Segueza Oaxaqueña de Res

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 8-quart stockpot or clay olla
• •Cast iron comal or heavy skillet for toasting corn and chiles
• •High-powered blender
• •Medium-mesh strainer
• •Wooden spoon

Instructions

1. 1

   Toast the corn

   Heat a dry comal or heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the dried corn kernels in a single layer and toast, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon, for 12 to 15 minutes. The kernels will pop and crack open as the moisture inside escapes. You will hear them. Listen for the sharp snap, like distant popcorn. Keep stirring. They should turn from pale yellow to a deep golden brown with dark spots where the starch has caramelized. The kitchen will smell like toasted grain, like standing next to a milpa fire. That smell is the flavor you are building into the broth. When most kernels have cracked and darkened, pull them off the heat and transfer to a bowl. Do not walk away from the comal during this step. Burned corn is bitter corn and there is no fixing it.

   The corn you need is plain dried field corn, maíz blanco seco. Not hominy. Not canned corn. Not pozole corn that has already been nixtamalized. You want raw dried kernels, the kind sold by the kilo at any Mexican market or tienda. If you can only find it in bulk, buy a kilo and keep the rest in a jar. It lasts months.
2. 2

   Build the beef broth

   Place the beef shank and short ribs in a heavy stockpot. Add the water and salt. Drop in two of the onion quarters and three of the unpeeled garlic cloves. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat. Skim the gray foam that rises during the first ten minutes. That foam is impurities from the bone and blood. Remove it patiently. A clean broth is a clear broth. Once the foam stops rising, reduce the heat until you see lazy bubbles every few seconds. Cover partially and let the beef cook for one and a half to two hours. The shank is done when the meat pulls away from the bone but has not yet fallen apart. The short ribs will be tender before the shank. That is fine. Remove the ribs earlier if they are done and let the shank keep going.

3. 3

   Toast the chiles

   While the beef simmers, heat your comal over medium heat again. Toast the guajillo chiles one or two at a time, pressing them flat against the comal with a spatula for about 20 to 30 seconds per side. They will puff, blister, and release a sharp, warm aroma. The skin should change color slightly and become pliable, never black. Transfer to a heatproof bowl, cover with hot tap water, and let them soak for 20 minutes. Hot water, not boiling. Boiling water cooks the skin and turns the sauce bitter.

   If a chile turns black or smells acrid, throw it out. One burned guajillo will ruin the whole sauce. Toast another. Chiles are cheap. Your patience is the expensive ingredient.
4. 4

   Roast the tomatoes and aromatics

   Place the whole tomatoes, the remaining two onion quarters, and the remaining three unpeeled garlic cloves directly on the dry comal over medium-high heat. Roast, turning occasionally, until the tomato skins are blistered and charred in spots and the flesh is soft, about 10 to 12 minutes. The onion should have black edges. The garlic should be soft when you squeeze it through the papery skin. This char is flavor, not a mistake. Every señora in the Mixteca markets roasts her tomatoes this way. The comal does the work that an oven cannot.

5. 5

   Blend the chile sauce

   Drain the soaked guajillos and discard the soaking water. Peel the roasted garlic. Place the drained chiles, roasted tomatoes, roasted onion, and peeled garlic in a blender. Add one cup of the beef broth from the simmering pot. Blend on high until completely smooth. This should take a full minute, maybe longer. You want a sauce with no visible pieces of chile skin. Strain through a medium-mesh sieve into a bowl, pressing the solids with the back of a spoon. Discard the skins. What comes through should be a deep brick-red puree, smooth and thick enough to coat the spoon.

6. 6

   Add the corn and sauce

   Remove the spent onion and garlic from the beef broth. Stir the strained chile sauce directly into the pot with the beef. Add the toasted cracked corn. Stir everything together. The broth will turn a warm reddish-brown. Bring the pot back to a gentle simmer, partially cover, and cook for 45 minutes to one hour. The corn needs time. It will soften gradually, absorbing the chile broth, and the starch from the cracked kernels will thicken the liquid around them. Stir the pot every fifteen minutes and check the bottom. The corn can stick. After 45 minutes, taste a kernel. It should be tender but still have a slight bite, not mushy, not hard. The broth should have body now, coating the back of a spoon lightly. That thickness is the segueza.

7. 7

   Finish with epazote

   Drop the two sprigs of epazote into the pot during the last five minutes of cooking. Epazote loses its character if you cook it too long. Five minutes is enough. Taste the broth for salt. The corn absorbs seasoning as it cooks, so you will likely need to add more salt now. Be assertive. A bland segueza is a wasted afternoon. Adjust until the broth tastes like it matches the work you put in.

   Epazote is not the same as cilantro. It is not the same as hierba santa. It has a sharp, almost medicinal flavor that cuts through the richness of bone broth and starchy corn. If you cannot find fresh epazote, use one tablespoon of dried epazote crumbled into the pot. Do not substitute cilantro and call it the same thing.
8. 8

   Serve in deep bowls

   Ladle the segueza into deep clay bowls, making sure each serving gets a piece of bone-in beef, a generous share of the thickened corn broth, and plenty of the softened, split kernels. Set lime wedges and a small dish of diced raw white onion on the table. Warm the tortillas on the comal until they puff. The tortilla is not a side dish here. It is the spoon. You tear a piece, scoop the broth and corn, press a chunk of beef into it, squeeze lime, and eat. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •The dried corn you need is sold at Mexican markets as maíz blanco seco or maíz para quebrar. It is plain dried field corn, not hominy and not the pre-nixtamalized pozole corn you see in bags. If you have a Latin market nearby, ask for maíz seco, un kilo. If you cannot find it locally, online Mexican grocery suppliers carry it. There is no substitute. The toasted cracked corn IS the dish.
• •Buy the beef shank with the bone in and ask the carnicero to cut it crosswise into 2-inch rounds so the marrow is exposed. The marrow melts into the broth and gives it a richness that no boneless cut can deliver. Short ribs add a second layer of fat and connective tissue. This is not a dish for lean meat. The bones do half the work.
• •Segueza is better the second day. The corn continues to absorb the chile broth overnight and the whole pot thickens and deepens. Reheat it slowly over low heat with a splash of water if it has gotten too thick. The señora in Huajuapan told me she always made enough for two days. Wednesday and Thursday. Same pot, different meal.
• •Some cooks in the Mixteca add a chayote, cut into cubes, during the last 30 minutes of cooking. Others add ejotes (green beans). These are honest additions if you want to stretch the pot further. Do not add potatoes. Potatoes compete with the corn for starch duties and the texture gets muddy.

Advance Preparation

• •The beef broth can be made one day ahead, cooled, and refrigerated with the meat in the broth. Skim the solidified fat from the surface before reheating. Add the chile sauce and toasted corn on serving day so the corn toasts fresh.
• •The chile sauce can be blended and strained up to one day ahead and refrigerated separately. It holds its color and flavor well overnight.
• •The fully assembled segueza keeps refrigerated for three to four days and improves with each reheating. It does not freeze well because the corn texture turns grainy when thawed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 420g)