Tzanchak (Yucatecan Waiting Stew)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 8-quart stockpot or wide clay cazuela
• •Cast iron comal for charring the xkatik chiles
• •Fine-mesh strainer for clarifying the broth
• •Slotted spoon or kitchen spider
• •Kitchen twine for the herb bundles

Instructions

1. 1

   Start the broth cold

   Place the beef shank and marrow bones in a large stockpot or wide cazuela. Cover with the cold water. Add the halved onion, garlic, and salt. Bring to a slow simmer over medium heat. Skim the gray foam that rises in the first twenty minutes. This is how a clean broth is built. Cold water draws the flavor out of the bone slowly. A hard boil clouds the broth and turns the shank rubbery. The whole point of Tzanchak is the broth, the clear, beef-perfumed liquid that carries the corn and the chayote, so do not rush this step.

   Pick beef shank with a wide marrow bone and visible connective tissue around the muscle. That gelatin is what makes the broth feel like something. Lean stew meat will give you flat, sad caldo.
2. 2

   Simmer the meat low

   Lower the heat until the broth shows lazy bubbles every few seconds. Cover partially and cook for one and a half hours, until the shank pulls apart with a fork but still holds the bone. Skim the surface two or three more times as it cooks. You are waiting on the men who are tending the pib. They are not in a hurry and neither are you. This is the dish that gave Hanal Pixan its rhythm: the women in the kitchen, the men at the fire pit, the stew simmering between them.

3. 3

   Char the xkatik chiles

   While the broth simmers, heat a dry comal over medium-high. Lay the whole chile xkatik on the comal and turn them every minute or so until the skin is blistered and lightly charred in spots. Do not blacken them through. You want the chile to perfume the broth without breaking down. In Yucatan they call this technique tatemado and it is what gives the chile its smoke. Set the charred chiles aside.

   Chile xkatik is the pale yellow Yucatecan chile and it is what belongs in this pot. If you cannot find it, chile guero from a Mexican market is the closest cousin. Do not substitute jalapeno. The heat is wrong and the flavor is greener than this dish wants.
4. 4

   Add the heavy vegetables

   Once the shank is tender, lift it out with a slotted spoon and set it aside. Strain the broth through a fine-mesh sieve back into a clean pot. Discard the spent onion and garlic, but save the marrow bones for the table. Return the broth to a low simmer. Add the corn rounds, calabaza, and chayote. These take the longest of the vegetables. Cook for twelve to fifteen minutes, until the corn is sweet and the calabaza is fork-tender but not falling apart.

5. 5

   Finish with green beans and herbs

   Return the shank and marrow bones to the pot. Add the green beans, the bundled hierbabuena, the bundled epazote, the charred xkatik chiles, and the spoonful of manteca. Manteca at the end is a Yucatecan move. It rounds the broth and gives it gloss without weight. La manteca es el sabor, even at the very end. Simmer for eight more minutes, until the green beans are bright and tender. Taste for salt. The broth should taste of beef and hierbabuena before anything else. The chile should whisper, not shout.

6. 6

   Make the salpicon

   While the stew finishes, combine the diced radishes, red onion, cilantro, and the habanero if you want heat in a small bowl. Dress with a generous squeeze of naranja agria and a pinch of sea salt. Toss with your hands. The salpicon should sit no more than fifteen minutes before serving. The radish bleeds its pink into the citrus and that is part of the look. This is the bright, raw counterpoint to the long-simmered broth, and a Yucatecan table without salpicon is a table missing a dish.

7. 7

   Serve from the pot

   Pull the herb bundles out and discard them. Ladle the broth, a piece of shank, a piece of marrow bone, and a generous share of vegetables into wide clay bowls. Pass the salpicon, the lima agria halves, and the warm tortillas around the table. Each person dresses their own bowl with citrus and salpicon. This is the dish that fed the family while they waited for the pib to be opened. Recetas probadas y garantizadas. Asi se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •Pregunta a las senoras del mercado. In Merida, the Mercado Lucas de Galvez sells chile xkatik, fresh hierbabuena by the armful, and lima agria year-round. If you are cooking outside Yucatan, a good Mexican market is your best chance. Chile guero substitutes for xkatik. Lime mixed with a little sour orange substitutes for lima agria. Both are compromises, not upgrades.
• •Do not skip the marrow bones. The broth pulls body from them and the marrow itself is one of the prizes of the dish. A guest who gets the marrow bone in their bowl is being honored. Spread it on a hot tortilla with a little salt and you will understand.
• •The hierbabuena and the epazote get tied with twine and pulled out at the end. They are there to perfume the broth, not to be eaten. Tzanchak without hierbabuena is not Tzanchak. No me vengas con atajos on the herbs.
• •Serve in clay bowls if you have them. The Ticul red-glazed barro from southern Yucatan holds heat the way ceramic from any other state does not, and the visual is part of the dish. A plastic bowl breaks the spell.

Advance Preparation

• •The broth and shank can be made one day ahead and refrigerated. The flavor deepens overnight. Reheat gently, then add the vegetables and herbs on serving day so they stay bright and do not turn olive-green.
• •The salpicon must be made the day of serving, no more than fifteen minutes before the bowls go to the table. Beyond that, the radishes weep, the onion turns soft, and the brightness that the dish needs is gone.
• •Tzanchak is a Hanal Pixan dish made for a crowd. The recipe doubles cleanly for a pot that feeds twenty. It does not freeze well because the chayote and calabaza turn watery when thawed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 400g)