Manuel Doblado Xoconostle Broth (Caldo de Zorra)

Guanajuato, southwest Bajio, Manuel Doblado. That is where this broth lives. Caldo de Zorra belongs to the rainy season, when the fields soften, the nopaleras give xoconostles, and the market basket comes home with corn, squash, potatoes, tomato, and herbs. This is not a heavy meat stew. It is a sharp, clean broth where the acidic tuna of the xoconostle does the work.

The defining ingredient is xoconostle, the sour cactus fruit that too many cooks outside the Bajio confuse with sweet tuna. No. Xoconostle is tart, almost mineral, and it gives the broth its spine. The chile guajillo gives color. The chilcuague, that small Bajio root with a numbing heat, gives a prickle that belongs to Guanajuato and the Sierra Gorda corridor. If you cannot find chilcuague, I will tell you how to cook without it, but do not pretend the result is the same.

I learned this style of broth from cocineras between Leon, Manuel Doblado, and the Querétaro side of the old Camino Real de Tierra Adentro. They cook what the milpa and the mercado give them: cacahuazintle when there is good corn, calabacita when it is tender, epazote because beans and corn understand epazote better than any imported herb. The pot is humble only if you do not know how to read it.

Serve it in barro, with hand-pressed corn tortillas and queso ranchero on the table if your family eats it that way. No cheddar. No sour cream. No flour tortillas here. Cada estado, su propia cocina.