Pork Churipo Purépecha (Churipo de Cerdo)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 8-quart stockpot or clay cazuela from Capula or Tzintzuntzan
• •Cast iron comal for toasting chiles
• •High-powered blender
• •Fine-mesh strainer
• •Steamer pot for corundas

Instructions

1. 1

   Start the broth

   Put the pork shoulder, espinazo, and ribs in a heavy stockpot or clay cazuela. Cover with the cold water. Add the onion, garlic, bay leaves, and salt. Bring slowly to a simmer over medium heat and skim the gray foam during the first 15 minutes. A clean broth starts here. If you let it boil hard, the broth turns cloudy and the meat tightens.

2. 2

   Simmer the pork

   Lower the heat until the pot gives you steady, gentle bubbles. Cover partially and cook for 1 hour 45 minutes, until the pork is tender but not falling apart into strings. Add hot water if the liquid drops below the meat. The bones are doing work in that pot. They give the broth its body.

3. 3

   Toast the chiles

   While the pork cooks, heat a dry comal over medium. Toast the chile guajillo for about 20 to 30 seconds per side, just until the skin darkens slightly and the chile smells fruity. Toast the chile ancho the same way. Do not blacken them. Burned guajillo makes a bitter broth and no amount of cabbage will fix it.

   Guajillo is the color of this churipo. Ancho gives roundness. Do not replace them with generic chile powder. No me vengas con atajos.
4. 4

   Soak and blend

   Place the toasted chiles in a bowl and cover with hot water, not boiling water. Let them soften for 20 minutes. Drain, then blend with 2 cups of hot pork broth and 2 peeled cloves from the simmered garlic head. Blend until completely smooth, longer than you think. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve. The broth should be red and clean, not gritty.

5. 5

   Fry the chile

   Melt the 2 tablespoons of manteca de cerdo in a skillet over medium heat. Add the strained chile puree carefully. It will sputter. Stir for 6 to 8 minutes, until the red deepens and the fat begins to shine at the edges. La manteca es el sabor. This is not frying for heaviness, it is frying for depth.

6. 6

   Season the pot

   Remove the onion, garlic head, and bay leaves from the pork broth. Stir the fried chile puree into the pot. Add the dried Mexican oregano, rubbing it between your palms as it falls in. Simmer uncovered for 15 minutes so the chile and pork broth stop tasting like strangers.

7. 7

   Make the corundas

   Beat the 1/2 cup manteca de cerdo with the salt and baking powder until light. Work in the fresh masa with your hand, adding warm pork broth or warm water a little at a time until the masa is soft, spreadable, and holds its shape. Wrap small triangular portions in softened carrizo leaves or corn husks. Steam for 45 to 55 minutes, until the masa pulls away cleanly from the leaf. These are not optional. Churipo is eaten with corundas, never without.

   Carrizo leaves are traditional in parts of Michoacán and give the corundas their proper shape and scent. Corn husks are a compromise when carrizo is not available, not an upgrade.
8. 8

   Add firm vegetables

   Add the potatoes, chayotes, and carrots to the red pork broth. Simmer for 15 to 18 minutes, until the vegetables are just tender at the center. Do not throw all the vegetables in at once. The señoras who perfected this pot knew timing before anyone wrote recipes for it.

9. 9

   Finish with cabbage

   Add the cabbage wedges, Mexican zucchini, and tied cilantro sprigs. Simmer 8 to 10 minutes more, just until the cabbage softens but still holds its shape and the zucchini is tender. Taste the broth for salt. It should taste complete: pork, guajillo, vegetable sweetness, and enough salt to carry the masa when the corunda breaks into the bowl.

10. 10

    Serve with corundas

    Remove the cilantro bundle. Ladle pork, vegetables, and red broth into deep clay bowls. Set warm corundas beside each bowl or tear one directly into the broth at the table. Offer lime and salsa de chile perón or salsa roja if your house serves it that way. The corunda drinks the broth. That is the point. Así se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •Buy pork with bone. Shoulder alone gives meat, but espinazo and ribs give broth. Churipo is a caldo first, not a pile of pork with liquid around it.
• •The guajillo should be flexible and shiny, not dusty and cracked. At a good chile stall, the vendor will let you bend one. If it snaps like old paper, leave it there.
• •Do not make this with flour tortillas. Flour tortillas belong to the north. This is Michoacán, and the companion is corundas made from nixtamalized corn masa.
• •If fresh carrizo leaves are impossible to find, use softened corn husks for the corundas and say plainly what happened: it is a compromise. The dish still needs the corundas.
• •Nurite is a medicinal herb of the Meseta Purépecha and should not be replaced when a recipe calls for it. This churipo uses cilantro as a common finishing herb, not as a substitute for nurite. Substitute nothing for nurite.

Advance Preparation

• •The pork broth can be made one day ahead. Chill it, lift off only the excess hardened fat, and leave enough richness to carry the chile.
• •The chile puree can be toasted, soaked, blended, strained, and fried one day ahead. Refrigerate it separately and stir it into the hot broth when finishing the churipo.
• •Corundas can be steamed the morning of service and reheated in the steamer for 10 minutes. Do not microwave them dry. Masa needs gentle moisture.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 820g)