Chef Lupita
Frijoles Ayocotes Purépechas Guisados
Michoacán's P'urhépecha ayocotes, grown beside corn in the milpa, cooked in a clay olla, then guisados in pork lard with Cherán K'eri style chilke rojo and cooked quelites.
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Trompa de Puerco al Ajo (Charamakua)
Created by
Michocan's rainy-season charamakua, trompa de puerco mushroom from the Meseta Purhepecha, cooked on a comal de lena with garlic, chile, epazote, and manteca de cerdo.
Side Dishes
Mexican
Comfort Food
Weeknight
Special Occasion
35 min
Active Time
20 min cook•55 min total
Yield4 servings as a side dish
Michoacan, Meseta Purhepecha. This dish belongs to the pine-oak forests above Lake Patzcuaro and the pueblos where the rain decides the menu: Cocucho, Cheran K'eri, Comachuen, Nahuatzen. Trompa de puerco is the Spanish nickname. Charamakua is the Purhepecha name used for this bright-orange foraged mushroom, and that name comes first in any serious kitchen.
I learned this register from cocineras tradicionales who wait for July and August the way other cooks wait for a holiday. Maria Elena Reyes of Cocucho has shown foraged mushroom plates with the patience of someone who knows the forest is not a supermarket. The charamakua comes in with pine needles clinging to the stems, then it is cleaned, torn, and cooked in manteca de cerdo on a comal de lena. Not vegetable oil. Not a stainless pan over gas if you have a better choice. La manteca es el sabor, and the wood-fired comal gives the mushroom the dry heat it needs before the garlic goes in.
This is not calabacitas con elote y rajas. That is another dish, broadly Mexican and perfectly useful, but this is Purhepecha indigenous cooking from Michoacan's rainy forest. No me vengas con atajos. Outside July and August, the terekuecha plate is not available. The cocinera tradicional waits for the rain, and so do you.
Use chile guajillo for color, pasilla for depth, and a little chile poncho peron if you can get it in Michoacan. The quelites, if you add them, are cooked, never raw. The finished cazuela should taste of forest, garlic, chile, lard, and smoke. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
Purhepecha mushroom cookery in Michoacan is tied to the rainy season of the Meseta Purhepecha, when families gather edible fungi from pine-oak forests and cook them as terekuecha, a seasonal category that includes charamakua, iarini terekua, terekua kuin jatsiri, shakura, and chilke. Cocineras tradicionales such as Maria Elena Reyes of Cocucho have helped document these plates in contemporary Michoacan food festivals, while pueblos including Cheran K'eri, Comachuen, and Nahuatzen preserve local names and preparations for mushrooms such as chilke rojo and pata de pajaro. The July-August calendar is not decoration: it is the ecological window when these foraged mushrooms appear after rain.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
fresh trompa de puerco mushroom (charamakua)
Quantity
1 pound
foraged in July or August, cleaned and torn into thick strips
manteca de cerdo
Quantity
3 tablespoons
garlic cloves
Quantity
6
thinly sliced
dried chile guajillo
Quantity
2
stemmed, seeded, toasted, and cut into thin strips
dried chile pasilla
Quantity
1
stemmed, seeded, toasted, and cut into thin strips
fresh chile poncho peron (optional)
Quantity
1/2
split open and thinly sliced
white onion
Quantity
1/2 small
thinly sliced
fresh epazote
Quantity
1 large sprig
cooked quelites (optional)
Quantity
1 cup
squeezed dry and roughly chopped
coarse salt
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon, plus more to taste
hand-pressed corn tortillas (optional)
Quantity
for serving
warmed on the comal
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| fresh trompa de puerco mushroom (charamakua)foraged in July or August, cleaned and torn into thick strips | 1 pound |
| manteca de cerdo | 3 tablespoons |
| garlic clovesthinly sliced | 6 |
| dried chile guajillostemmed, seeded, toasted, and cut into thin strips | 2 |
| dried chile pasillastemmed, seeded, toasted, and cut into thin strips | 1 |
| fresh chile poncho peron (optional)split open and thinly sliced | 1/2 |
| white onionthinly sliced | 1/2 small |
| fresh epazote | 1 large sprig |
| cooked quelites (optional)squeezed dry and roughly chopped | 1 cup |
| coarse salt | 1/2 teaspoon, plus more to taste |
| hand-pressed corn tortillas (optional)warmed on the comal | for serving |
Equipment Needed
- •Comal de barro set over lena
- •Rough red barro cazuela from Capula or Tzintzuntzan for serving
- •Wooden cuchara
- •Dry cloth or soft brush for cleaning foraged mushrooms
Instructions
- 1
Clean the charamakua
Trim away any tough or muddy ends from the charamakua. Brush off pine needles and forest grit with a dry cloth or soft brush. If the mushrooms are very sandy, rinse quickly and dry them well on a cloth. Do not soak them. A soaked mushroom goes limp on the comal and tastes of water, not forest.
