Salsa Molcajeteada para Tlayudas

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Volcanic basalt molcajete with tejolote, ideally from San Marcos Tlapazola, Oaxaca
• •Cast iron comal or comal de barro
• •Tongs for turning the vegetables on the comal
• •Small wooden board for serving

Instructions

1. 1

   Heat the comal

   Set a dry comal or heavy cast iron skillet over medium-high heat for five minutes. No oil. Nothing in the pan. The surface needs to be hot enough that a drop of water dances and disappears. The whole salsa lives or dies on this char, so do not rush the heating.

   If you have a real comal de barro, use it. The clay carries heat differently and gives the tomate a deeper, smokier skin. A cast iron skillet is the second-best choice. A nonstick pan will not work and you should not try.
2. 2

   Char the vegetables

   Place the whole tomate, the chile serrano, the unpeeled garlic, and the onion piece directly on the hot comal. Do not cut anything. Let everything sit undisturbed for three to four minutes per side, turning with tongs, until the skins are blistered and blackened in patches. The garlic finishes first, in about five minutes total. Pull it off when the paper husk is brown and the clove inside feels soft. The chiles take about six minutes. The onion takes seven or eight. The tomate takes the longest, ten minutes or so, and is ready when the skin splits and the juices weep onto the comal. Black spots are not a mistake. Black spots are the salsa.

   If smoke fills the kitchen, you are doing it right. Open a window. Do not lower the heat. The dry char is what separates a Oaxacan salsa molcajeteada from a sad raw blender salsa.
3. 3

   Rest and peel the garlic

   Move everything from the comal to a plate. Let it rest for five minutes until cool enough to handle. Peel the garlic and discard the burned papers. Do not peel the tomate. Those charred bits of skin are flavor and they belong in the salsa. Stem the chiles. Leave the seeds in unless you have a guest who cannot take heat, in which case scrape some out, but not all of them. A salsa for tlayudas needs to bite back.

4. 4

   Start the molcajete with salt and aromatics

   Drop the coarse salt, the peeled garlic, and the chiles into the molcajete. Grind them together with the tejolote, working in slow circles, until you have a rough green-yellow paste. This takes about two minutes. The salt is the abrasive, it does the work of breaking down the chile fibers and pulling the oils out of the garlic. Start any other way and the salsa will not bind.

   If your molcajete is new, it has not been cured properly and it will leach gray volcanic grit into the salsa. Cure it first by grinding raw rice with a little water until the rice comes out white, then grinding garlic and salt to season the stone. No me vengas con atajos.
5. 5

   Add the onion

   Add the charred onion to the molcajete and grind it into the chile-garlic paste until the onion breaks down into rough shreds. The paste should look like a coarse green-white slurry with visible flecks. You are not making a smooth sauce. You are making a textured one.

6. 6

   Crush the tomate by hand

   Drop the charred tomate into the molcajete one at a time, pressing down with the tejolote and crushing them open. The skin breaks. The juice and seeds spill out. Work them into the chile paste with short pressing motions, not circular grinding. You want chunks of tomate flesh suspended in the salsa, not a smooth puree. The salsa is ready when it looks rough, glossy, deep red-orange with black flecks of char throughout, and you can still see pieces of tomate skin and onion. La cocina no es decoracion, es trabajo. This is the texture that catches in the folds of a tlayuda.

7. 7

   Taste and finish

   Taste with a tortilla, never a spoon. The tortilla tells you how the salsa will eat with the tlayuda, which is what matters. Adjust salt. If the tomate was out of season and the salsa tastes flat, add the lime juice now, a few drops at a time. If you are using cilantro, stir it in at the end so the leaves stay bright. Serve in the molcajete itself, set on a wooden board at the table. Asi se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •Buy a real molcajete carved from a single piece of volcanic basalt, not the cement imitations sold in tourist shops. Tap it with your knuckle. Real basalt rings dull and dense. Cement sounds hollow. A good molcajete from San Marcos Tlapazola will outlast you and your children. La cocina no es decoracion, es trabajo, and the tools matter.
• •Tomate means red tomato in most of Mexico, not green tomatillo. The tomatillo is tomate verde or miltomate. For this salsa you want red ripe tomatoes, the rounder Roma-type or whatever the mercado is selling that looks heavy for its size and smells like tomato when you lift it to your nose. Si no conoces el mercado, no conoces la cocina.
• •If serranos are not available, jalapenos work but the heat is rounder and less sharp. Do not use a poblano, it is the wrong chile entirely for a table salsa, and never reach for a jalapeno from a jar. A salsa molcajeteada from canned chile is a contradiction.
• •This salsa is meant to be eaten the day it is made. The char fades, the texture loosens, and by the next day it is a different thing. If you must keep it, refrigerate up to two days, but understand you are eating leftovers, not the salsa I taught you to make.

Advance Preparation

• •The vegetables can be charred on the comal up to four hours ahead and held at room temperature on a plate. Grind the salsa within the hour you plan to serve it.
• •Do not make this salsa the night before. The bright char-and-smoke flavor flattens overnight and the texture weeps water. Salsa molcajeteada is a same-day proposition.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 90g)