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The Yaqui Eight Pueblos' chile-broth stew from southern Sonora, built on beef bones, charred tomato, and toasted chile pasilla until the broth runs dark. Eaten with sobaqueras the size of a forearm.
Ko'ko'ibaki belongs to the Yoreme and the Yaqui of southern Sonora. The Eight Sacred Pueblos along the Rio Yaqui, Vicam, Potam, Torim, Bacum, Cocorit, Belem, Huirivis, Rahum, this is where the dish lives. It is a cousin to wakabaki, the ceremonial beef-and-chickpea stew, but ko'ko'ibaki is the chile version. The name itself tells you what to expect: ko'koi means chile in the Yaqui language. This is a stew built around the chile, not around the meat.
The meat is bones. Shank, short rib, neck. The cuts that have to be cooked slowly to give up what they have. The broth simmers for hours over mesquite fire in the Yaqui kitchens of southern Sonora, and at the end the toasted chile pasilla and charred tomato go in and turn the whole pot dark. Pasilla is the chile that defines this version, deep, almost dried-fruit sweet, with a black-red color that stains the broth and the bowl. Guajillo rounds it. Charred tomato keeps it from going one-note.
In the noroeste, you eat ko'ko'ibaki with tortillas de harina sobaqueras. Not corn. Sonora is wheat country, has been since the Jesuits brought wheat to the Mayo and Yaqui valleys in the 17th century, and the sobaquera, the thin, blistered, dinner-plate-sized flour tortilla, is the bread of this region. Anyone who tells you Mexican food does not include flour tortillas has never been north of San Luis Potosi. Cada estado, su propia cocina. Sonora's kitchen is its own kitchen.
I collected this version on a trip through the Mayo valley a few years back, sitting in a kitchen with a senora named Dona Esperanza who cooked over a mesquite fire in a clay olla half my height. She tasted my notes when I read them back to her. She corrected the oregano. She told me the chiltepín stays on the table, not in the pot, because every diner has their own threshold. I wrote it down. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.
The Yaqui (Yoeme) and the related Mayo (Yoreme) peoples of southern Sonora and northern Sinaloa have cooked chile-and-bone stews since well before the Spanish arrival, with the introduction of cattle in the 17th century transforming an existing pre-Columbian framework rather than creating a new dish. Wheat, brought to the Yaqui valley by Jesuit missionaries in the 1600s, took hold so thoroughly in northwestern Mexico that flour tortillas, including the paper-thin sobaqueras and the larger tortillas de agua, became the regional bread; this is one of the few zones in Mexico where corn tortillas are not the default at the table. Ko'ko'ibaki and its ceremonial cousin wakabaki remain central to Yaqui Easter season feasts, where large communal pots feed the dancers, masked pascolas, and matachines who perform during Cuaresma and Semana Santa.
Quantity
3 pounds
cut crosswise into 2-inch rounds
Quantity
2 pounds
cut into 2-inch sections
Quantity
1 pound
Quantity
1
halved
Quantity
1
halved crosswise, plus 4 cloves reserved
Quantity
2
Quantity
1 tablespoon, plus more to taste
Quantity
8
stemmed and seeded
Quantity
4
stemmed and seeded
Quantity
4
Quantity
1 tablespoon
Quantity
1 teaspoon
preferably oregano de monte from Sonora
Quantity
2
crumbled, for the table
Quantity
for serving
warmed
Quantity
for serving
Quantity
for serving
Quantity
for serving
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| beef shank with marrow bonescut crosswise into 2-inch rounds | 3 pounds |
| beef short ribs, bone-incut into 2-inch sections | 2 pounds |
| beef neck bones with meat | 1 pound |
| large white onionhalved | 1 |
| head of garlichalved crosswise, plus 4 cloves reserved | 1 |
| bay leaves | 2 |
| kosher salt | 1 tablespoon, plus more to taste |
| dried chile pasillastemmed and seeded | 8 |
| dried chile guajillostemmed and seeded | 4 |
| ripe Roma tomatoes | 4 |
| manteca de cerdo | 1 tablespoon |
| dried Mexican oreganopreferably oregano de monte from Sonora | 1 teaspoon |
| dried chiltepín (optional)crumbled, for the table | 2 |
| tortillas de harina sobaqueraswarmed | for serving |
| lime wedges (optional) | for serving |
| diced white onion (optional) | for serving |
| chopped cilantro (optional) | for serving |
Place the shank, short ribs, and neck bones in a large heavy stockpot or olla de peltre. Cover with cold water by three inches. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat. Skim the gray foam that rises in the first twenty minutes and discard it. Cold water draws the flavor from the bones slowly. A rolling boil clouds the broth and toughens the meat. The Yaqui women in Vicam build this broth over a mesquite fire and let it work for hours. You will do the same.
Once the broth runs clear, add the halved onion, halved head of garlic, bay leaves, and salt. Reduce the heat until you see lazy bubbles every few seconds. Cover partially and cook for two hours. The meat should be tender but still clinging to the bone. The broth should taste of beef and not much else yet. That blank canvas is what the chiles are going to paint.
Heat a dry comal or heavy skillet over medium. Toast the pasilla and guajillo separately, about 20 to 30 seconds per side. The skin will puff and the kitchen will smell dark and dried-fruit sweet. The pasilla is the chile that defines this stew. It carries the deep, almost raisined flavor that turns the broth that signature near-black color. Watch it. The pasilla is thin and burns fast.
On the same comal, char the four Roma tomatoes whole and the four reserved garlic cloves in their skins. The tomatoes should blacken in patches and soften. The garlic skins should darken and the cloves should turn soft inside. This dry-roasting is a noroeste habit. It pulls sweetness out of the tomato and tames the bite of the garlic. Peel the garlic once cool enough to handle.
Place the toasted chiles in a heatproof bowl and cover with hot tap water. Hot water, not boiling. Boiling water bitters the skins. Soak for 20 minutes until pliable. Drain and transfer to a blender with the charred tomatoes, the peeled roasted garlic, and one cup of the beef broth. Blend until completely smooth. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve, pressing on the solids. Discard the skins. You want a deep, dark puree the color of wet earth.
In a small skillet, melt the manteca de cerdo over medium heat. Add the strained chile and tomato puree. It will sputter. Cook for six to eight minutes, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the puree darkens and the fat starts to separate at the edges. La manteca es el sabor. This step is what turns a thin chile water into the dark broth that ko'ko'ibaki is named for. Skip it and the stew tastes raw.
Stir the fried chile paste into the simmering broth. The pot will turn from blonde to mahogany in seconds. Crumble the oregano between your palms and add it now. Simmer uncovered for 30 to 40 minutes more. The bones should be giving up their last marrow, the broth should be running dark and faintly oily on the surface, and the meat should pull away from the bone with a fork. Taste for salt. The broth needs to be assertive. It is the dish.
Ladle into deep bowls, making sure each one gets a piece of meat and a marrow bone. Set the warm tortillas de harina sobaqueras in a cloth-lined basket on the table. The diner tears the tortilla, scoops the meat from the bone, and sops the dark broth. The chiltepín goes on the table for those who want to crumble a little heat into their bowl. The lime, onion, and cilantro are there for whoever wants them. Asi se hace y punto.
1 serving (about 450g)
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