Salsa de Chile Perón con Naranja y Limón

This comes from Michoacán, from the Meseta P'urhépecha and the market road between Uruapan, Pátzcuaro, and the small towns where chile perón grows beside avocado orchards. It is not a jalapeño salsa with citrus. No. The chile perón is floral, yellow-orange, thick-fleshed, with black seeds and a perfume that belongs to that cool highland soil.

I learned versions of this salsa from women selling corundas near Pátzcuaro and from a vendor in Uruapan who blistered the chiles on a blackened comal before dawn. She ground them with ajo and sal de grano, then squeezed in naranja and limón until the salsa woke up. The molcajete leaves the flesh rough, martajada, with bits of skin and seed still showing. That texture matters.

Use it with carnitas, kurucha, charales, uchepos, corundas, or a tortilla hot from the comal. If you cannot find chile perón, I will tell you the compromise, but don't pretend serrano gives you the same salsa. It does not. Cada estado, su propia cocina.