Hongos Amarillos al Chile Guajillo

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Comal de barro over leña for toasting chiles and warming tortillas
• •Black barro cazuela from Tzintzuntzan or Capula for cooking
• •Wooden cuchara
• •Molcajete or blender for the chilke rojo
• •Basket lined with embroidered P'urhépecha cotton servilleta for the tortillas

Instructions

1. 1

   Confirm the mushrooms

   Cook this only with mushrooms identified by an experienced P'urhépecha forager or cocinera tradicional. Internet photographs do not identify dinner. The yellow-capped iarini terekua of Cocucho and Comachuén belong to July and August rains. If the rains have not brought them, wait. Do not replace them with champiñón blanco from a supermarket. That is not this dish.

   María Elena Reyes of Cocucho is one of the cocineras whose foraged mushroom plates teach the correct attitude: the forest decides the menu. The cook does not bully the season.
2. 2

   Clean them gently

   Trim away hard stems and any damaged spots. Brush off pine needles and forest soil with a dry cloth or soft brush. If a mushroom is sandy, rinse it quickly and dry it immediately on a clean towel. Do not soak them. These mushrooms already carry enough rain. Tear the large pieces by hand so the edges catch the chile later.

3. 3

   Toast the chiles

   Set a comal de barro over leña until it is hot but not smoking. Toast the guajillos one at a time, about 15 to 20 seconds per side, just until the skin darkens slightly and smells fruity. Toast the pasilla for less time. It is thinner and turns bitter fast. Toast the unpeeled garlic on the same comal until the skins spot and the cloves soften. This is where the chilke begins. Skip the comal and the sauce tastes flat.

4. 4

   Soak and grind

   Put the toasted chiles in a bowl and cover with hot water. Hot, not boiling. Let them soften for 15 minutes. Peel the toasted garlic. Transfer the softened chiles to a blender with the garlic, 1/2 cup of the soaking water, and the salt. Blend until smooth, then strain through a fine sieve. The puree should be brick red and clean, with enough body to coat a spoon. If you are working in a molcajete, grind patiently. La cocina no es decoración, es trabajo.

5. 5

   Heat the cazuela

   Warm a black barro cazuela from Tzintzuntzan or Capula slowly over the comal. Clay hates sudden heat, so give it time. Add the manteca and let it melt until glossy. La manteca es el sabor. Vegetable oil will cook the mushrooms, yes, but it will not make this dish taste like the Meseta.

6. 6

   Cook onion and mushrooms

   Add the sliced onion to the manteca and cook with a wooden cuchara until it softens and the edges begin to take color, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the cleaned mushrooms and stir to coat them in the fat. They will release liquid first. Let that liquid cook down until the cazuela sounds more like frying than simmering and the mushroom edges begin to brown. Do not rush this. The forest water has to leave before the chile can cling.

7. 7

   Fry the chilke

   Pour in the strained guajillo-pasilla puree. It will darken as it hits the hot fat. Stir well so every mushroom is stained red. Cook 6 to 8 minutes, scraping the bottom with the wooden spoon, until the sauce tightens around the mushrooms and a thin orange-red line of manteca shows at the edge of the cazuela. Add the chopped epazote and the grated chile poncho perón if using, then cook one minute more. The epazote is cooked, never thrown raw over the top like decoration.

8. 8

   Rest and serve

   Take the cazuela off the strongest heat and let the mushrooms rest 5 minutes so the sauce settles. Taste for salt. Serve family-style in rough red barro with hand-pressed corn tortillas from the comal and, if the season gave them to you, cooked quelites de temporal on the side. This is P'urhépecha food, not a generic side of calabacitas with rajas. Cada estado, su propia cocina.

Chef Tips

• •Wild mushroom safety is not negotiable. Buy only from a trusted P'urhépecha forager or cook who can name the mushroom in Spanish and P'urhépecha and tell you where it came from. No me vengas con phone app identification.
• •Do not replace the iarini terekua with cultivated white button mushrooms. Champiñón blanco has a different water content, a different smell, and none of the pine-forest character. A substitution is a compromise when it respects the dish. This one does not.
• •The season is July and August. Outside the rains, cook something else. Mexican grandmothers do not force the market to obey a craving.
• •Use manteca de cerdo. The lard carries the chile into the mushroom and gives the finished cazuela its orange-red edge. Vegetable oil makes the sauce taste thinner.
• •If you serve quelites with this, cook them. Quelites are food, not confetti. Wilt them in a little manteca with onion and salt, then put them beside the mushrooms.
• •Do not turn this into a pan-Mexican vegetable side. Calabacitas con elote y rajas is a fine dish, but it is broadly Mexican and mestizo. This plate is P'urhépecha, rainy-season, forest-specific.

Advance Preparation

• •The guajillo-pasilla puree can be toasted, soaked, blended, strained, and refrigerated one day ahead. Fry it in the manteca only when cooking the mushrooms.
• •Clean the mushrooms the same day you cook them. Holding wet wild mushrooms overnight makes them collapse and sour.
• •The finished dish is best eaten the day it is made. Reheat gently in a barro cazuela with a spoonful of water and a small touch of manteca, just until the sauce loosens.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 215g)