- 2
Tear the mushrooms
Tear the trompa de puerco into thick strips with your hands. Keep the pieces uneven. Knife-perfect pieces are not the point here. The torn edges catch the manteca, garlic, and chile better than a smooth cut.
- 3
Toast the chiles
Heat a comal de barro over lena until it is hot but not smoking. Toast the guajillo and pasilla briefly, a few seconds per side, just until the skins darken slightly and smell deep. They should bend, not burn. Cut them into thin strips. If a chile turns black, throw it out. Burned chile makes bitter food, and there is no fixing it later.
The pasilla is thinner than the guajillo and burns faster. Watch it. This is where many careless cooks ruin the dish before the mushroom even touches the comal. - 4
Dry-cook the mushrooms
Spread the torn charamakua on the hot comal in a single layer. Let the moisture cook off for 4 to 6 minutes, turning once or twice with a wooden cuchara. The pieces should soften, darken at the edges, and smell like wet pine and toasted corn. This first dry heat matters. If you add fat too early, the mushroom stews.
- 5
Add the manteca
Push the mushrooms to one side and add the manteca de cerdo to the comal or cazuela set over the fire. When it melts and shines, stir the mushrooms through it. Add the onion and cook until it softens without browning hard, about 3 minutes. La manteca es el sabor. Vegetable oil will cook the mushroom, yes, but it will not make this dish.
- 6
Cook garlic and chile
Add the sliced garlic, guajillo strips, pasilla strips, and chile poncho peron if using. Stir constantly for 2 to 3 minutes. The garlic should turn pale gold at the edges and smell sweet, not sharp. If it browns too hard, it turns bitter. Keep the fire steady and the cuchara moving.
- 7
Finish with epazote
Add the epazote and the cooked quelites if using. Cook for 2 more minutes, just until the herb perfumes the fat and the quelites are hot. Quelites are cooked here, never raw. Salt, taste, and salt again if the mushroom asks for it. The finished charamakua should be glossy, orange-gold, garlicky, and lightly stained by the chiles.
- 8
Serve from barro
Spoon the mushrooms into a rough red barro cazuela and serve immediately with hand-pressed corn tortillas warmed on the same comal. Set the cazuela in the center of the table. This is food to share, not to decorate. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.
Chef Tips
- •Buy or forage charamakua only from someone who knows the Meseta Purhepecha forests. Ask the women at the market. If they cannot tell you where it was gathered and when the rain started, do not buy it.
- •Do not substitute white button mushrooms. Champinon is cultivated, pale, and wet. Charamakua is foraged, orange, seasonal, and tied to Purhepecha forest knowledge. A substitution like that is not a compromise, it is another dish.
- •July and August are the window. Outside the rainy season, make beans, squash, or another honest dish from what the market is selling. The cocinera tradicional waits for the rain. You can wait too.
- •Related Purhepecha mushroom names matter: iarini terekua and terekua kuin jatsiri belong to the same rainy-season register; shakura and chilke appear in local preparations, with chilke rojo grounded in Cheran K'eri. Pata de pajaro is associated with Comachuen and Nahuatzen. Name them correctly. This is not one generic basket of mushrooms.
- •If you add quelites, cook them first in salted water or on the comal with a little manteca, then squeeze them dry. Raw quelites thrown on top like salad do not belong here.
Advance Preparation
- •The mushrooms can be cleaned and torn up to 4 hours ahead, then held loosely covered in a cool place. Do not seal them in plastic, or they will sweat.
- •The guajillo and pasilla can be toasted and cut into strips earlier the same day.
- •Cook the dish right before serving. Reheated charamakua loses the clean edge of garlic, chile, and forest mushroom.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 155g)
Calories
215 calories
Total Fat
11 g
Saturated Fat
4 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
7 g
Cholesterol
10 mg
Sodium
340 mg
Total Carbohydrates
25 g
Dietary Fiber
6 g
Sugars
6 g
Protein
7 g
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