Sopa de Camote Novohispana Queretana

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 6-quart clay cazuela or Dutch oven
• •Cast iron comal for toasting chile guajillo and spices
• •High-powered blender
• •Fine-mesh strainer
• •Deep clay soup bowls for serving

Instructions

1. 1

   Build the broth

   Put the beef shank, soup bones, cold water, halved onion, 3 whole garlic cloves, bay leaves, oregano, and salt in a heavy pot. Bring it slowly to a simmer over medium heat. Skim the gray foam in the first 20 minutes. A clear broth starts with patience, not violence. Keep it at a gentle simmer for 2 hours, until the meat pulls from the bone.

2. 2

   Bake the camote

   While the broth cooks, heat the oven to 400F. Prick the sweet potatoes with a knife and bake them on a tray until the skins wrinkle and the flesh collapses under pressure, 45 to 60 minutes. Baking concentrates the sweetness. Boiled camote works in hunger. Baked camote works in this soup.

3. 3

   Toast the guajillo

   Heat a dry comal over medium. Toast the chile guajillo a few seconds per side until the skins turn shiny and flexible. Do not blacken them. Toast the canela, cloves, and peppercorns on the same comal just until fragrant. Guajillo gives color and fruit, not a dare. Not all Mexican food is built to burn your mouth.

   If a guajillo turns black, throw it away. Burned chile makes bitter soup, and no amount of camote will hide it.
4. 4

   Soak and blend

   Cover the toasted chiles with hot water and soak for 15 minutes. Drain them. Scoop the baked sweet potato flesh into a blender with the soaked guajillos, toasted spices, 2 peeled garlic cloves, 2 cups of strained beef broth, and the chilcuague. Blend until completely smooth. Chilcuague is powerful. Use the small amount listed. It should wake the tongue, not numb the table.

5. 5

   Fry the base

   Melt the manteca de cerdo in a clay cazuela or heavy pot over medium heat. Add the finely chopped onion and cook until translucent, not browned. Pour in the camote and chile puree. It will thicken fast. Stir for 6 to 8 minutes, scraping the bottom, until the color deepens and the fat leaves small orange-red freckles on the surface. La manteca es el sabor. This step is where the soup stops tasting raw.

6. 6

   Marry the soup

   Strain the remaining beef broth and whisk it into the fried base a cup at a time. Add the cooked cacahuazintle and simmer 15 minutes. The soup should be thick enough to coat a spoon but still pour like broth. If it stands like puree, add more broth. Sopa is sopa. Do not turn it into baby food.

7. 7

   Add xoconostle

   Shred the cooked beef from the shank and return a generous handful to the pot. Add the diced xoconostle and simmer 5 minutes more. Taste for salt. The xoconostle should cut the sweetness of the camote with clean acidity, the way the semi-arid Bajio teaches you to use fruit. Sweet without acid is dull. The market women know this.

8. 8

   Serve in barro

   Ladle the soup into deep clay bowls. Crown each bowl with crumbled queso ranchero and a little cilantro. Serve warm corn tortillas on the side, wrapped in a cloth-lined chiquihuite. No sour cream. No cheddar. No flour tortillas here. Cada estado, su propia cocina.

Chef Tips

• •Buy chilcuague from an herb stall that knows what it is. In Queretaro, ask at Mercado de La Cruz or from vendors who bring goods down from the Sierra Gorda and the Guanajuato border. If the vendor calls it just 'a spicy root,' keep walking. Preguntale a las senoras del mercado.
• •Use orange-fleshed camote, not canned sweet potato and not pumpkin. The texture is different. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
• •Cacahuazintle should taste like corn, not like the metal of a can. If using canned Mexican hominy, rinse it well and simmer it in the broth long enough to absorb flavor.
• •This soup is mild. Good. Chile guajillo is here for color and round fruit, xoconostle for acid, chilcuague for the Bajio spark. Calling all Mexican food hot is lazy.

Advance Preparation

• •The beef broth can be made 2 days ahead. Chill it, lift off excess fat, and keep the meat covered separately with a little broth.
• •The camote and guajillo base can be blended 1 day ahead. Fry it in manteca on the day you serve so the flavor wakes up properly.
• •Leftover soup keeps 3 days refrigerated. Reheat gently and loosen with broth or water because the camote and cacahuazintle continue to thicken as they sit.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 620g)