Tabasco Gar in Green Sauce (Pejelagarto en Verde)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Wide 5-quart clay cazuela or heavy Dutch oven
• •Comal for warming tortillas
• •High-powered blender
• •Fine-mesh strainer
• •Wooden spoon for stirring masa-thickened broth

Instructions

1. 1

   Season the fish

   Rub the pejelagarto pieces with 1 teaspoon salt and the lime juice. Let them sit for 20 minutes while you prepare the herbs. This firms the surface and cleans the river smell without erasing the fish. Pejelagarto should still taste like pejelagarto.

2. 2

   Blanch the chaya

   Bring a small pot of water to a boil. Add the chaya leaves and cook for 3 minutes, then drain. Chaya must be cooked before it goes into the blender. Raw chaya is not for this pot, and no señora in Tabasco needs to be told twice.

3. 3

   Blend the green base

   In a blender, combine the cooked chaya, chipilin, momo, cilantro, garlic, chile amashito, and 2 cups warm broth. Blend until very smooth and deep green. The sauce should smell like wet leaves, cornfields after rain, and chile just sharp enough to wake the mouth. If the blender struggles, add a little more broth, not water.

4. 4

   Brown the fish

   Heat the manteca de cerdo in a wide clay cazuela or heavy pot over medium heat. Pat the pejelagarto dry and brown it lightly, 2 minutes per side. Do not cook it through. You are setting the surface so the fish holds together later. Remove it to a plate.

   Pejelagarto is firm, but it is still fish. Turn it with respect. If you break it now, the stew will look tired before it reaches the table.
5. 5

   Cook the aromatics

   In the same fat, add the sliced onion and cook until soft and translucent, about 6 minutes. Add the chopped tomato and cook until it collapses and stains the onion lightly. This is not a tomato stew. The tomato rounds the green sauce, nothing more.

6. 6

   Fry the green sauce

   Pour the blended herb sauce into the cazuela. It will darken when it hits the hot fat. Cook for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring often, until the raw green smell settles and a light sheen of manteca appears at the edges. This is where the herbs become sauce. No me vengas con atajos.

7. 7

   Loosen the masa

   Whisk the fresh masa with 1 cup warm broth until completely smooth. Use your fingers if you need to feel the lumps. Pour it through a strainer into the cazuela, stirring as it goes in. Masa thickens the broth and gives it the flavor of corn. Cornstarch gives you paste. There is a difference.

8. 8

   Simmer the stew

   Add the remaining 3 cups broth, the green plantain pieces, and the remaining 1 teaspoon salt. Simmer gently for 18 to 20 minutes, until the plantain is tender and the broth has the body of a light atole. Stir from the bottom so the masa does not catch.

9. 9

   Finish with pejelagarto

   Return the browned pejelagarto to the cazuela. Spoon sauce over the pieces and simmer gently for 10 to 12 minutes, until the fish is cooked through and the green sauce clings to the skin. Taste for salt. Add the hoja de platano oil or one more spoonful of manteca de cerdo at the end for gloss and aroma.

10. 10

    Serve from the pot

    Carry the cazuela to the table. Serve each bowl with a piece of pejelagarto, plantain, and enough green broth to soak a tortilla. Put lime halves and extra chile amashito on the side, not on top of everything. Let the cook decide. Serve with warm hand-pressed tortillas and cold pozol in jicaras. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •Buy pejelagarto from a fishmonger who knows river fish. In Tabasco, ask in Villahermosa markets or near Nacajuca and Centla when the catch is good. If the vendor tries to sell you catfish as the same thing, walk away. Pejelagarto is pejelagarto.
• •Chile amashito is the correct chile here. It is small, bright, and local to the southeast. If you cannot find it outside Mexico, look for frozen or dried chile amashito from a Tabasco or Chiapas supplier before you compromise with chile piquin. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
• •Chaya must be cooked. Chipilin should be fresh if you can get it. Momo, or hierba santa, should smell like anise and wet earth when you tear it. If your herbs smell tired, the stew will taste tired.
• •Fresh masa from a tortilleria is best. Masa harina can work if you hydrate it fully and let it rest for 20 minutes, but understand what you are missing: the perfume of nixtamal that makes the broth taste like corn, not just thickness.
• •This stew should be green and aromatic, not fiery. The chile amashito gives sparks. The herbs carry the room. Not all Mexican food is trying to burn your tongue. That idea is lazy.

Advance Preparation

• •The chaya can be stemmed, blanched, drained, and refrigerated one day ahead.
• •The green herb base can be blended up to 4 hours ahead and kept cold, but cook it in manteca only when you are ready to make the stew.
• •Do not fully cook the pejelagarto ahead. Brown it shortly before simmering so the fish keeps its shape and the broth stays clean.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 520g)