Cebollitas Asadas al Carbón Sonorenses

This is Sonora. Specifically the Sunday carne asada in a backyard parrilla in Hermosillo or Ciudad Obregon, where the mesquite has been burning since the morning and the cebollitas go on the grate beside the arrachera. You do not eat carne asada in Sonora without cebollitas asadas. The two are one dish in two parts.

The onion is the cebolla cambray, a Mexican spring onion with a small white bulb and long green tops. Pearl onions are not the same. Green scallions are not the same. If your supermarket does not carry cebolla cambray, find a Mexican mercado and ask for them by name. The bulb has to be big enough to soften on the inside while the outside blackens. The tops have to be long enough to wilt and char without disappearing.

The wood is mesquite. This is the chaparral country of northwestern Mexico, the wood is what grows here, and the flavor of mesquite smoke is in everything Sonora grills. Charcoal will work. Gas will get you a hot grate but not the smell. Cook this on whatever you have, but understand what you are missing if you do not have mesquite.

The finish is lime and a little salsa de soya. Yes, soy sauce. The norteno parrilla has used Maggi and soy on grilled meats and cebollitas for two generations. It is not a fusion gimmick. It is how it is eaten on the ranch and at the carne asada stands of Sonora. Crush a little chiltepin over the top if you want heat. Chiltepin is the wild northern chile, tiny, dried, ferocious. The chile of the sierra. Saber cocinar es saber vivir, and in Sonora that means knowing how to manage a mesquite fire.