Costillas de Cerdo al Chiltepin Sonorenses

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 6-quart Dutch oven or wide clay cazuela
• •Cast iron comal for toasting the chiltepin and warming flour tortillas
• •Volcanic stone molcajete or mortar and pestle for crushing the chile blend
• •Long tongs
• •Mesquite charcoal and a grill (optional, for the finish)

Instructions

1. 1

   Salt and rest the ribs

   Pat the ribs dry with paper towels. Season generously with one tablespoon of the salt, working it into every surface. Let them rest at room temperature for 30 minutes while you prepare the rest. Cold meat into a hot pot will not brown. The ribs need to come to temperature before they meet the lard.

   Ask your butcher to cut between the bones. Whole racks do not work for this dish. The ribs need surface area for the chiltepin to grip.
2. 2

   Toast the chiltepin and oregano

   Heat a dry comal or heavy skillet over medium-low. Add the chiltepines and toast them gently, shaking the pan, for about 30 seconds. They are tiny, round, and burn in seconds. Pull them off the heat the moment you smell their perfume, sharp, grassy, and almost floral. Add the oregano and the cumin seeds to the warm pan for 10 seconds more, just to wake them up. Crush everything together in a molcajete or a mortar. Reserve.

   Chiltepin is the smallest chile in Mexico and the hottest one most home cooks ever handle. Wash your hands twice and do not touch your eyes for an hour. The Sonorenses call it el chile mosquito because the heat is a pinprick that lasts a few seconds and disappears clean. That is its character. No me vengas con atajos: do not substitute cayenne or chile de arbol.
3. 3

   Brown the ribs in lard

   Melt the lard in a heavy 6-quart Dutch oven or wide cazuela over medium-high heat. When it shimmers, lay the ribs in a single layer, working in batches so the pot is not crowded. Brown each side deeply, about 4 minutes per side. You want a dark crust, not a pale sear. La manteca es el sabor. The lard renders into the pork and the pork gives back its flavor to the lard. That exchange is the foundation.

4. 4

   Build the braise

   Lower the heat to medium. Add the diced onion to the rendered fat and cook for 5 minutes until translucent. Add the smashed garlic and cook 2 minutes more, until fragrant but not browned. Stir in the crushed chiltepin, oregano, and cumin. Cook for 30 seconds, just enough to bloom the spices in the fat. The kitchen will smell sharp and dry, like the desert after a rain.

5. 5

   Deglaze and combine

   Pour in the apple cider vinegar and scrape the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon. Lift every dark spot. That is flavor. Add the broth, the beer, the brown sugar, the bay leaves, and the remaining tablespoon of salt. Stir. Return the ribs to the pot, nesting them in the liquid. The braise should come about three-quarters of the way up the meat. Add more broth if you need to.

6. 6

   Slow-braise to tender

   Bring to a gentle simmer. Cover partially, leaving the lid cracked an inch. Reduce heat until you see lazy bubbles every few seconds. Cook for two hours, turning the ribs once at the halfway mark. They are ready when the meat pulls back from the bone and a fork slides in with no resistance. Do not rush this. Sonora is a slow-cooking state because the desert teaches patience.

7. 7

   Reduce the sauce

   Lift the ribs out carefully with tongs and set them on a platter. Raise the heat under the pot to medium-high and reduce the braising liquid for 10 to 15 minutes, until it thickens to a glossy sauce that coats the back of a spoon. Skim the fat off the top, but leave a thin layer. Taste for salt and chiltepin. The heat should hit briefly and walk away clean. If it lingers and burns, you have used the wrong chile.

8. 8

   Finish over mesquite (optional)

   If you have a grill, light a small mesquite fire and let it burn down to glowing coals. Brush the ribs with the reduced sauce and lay them over the heat for 3 to 4 minutes per side, just long enough to pick up smoke and crisp the edges. Mesquite is what grows in Sonora. The wood and the chile come from the same ground. If you have no grill, slide the ribs under a hot broiler for 3 minutes per side. Asi se hace y punto.

   Do not skip the rest after the smoke. The ribs need 5 minutes off the heat to settle before they meet the table. A hot rib pulled straight off the fire tastes one-note. A rested rib tastes finished.
9. 9

   Serve at the table, sonorense style

   Pile the ribs on a wide platter, spoon the reduced sauce over them, and bring everything to the table at once: a stack of warm flour tortillas in a woven servilleta, a pot of frijoles puercos, lime wedges, raw white onion, and a small bowl of crushed chiltepin in lime juice for those who want more heat. Each person tears a tortilla, builds a taco, adds chiltepin to taste. The table makes the meal. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.

Chef Tips

• •Buy chiltepin from a Sonoran source if you can. Mercado Municipal in Hermosillo sells it dried by the kilo, and reputable specialty shops in the United States carry it from Sonoran cooperatives. Old grocery-store chiltepin loses its perfume. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade, and in this dish there is no real substitute.
• •The flour tortillas are not Tex-Mex. They are sonorense and they have been the staple of the north for four hundred years. If you can find sobaqueras, the giant paper-thin flour tortillas the size of a serving platter, use those. Otherwise the largest, thinnest flour tortilla you can buy, warmed on a dry comal until it bubbles.
• •The mesquite finish is traditional but the braise carries the dish on its own. If you have no grill, do not apologize and do not pretend. The ribs are excellent straight out of the pot.
• •Serve with frijoles puercos or frijoles maneados, the Sonoran refried beans cooked with lard, cheese, and chorizo. Black beans are not from Sonora. Pinto beans are.

Advance Preparation

• •The ribs and sauce can be braised one day ahead and refrigerated together. The flavor only deepens overnight as the chiltepin settles into the fat. Reheat gently on the stovetop, then finish over mesquite or under the broiler at serving time.
• •The crushed chiltepin-oregano-cumin blend keeps for a month in a sealed jar and is the base for many Sonoran dishes. Make a double batch and use the rest on grilled beef or in beans.
• •Frijoles puercos can be made up to three days ahead and reheat beautifully. The beans for the dish should be soaked overnight regardless.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 285g)