Lamb Barbacoa, Hidalgo Style (Barbacoa de Borrego Estilo Hidalgo)

// SUPPLY LIST

// OPERATIONS

1. 1 Toast the guajillos and anchos on a dry 26 cm cast-iron comal or heavy skillet over medium heat: a drop of water should hiss and vanish in two or three seconds, and if it skitters and rolls across the surface the pan is too hot and the chillies will scorch before they toast. Press each one flat with a spatula for 20-30 seconds a side, until it puffs slightly, goes opaque and smells of raisins and toast. Pull them at the first wisp of smoke or any blackening: scorched guajillo turns the adobo permanently bitter and no amount of salt, sugar or extra chilli will pull it back. Cover with 700 ml just-boiled water, weigh down with a small plate and soak 25 minutes, until completely limp.
2. 2 In the same dry skillet over medium heat, blister the 8 peeled garlic cloves for 6-8 minutes, turning often, until brown-spotted and soft enough to crush against the pan. Toast the cumin, peppercorns and cloves for 45-60 seconds, shaking constantly, until they smell nutty and the cumin darkens a shade, then tip them straight out of the pan — whole spices go from fragrant to acrid in the ten seconds after they smell right, and the residual heat of cast iron is enough to take them there. Pass 4 of the avocado leaves over the heat for 20-30 seconds a side until they crackle and release a clear anise scent, then grind them with the toasted spices and the Mexican oregano to a fine powder in a spice grinder; make sure they are the Mexican criollo leaf, which is the anise-scented one worth hunting down, and not a Hass leaf.
3. 3 Drain the chillies, reserving the soaking water, and blend them with the blistered garlic, the ground spice powder, the vinegar, 25 g of the salt and 180 ml of the reserved soaking liquid on high for a full 2-3 minutes, until the adobo is glossy, the thickness of double cream, and shows no grit when you rub a drop between finger and thumb. If your blender is not powerful, push it through a medium sieve; unbroken chilli skins read as bitter black specks in the finished meat. Keep the adobo mild and pourable rather than concentrated: in the pit towns around Actopan the lamb goes into the maguey with nothing but salt, and a light adobo like this one is properly the Estado de México and Tlaxcala hand, borrowed here to season the meat without ever fighting the maguey. For the strict Actopan version, skip the chillies and spices entirely and use 45 g of salt alone — the leaf and the lamb do the rest.
4. 4 Pat the lamb dry, season it all over with 20 g of the salt, then coat every surface with the adobo, pushing it into the cuts and around the bone with your hands. Cover and refrigerate 12 hours (8 minimum, 24 maximum), and set the chickpeas to soak in cold water at the same time so both are ready together. This is not an optional overnight for convenience: under 8 hours the salt and chilli sit on the surface only and you get a seasoned crust over bland meat, while past 24 hours the salt begins to cure the outer centimetre to a firm, ham-like band that no amount of steaming will loosen. Take the lamb out of the fridge 1 hour before it goes in the pot so the centre is not starting from fridge-cold.
5. 5 Trim the spines from the edges of the pencas with a sharp knife while the leaves are still firm and flat — do this before roasting, because a roasted leaf goes limp, hot and slippery and is far harder to cut safely — then roast them directly over a gas flame, or on a dry griddle over high heat, for 3-5 minutes a side, until the surface blisters, darkens in patches and the leaf goes limp, glossy and beads sap at the cut edges. This roasting is what turns the leaf from fibrous and green-tasting into the sweet, agave-scented wrapper that defines the dish; an under-roasted penca stays grassy and perfumes the meat with nothing. If you can only get banana leaves, pass each one over the flame for 15-20 seconds a side until it turns deep glossy green and pliable, and put all 8 remaining avocado leaves into the wrap rather than 4, taking none for the pot; the result is genuinely good, but maguey's sweetness is the one element you cannot fake, so use it if there is any way to get it.
6. 6 In a heavy 12-litre stockpot or deep Dutch oven at least 28 cm wide, combine the soaked and drained chickpeas, the rinsed rice, the quartered onion, the carrot, the halved head of unpeeled garlic, 3 mint sprigs, 4 of the avocado leaves, 2.5 litres of cold water and 1 tsp of the salt. Set a wire rack or steamer insert inside the pot so it stands clear above the liquid: the water must sit at least 4 cm below the rack, which in a 28 cm pot means the rack sits about 8 cm off the base. If liquid touches the lamb it stews rather than steams, and you lose both the texture of the meat and the clarity of the consomé.
