Chiapas Hoja Santa Green Salsa (Salsa de Momo Chiapaneca)

Chiapas, Los Altos, San Cristobal de las Casas. This salsa belongs on the table beside warm corn tortillas, frijoles de olla, shredded chicken, and a piece of queso fresco from the market. It is green, thick, and fragrant, not because someone wanted a pretty sauce, but because momo grows in the yards and wet edges of the region and the women who cook there know what that leaf can do.

Momo is hoja santa. In Chiapas and Tabasco, call it momo and people know you are paying attention. The leaf smells of anise, black pepper, and damp earth. It thickens the salsa when you grind it with cooked tomatillo, and it changes the whole character of the bowl. Cilantro alone cannot do this. Do not replace it and pretend nothing happened.

The chile here is chile amashito when you can find it, tiny and green, sharp without taking over the salsa. It is not piquin. The chile simojovel is not pasilla either, while we are correcting names. Si no conoces el mercado, no conoces la cocina. Ask the women at the market, pregúntale a las señoras del mercado, and they will point you to the right pile.

I learned versions of this salsa from cooks in the Chiapas highlands who roasted the tomatillos on a comal, then crushed everything in a molcajete until the leaf gave up its perfume. A blender works if you pulse it and keep texture. A green puree with no body is baby food. Salsa needs a little muscle. Así se hace y punto.