Lomo en Xoconostle del Bajio Guanajuatense

Guanajuato, in the Bajio, is where this dish belongs. Not the coast, not the north, not a restaurant version from Ciudad de Mexico. This is semiarid country, nopal country, where the sour xoconostle grows on the edges of the milpa and the women who know how to use it make pork taste brighter than any bottle of vinegar could.

Xoconostle is not regular tuna. Tuna is sweet. Xoconostle is sour, firm, and almost dry inside, with seeds held in the center like a little pocket. In the Otomi kitchens of central Mexico, especially across Guanajuato, Queretaro, and Hidalgo, that sourness goes into caldos, salsas, and pork guisados. It cuts the fat. It wakes up the chile guajillo. It makes the sauce belong to this land.

I learned a version near San Miguel de Allende from a senora who browned the lomo in manteca de cerdo, then made the sauce with guajillo, tomate verde, garlic, and the peeled xoconostles. She did not rush the browning. She did not drown the meat. She kept saying, 'que se concentre,' let it concentrate. That is the lesson here. Build flavor before you add liquid. Let the sauce reduce until it clings to the pork.

Serve it in a cazuela de barro from Apaseo el Alto if you have one, with hand-pressed corn tortillas in a cloth-lined chiquihuite. Cada estado, su propia cocina. This is not food from a single Mexico.