Pozontle de la Sierra Norte

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy non-reactive pot for nixtamalizing (stainless steel or clay, never aluminum)
• •Cast iron comal for toasting cacao
• •Metate, or a high-powered blender or food processor
• •Wide clay cazuela for cooking the base
• •Tall jicara, deep clay vessel, or sturdy mixing bowl for whipping
• •Wooden molinillo (or electric hand mixer with whisk attachment)
• •Small jicaras or clay cups for serving

Instructions

1. 1

   Nixtamalize the corn

   Combine the dried corn, cal, and 8 cups of water in a heavy non-reactive pot. Use stainless steel or clay, never aluminum. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat, then lower the flame. Cook for 45 minutes, until the kernels are softened but still hold their shape and the skins slip off when you press a kernel between your fingers. Remove from the heat, cover, and let the corn rest in the cooking liquid overnight or at least 8 hours. This is nixtamal. There is no shortcut. Asi se hace y punto.

   If your kernels are not breaking the skin, the cal is weak or old. Buy fresh cal from a Mexican mercado or grocery, not from a generic gardening store.
2. 2

   Rinse the nixtamal

   Drain the corn and rinse it under cold running water, rubbing the kernels between your hands to release the loosened skins. Keep rinsing until the water runs clear and the corn no longer feels slick. The kernels should now be plump, pale, and clean. This corn is what becomes the masa, and the masa is what gives pozontle its body.

3. 3

   Brew the cocolmeca

   While the corn rests, simmer the broken cocolmeca root in 4 cups of water for 30 minutes over low heat. The water will turn a deep tea color, somewhere between rust and mahogany. This is the foaming agent that gives pozontle its character. Without cocolmeca you have a chocolate atole, not pozontle. The Mixe women in the Sierra Norte forage this root from the highland forests around Ayutla and Tlahuitoltepec, and there is no real substitute. Strain and reserve the liquid. Discard the spent root.

   Cocolmeca (Smilax) is sold dried at herbalist stalls in Oaxacan mercados and at some Mexican botanicas. If you cannot find it, do not pretend with another root. Make tejate or champurrado instead. This is a 32-state cuisine and each drink is its own thing.
4. 4

   Toast and grind the cacao

   Heat a dry comal over medium-low. Toast the cacao beans, shaking the pan, for 8 to 10 minutes. The shells will start to crack and the kitchen will smell like a chocolate workshop in Oaxaca city. Pull them off the heat. When cool enough to handle, slip the shells off with your fingers. The nibs inside should be glossy and deep brown. Grind the nibs in a spice grinder or molcajete until you have a coarse paste. The natural cacao butter will start to release. This is cacao the way it was used before machinery, and the texture matters.

5. 5

   Grind the masa

   Pass the rinsed nixtamal through a metate, or, more practically, grind it in a food processor or high-powered blender with just enough of the cocolmeca infusion to move the blades, about 1/2 cup. Work it in batches if you need to. You want a smooth, dense paste with the texture of wet clay. In the Sierra Norte, women grind this on the metate for an hour. A blender does it in three minutes and the abuelas will forgive you. La cocina no es decoracion, es trabajo, but the work is in the steps that matter.

6. 6

   Combine and toast the base

   In a wide cazuela or heavy pot, combine the masa, the ground cacao paste, the piloncillo, the cinnamon stick, and the salt. Pour in the remaining cocolmeca infusion. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, for 15 to 20 minutes. The mixture will thicken into a dark, fragrant paste that pulls away from the sides of the pot. The smell shifts from raw masa to something deeper, toasted corn married to chocolate and the woody perfume of the canela. Taste and adjust the piloncillo. Pozontle should be barely sweet, never dessert sweet.

7. 7

   Cool the base completely

   This step is non-negotiable. Transfer the paste to a wide bowl and let it cool to room temperature. Cocolmeca only foams in cold liquid. If you whip the paste while it is warm, you will get sludge. The Mixe women set the bowl outside in the sierra air and wait. You can use the refrigerator if you must. No me vengas con atajos here. The foam is the dish. Skip the cooling and you will not have pozontle, you will have hot chocolate.

8. 8

   Whip the foam

   Transfer the cooled paste to a tall jicara, a deep clay cazuela, or a sturdy mixing bowl. Add 4 cups of cold water and start whipping with a molinillo, working it between your palms with a fast back-and-forth twist. If you do not have a molinillo, an electric hand mixer with the whisk attachment will do the work in less time and with less honor. Keep adding cold water in small additions, up to 4 more cups, while whipping. Within five minutes the surface will rise into a thick brown foam, dense and stable, the kind that sits proud above the liquid. The foam should be tall enough to scoop with a spoon. That is pozontle.

9. 9

   Serve in jicaras

   Ladle the pozontle into jicaras (the dried gourd cups used across the Sierra Norte) or small clay cups. Each serving should be mostly foam on top, with the darker chocolate-corn liquid below. Eat the foam with a small wooden spoon first. Drink the liquid after. This is the order. In Mixe ceremonies, pozontle is shared at weddings, funerals, harvest festivals, and the appointment of new authorities. It is not a cafe drink. Treat it with the seriousness it carries. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •Cocolmeca is the entire dish. Source it from an Oaxacan mercado, a Mexican botanica, or a serious herbalist online. If your supplier sells it as 'sarsaparilla,' that is the same plant family but the Mixe variety from the Sierra Norte is what you want. A substitution is a compromise, and for pozontle, this particular compromise breaks the drink.
• •Use criollo cacao if you can find it. Oaxaca's cacao tradition relies on small-scale criollo and trinitario beans, not the bitter forastero that dominates industrial chocolate. The fat content and the floral notes of criollo are what carry the foam.
• •Do not sweeten this like a dessert. Pozontle is barely sweet. The piloncillo is there to round out the bitterness of the cacao, not to turn the drink into a sugar bomb. If you want sugar, drink champurrado instead.
• •The molinillo is not decoration. The wooden rings on the head of the molinillo are designed to whip air into the cold liquid. An electric mixer works, but a molinillo gives you a denser, longer-lasting foam. Buy one from a Mexican market. They are cheap and they last forever.

Advance Preparation

• •The cocolmeca infusion can be brewed up to two days ahead and refrigerated.
• •The cacao can be toasted, peeled, and ground up to one week ahead. Store the paste in a sealed jar at room temperature.
• •The cooked masa-cacao base can be made the morning of and held at room temperature until you are ready to whip. Do not refrigerate the base unless you must, as cold paste from the fridge is harder to whip into a tall foam than paste cooled at room temperature.
• •Pozontle does not keep. Whip and serve. The foam collapses within an hour and there is no reviving it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 380g)