Frijoles Ayocotes Purépechas Guisados

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •5 to 6 quart olla de barro for the ayocotes, black pottery from Tzintzuntzan if you can get it
• •Comal de barro over leña, or a heavy cast iron comal when the home kitchen demands it
• •12-inch clay cazuela from Capula for guisar the beans
• •Wooden cuchara
• •Blender, molcajete, or metate for the chilke rojo

Instructions

1. 1

   Soak the ayocotes

   Pick through the ayocotes and remove stones, broken beans, and field dust. Rinse well, then cover with plenty of cool water and soak 10 to 12 hours. These are large mountain beans. Give them time or they will punish you at the stove.

2. 2

   Cook in olla

   Drain the soaked beans and put them in a clay olla with 10 cups fresh water, the half onion, and the 2 bruised garlic cloves. Bring to a gentle simmer over leña if you have it. Keep the bubbles slow. After 1 hour, add the epazote, nurite if using, and 2 teaspoons of the sal de grano. Cook 2 to 2 1/2 hours more, adding hot water when needed, until the ayocotes are creamy inside but still whole. Save the broth.

   Do not add baking soda. It breaks the skins and gives the broth a flat taste. Old beans need time, not tricks.
3. 3

   Toast the chiles

   Heat a comal de barro over leña, or use a dry cast iron comal if that is the kitchen you have. Toast the guajillo and pasilla separately, 15 to 25 seconds per side, just until they soften, darken slightly, and smell deep. The pasilla burns faster. Watch it. Black chile gives bitter chilke and there is no fixing it later.

4. 4

   Soften the chiles

   Cover the toasted chiles with hot water, not boiling, and let them soak for 15 minutes. Drain them. Hot water softens the flesh. Boiling water cooks the skins and pulls out bitterness. This is why one sauce tastes clean and another tastes tired.

5. 5

   Roast the vegetables

   On the same comal, roast the jitomates, the onion quarter, the 2 unpeeled garlic cloves, and the split chile poncho perón. Turn them until the tomato skins blister, the onion chars at the edges, and the garlic softens. Peel the garlic. Grate the flesh from half the chile perón for the sauce and cut the other half into thin roasted strips for serving.

6. 6

   Grind the chilke

   Blend the soaked chiles, roasted jitomates, roasted onion, peeled garlic, grated chile perón, 1 cup of the ayocote broth, and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon sal de grano until very smooth. If you have a metate, use it. If you have a blender, let it work until the sauce is fine. Strain only if the chile skins stay tough. This is chilke rojo in the direction of Cherán K'eri, not tomato sauce with a little chile waved over it.

7. 7

   Fry in manteca

   Heat 3 tablespoons of the manteca in a wide clay cazuela. Add the finely chopped onion and cook until it turns translucent and sweet, about 5 minutes. Pour in the chilke rojo. It will sputter. Stir with a wooden cuchara and cook 8 to 10 minutes, until the sauce darkens, thickens, and the manteca begins to shine around the edges. La manteca es el sabor.

8. 8

   Guisar the ayocotes

   Add the cooked ayocotes and 2 cups of their broth to the fried chilke. Simmer gently for 25 minutes, stirring from the bottom so the beans do not catch. Mash one ladleful of beans against the side of the cazuela and stir it back in. The broth should thicken enough to coat a tortilla, not run across the plate like soup.

9. 9

   Cook the shakuá

   Add the chopped quelites, the shakuá, and cook 5 to 8 minutes, until they darken and soften into the beans. Quelites are cooked, never raw in this pot. If your bunch has thick stems, blanch them first in salted water, chop them, and then add them to the cazuela. Así se hace y punto.

10. 10

    Add rainy mushrooms

    If it is July or August and a trusted forager has brought terekuecha, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon manteca on the comal or in a small cazuela. Cook the torn mushrooms until their liquid disappears and their edges take color, then fold them into the beans for the last 5 minutes. If it is not the rainy season, leave them out. Champiñón from a supermarket is not a workaround. It is another dish.

    Do not forage by a photograph. Use only mushrooms identified by a knowledgeable P'urhépecha forager or cocinera tradicional. The forest feeds people who respect it.
11. 11

    Serve in barro

    Rest the beans 10 minutes off the fire so the chilke settles into the broth. Serve family-style in rough red barro with the roasted chile perón strips on top and hand-pressed corn tortillas wrapped in a servilleta bordada. No flour tortillas. No shredded cheese. No raw salad thrown over the top. This is P'urhépecha food from Michoacán. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •Buy true ayocote, Phaseolus coccineus, large and mottled if possible. Pinto beans will feed you, but they will not give the same thick skin, creamy center, or mountain character. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
• •The fat is manteca de cerdo. Not vegetable oil. Oil fries the chilke but gives no body. Manteca carries the chile into the bean broth and makes the guiso taste finished.
• •Chile poncho perón is regional and it matters. If you cannot find it, use a small fresh chile manzano because it is the closest family. Say it plainly: that is a compromise. Do not replace it with jalapeño and pretend nothing changed.
• •The terekuecha calendar is July and August. Outside the rains, the plate is not available. A cocinera tradicional waits for the forest. She does not buy white button mushrooms and call them P'urhépecha.
• •Quelites go into the pot cooked. Raw quelites scattered on top are a restaurant habit, not this kitchen. Cook them until the edge softens and the green turns deep.
• •Do not turn this into calabacitas con elote y rajas. That is a broad Mexican guiso from another register. This pot is P'urhépecha indigenous cooking from Michoacán, built on ayocote, chilke, shakuá, and the clay olla.
• •Barro matters. A clay olla holds heat softly and gives the bean broth a rounder taste. If all you have is a heavy pot, use it, but serve in barro. The table should know where the dish came from.

Advance Preparation

• •Soak the ayocotes the night before. Do not skip it. Large runner beans need that head start.
• •The ayocotes can be cooked in their broth up to 4 days ahead and refrigerated. Reheat gently before guisarlos in the chilke.
• •The chilke rojo can be made 2 days ahead. Fry it in manteca on the day you finish the dish so the flavor wakes back up.
• •The finished guiso keeps 3 days in the refrigerator. Add a splash of bean broth or water when reheating because ayocotes keep drinking liquid.
• •If using terekuecha, clean and cook them the same day they are gathered. Rainy-season mushrooms are not pantry ingredients.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 360g)