7. 7 Line the rack with the roasted pencas, shiny side up, overlapping them generously so they hang well over the rim of the pot. Lay the lamb pieces on top in a single layer, fat side up so the fat renders downward through the meat, tuck the last 4 avocado leaves and 1 mint sprig between them, then fold the overhanging leaves tightly over the meat and tie the parcel closed with kitchen string. Leave no gap: steam escaping upward through a loose fold carries the fat and juice out with it instead of dripping into the broth below, and you lose the consomé.
8. 8 Seal the pot: lay a double sheet of heavy foil over the rim and crimp it hard down the sides (in Hidalgo the pit is sealed with a rope of wet masa, and you can do the same with masa harina worked into a stiff paste if you want the traditional seal), then clamp the lid on top. Bring to a boil over high heat, then either hold the lowest flame that keeps a steady simmer you can still hear working, or transfer to an oven at 160C/325F, and cook for 4 hours 30 minutes to 5 hours. Do not let it fall to a silent, bare simmer: 3.5 kg of lamb needs a real head of steam for the whole time, and a pot that has gone quiet will stall well short of tender. Lift one edge of the foil once at the 3-hour mark to check the water, top up only with boiling water and re-crimp firmly — cold water drops the pot off temperature for 20 minutes and the meat tightens.
9. 9 Test by untying one corner of the parcel: the meat should pull away from the bone under the light pressure of a spoon, a skewer should slide to the bone with no resistance at all, and an instant-read thermometer in the thickest part should register 92-96C (198-205F). Lamb this size is done by collagen, not by clock, so if it resists anywhere, re-seal it and give it another 30 minutes rather than serving it firm — pulled at 85C it will still be springy and will shred into strings rather than soft flakes.
10. 10 Lift the rack and parcel off the pot together and let the lamb rest inside its closed leaves, uncut, for 30 minutes; opened straight from the heat it sheds its juice onto the board. Then unwrap it, pull the meat into large shreds with two forks, discarding only the hard gristle and keeping the soft rendered fat, and scrape any set juices from inside the leaves back over the meat. Keep the shredded lamb covered and warm, as it dries out fast once it is exposed.
11. 11 Skim the consomé, leaving a thin gilding of fat on the surface for flavour — you should have about 2 litres of amber, lightly cloudy broth. Fish out the carrot and the garlic head, squeeze 2 soft garlic cloves out of their skins and reserve them for the salsa, then add the last 2 mint sprigs, simmer 5 minutes uncovered and season with the remaining salt, roughly 1 tsp, tasting as you go: the meat above has taken its share and the broth starts out flat. The rice should have collapsed to give the broth body while the chickpeas stay whole and creamy; if it tastes thin, simmer it uncovered a few minutes longer rather than adding more rice, which will go gluey.
12. 12 For the salsa borracha, toast the pasillas on the dry comal for 15-20 seconds a side until they smell of cocoa and go slightly limp, soak them in hot water for 15 minutes, then blend with the pulque or dark beer, the 2 reserved cooked garlic cloves and 1/2 tsp salt to a loose, faintly coarse sauce that just coats a spoon. Blend in short bursts and stop as soon as it comes together; run it long and you whip air into it and it turns pale and foamy instead of dark. Do not chase a smooth restaurant salsa or cut the bitterness with sugar: the thin, dark, slightly bitter edge against the sweet lamb is exactly the point of this sauce.
13. 13 Serve family style, tacos first: warm the tortillas on the comal for 30 seconds a side until they puff and smell toasted, pile in the shredded lamb, and let people add chopped onion, coriander, salsa borracha and a hard squeeze of lime themselves — everything sharp goes on at the table, never into the pot. Ladle the consomé into small bowls alongside, with a spoonful of onion and coriander and a lime wedge in each. The meat and the broth are meant to be eaten together, alternating, and that is the whole reason for cooking one above the other.

// CLASSIFICATIONS