Pipián Verde de Convento

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •12-inch cast iron comal for toasting seeds, nuts, chiles, onion, and garlic
• •Volcanic stone metate and tejolote, or a high-powered blender used with patience
• •Wide barro rojo cazuela or heavy 5-quart pot
• •Wooden spoon for constant stirring
• •Medium-mesh sieve if the green base needs smoothing

Instructions

1. 1

   Soak the raisins

   Put the golden raisins in a small bowl and cover them with the jerez. Let them sit for at least 20 minutes while you prepare the comal work. This is not to make the sauce sweet like dessert. It is a conventual note, a small Old World shadow under the pepita.

2. 2

   Toast the seeds

   Heat a dry comal over medium. Toast the pepitas in batches, stirring constantly, until they puff, pop lightly, and turn a deeper green with pale golden edges, 3 to 4 minutes per batch. Transfer them to a tray. Toast the ajonjolí separately for about 1 minute, just until it smells nutty. Do not walk away. Burned seed tastes like rancid oil, and there is no fixing it.

   Use raw hulled pepitas, not salted snack pepitas. The snack ones are already oily and stale by the time they reach the bag.
3. 3

   Toast the convent pantry

   On the same comal, toast the almonds until they show small golden spots. Move them to the tray. Add the canela, cloves, and black peppercorns for 20 to 30 seconds, just until fragrant. Melt 1 tablespoon of the lard in a small skillet and fry the torn bolillo until golden on both sides. Almond, sesame, wheat bread, canela, clavo, pasas, and jerez: that is the criollo-conventual register. Name the ingredients so you understand the sauce.

4. 4

   Prepare the greens

   Char the poblano chiles directly on the comal until the skins blister all over. Put them in a covered bowl for 10 minutes, then peel, seed, and tear them open. Char the jalapeños, onion slices, and unpeeled garlic on the comal until the onion has dark edges and the garlic softens inside its skin. Peel the garlic. In a saucepan, simmer the tomatillos in water until they turn olive green and soften, 6 to 8 minutes. Do not boil them to death. A dead tomatillo gives you a dull sauce.

5. 5

   Grind the seed paste

   On a metate, grind the pepitas, ajonjolí, almonds, fried bread, toasted spices, soaked raisins, and their jerez into a thick paste, adding a few spoonfuls of warm stock only if the paste refuses to move. If you are using a blender, first pulse the toasted seeds and nuts until they look like damp sand, then blend with 1 cup of warm stock until the paste is as smooth as your machine can make it. Gritty pipián tells on the cook.

   A blender is acceptable. Skipping the grinding is not. No me vengas con atajos.
6. 6

   Blend the green base

   Blend the cooked tomatillos, poblanos, jalapeños, charred onion, peeled garlic, hoja santa, cilantro, parsley, lettuce, epazote, and 1 cup of warm stock until very smooth. The color should be strong green, not gray. If your blender leaves skins or fibers, pass the mixture through a medium sieve. This sauce belongs in Puebla, not in a jar of supermarket salsa.

7. 7

   Fry the paste

   Melt the remaining 4 tablespoons lard in a wide barro rojo cazuela or heavy pot over medium heat. Add the seed paste and stir constantly with a wooden spoon for 8 to 10 minutes. It will thicken, darken slightly, and smell like toasted pepita and warm bread. When the lard begins to glisten at the edge, the paste is ready for the green base. La manteca es el sabor.

8. 8

   Build the sauce

   Pour in the green base slowly, stirring as you add it because the pot will sputter. Add the salt and 1 cup of warm stock. Bring the sauce to a gentle bubble, then lower the heat. Simmer for 45 to 60 minutes, stirring often from the bottom so the seed paste does not catch. Add the remaining stock little by little as needed. Finished pipián should coat the spoon heavily but still flow. If it sits like cement, loosen it. If it runs like salsa, keep cooking.

9. 9

   Rest and correct

   Turn off the heat and let the pipián rest for 20 minutes. Taste for salt after the rest, not before. Seeds absorb seasoning as they sit. The sauce should taste green first, then toasted pepita, then the quiet warmth of canela, clavo, almond, and jerez. Use it to dress poultry, pork, fish, roasted squash, tamales, or quelites. This recipe gives you the sauce. Así se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •Buy pepitas from a seed vendor with turnover. At La Merced in Ciudad de México or Mercado El Carmen in Puebla, ask for pepita verde cruda, not pepita tostada. If the seeds smell dusty or oily before you toast them, they are old.
• •Hoja santa matters. It gives the sauce that broad anise-green note a Puebla cook will recognize. If you cannot find it, use one extra small sprig of epazote and more cilantro. That is a compromise, not an upgrade.
• •Do not add black raisins here. A few golden raisins soaked in jerez belong to the conventual register and keep the sauce green. Black raisins push this toward a darker mole, and that is a different architecture.
• •Vegetable stock works if the sauce will dress squash, mushrooms, beans, or tamales. For poultry or pork, use a light unsalted stock from the same animal. The sauce should not taste like a bouillon cube. Pregúntale a las señoras del mercado.
• •This is not a quick weeknight salsa. It is a mother sauce from a conventual kitchen. Toast, grind, fry, simmer. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Advance Preparation

• •The pepita, almond, sesame, bread, spice, raisin, and jerez paste can be made 1 day ahead and refrigerated. Bring it close to room temperature before frying it in lard.
• •The finished pipián can be made 2 days ahead. Cool it quickly, refrigerate it, and reheat gently with a little warm stock while stirring from the bottom.
• •Do not freeze this sauce if you care about texture. The herbs dull and the seed emulsion can turn grainy. Make it ahead, yes. Abuse it, no.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 165g)