Dulce de Chilacayota

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy cleaver or kitchen hammer for breaking the gourd
• •Heavy 6-quart pot or wide cazuela
• •Wooden spoon long enough to reach the bottom of the pot
• •Barro negro or barro rojo serving bowl

Instructions

1. 1

   Break the chilacayota

   Set the chilacayota on a folded towel on the floor or on a sturdy patio stone. Hit it once, hard, with the flat side of a heavy cleaver or a clean hammer. The skin is thick and the flesh is dense; you are not slicing this gourd, you are breaking it. The senoras at the market in Tlacolula do this with a machete on a tree stump, and there is no graceful version of it. The fracture should run through the gourd and expose the pale flesh and the seeds inside.

   If your chilacayota is small enough, you can score around the equator with a heavy knife and pry it open. If it is the size of a watermelon, which is common, the cleaver is the answer. No me vengas con atajos de microondas.
2. 2

   Pull the strands

   Scoop out the seeds and the stringy core; save the seeds for toasting later, the way you would pepitas. With your hands and a sturdy spoon, pull the flesh away from the skin in long strands. The chilacayota does not behave like calabaza or zucchini. The flesh comes apart in fibers, like spaghetti squash but firmer and more deliberate. You should end up with about 8 cups of strands. Rinse them once in cold water and drain.

3. 3

   First boil to soften

   Place the strands in a heavy 6-quart pot. Cover with cold water by an inch and add the salt. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then lower to a steady simmer. Cook for 25 to 30 minutes, until the strands are tender enough to bite through cleanly but still hold their shape. Drain in a colander and set aside. This first cook breaks the rawness of the gourd. Skip it and the piloncillo cannot penetrate the fiber.

4. 4

   Build the syrup

   In the same pot, combine the chopped piloncillo, the cane sugar, and the 4 cups of water. Add the canela, cloves, orange peel, and the fig leaf if you have one. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring until the piloncillo dissolves completely. The syrup will be the color of weak coffee, with the canela perfuming the kitchen. Let it simmer for 10 minutes so the spices open up. La canela mexicana is soft and unrolls in the syrup; cassia bark from the supermarket is hard and dominates everything. Use the right one.

   Piloncillo varies by region. The dark cones from Veracruz are deeper and slightly smoky; the lighter ones from Michoacan are cleaner and more floral. Either works. Brown sugar is not a substitute. It has no minerality.
5. 5

   Candy the strands

   Add the drained chilacayota strands to the syrup. Stir gently to coat. Lower the heat to a slow simmer, the kind where you see a bubble break the surface every few seconds. Cook uncovered for 90 minutes to 2 hours, stirring every 15 minutes so nothing sticks at the bottom. The strands will turn from pale to amber as they drink the syrup. The liquid will reduce by half and thicken into something between a syrup and a light molasses. The kitchen should smell like a Oaxacan dulceria in late October.

6. 6

   Finish and cool

   When the strands are translucent and glossy and the syrup coats the back of a spoon, stir in the lime juice. The lime brightens the piloncillo and keeps the dulce from going cloying. Pull the pot off the heat. Fish out the canela sticks, the cloves, the orange peel, and the fig leaf. Let the dulce cool to room temperature in the pot. It thickens further as it cools. Asi se hace y punto.

7. 7

   Serve cool

   Transfer to a barro negro or barro rojo bowl. Serve at room temperature or lightly chilled, on its own with a spoon, beside a square of nicuatole, or alongside a glass of cold milk the way the children eat it in Sierra Norte villages after school. A small mound of the strands also belongs on the rim of a bowl of arroz con leche or beside a wedge of fresh queso fresco. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •Find a real chilacayota, not a substitute. They show up in Mexican mercados and well-stocked Latin grocers from late summer through winter, sometimes labeled 'fig-leaf gourd' or 'malabar gourd.' If your store does not carry one, ask. They keep for months on a cool shelf, which is the entire reason this dulce exists.
• •Use Mexican canela, not cassia. The bark is paler, softer, and unrolls in the syrup; cassia is dark, hard, and bullies everything else in the pot. If the cinnamon stick at your store snaps like a board, it is cassia. Find a Mexican grocer.
• •The leftover syrup, after you have eaten all the strands, is gold. Drizzle it on ice cream, stir it into a cafe de olla, or use it to sweeten atole. Do not throw it out. La cocina del pueblo no desperdicia.
• •Some Oaxacan cooks finish the dulce with a small handful of toasted pepitas from the same gourd, or a tablespoon of mezcal stirred in off the heat. Both are traditional. Neither is required.

Advance Preparation

• •Dulce de chilacayota improves after a day in the refrigerator, where the strands continue to absorb the syrup and the spice settles in. It keeps refrigerated for up to two weeks in a covered jar.
• •For longer storage, pack the cooled dulce into sterilized glass jars and process in a hot water bath for 15 minutes. Sealed jars keep on the shelf for up to six months, the way Oaxacan dulcerias have always done it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 265g)