Tips

• •Ask the fish vendor for the head and bones when you buy the snapper. Clear eyes, firm flesh, and clean ocean smell. If the fish smells tired, do not make caldo. No chile can rescue bad seafood.
• •Chile costeño or chile puya is the regional touch. If you cannot find it, use one more guajillo and one small chile de arbol. That is a compromise, not an upgrade, but it keeps the broth honest.
• •Fresh epazote matters here. Dried epazote can work in a pinch, use 1 teaspoon, but cilantro is not a substitute. Cilantro finishes the bowl. Epazote perfumes the broth.
• •Do not thicken this with masa, tomato paste, or blended tortillas. That belongs to other soups. Caldo largo should stay brothy enough to drink from the spoon.
• •Morisqueta is not decorative. It is how the coast stretches a pot of fish into a meal. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.

Advance Preparation

• •The seafood stock can be made one day ahead and refrigerated. Chill it quickly and keep it covered.
• •The chile-tomato base can be toasted, blended, strained, and refrigerated one day ahead. Fry it on the day you serve the caldo.
• •Do not cook the fish and shrimp ahead. Add them only when people are ready to eat.
• •Morisqueta can be cooked earlier the same day and reheated with a small splash of water, covered, over low heat.
• •Finished caldo keeps for one day in the refrigerator, but the seafood texture is best the day it is made. Freeze the stock, not the finished stew.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 800g)