Uliche

As tradition built it

Uliche

Chontal zone; Día de Muertos, 2 November

Ingredients

The tradition's method, with the ingredients named. Quantities follow as we verify them.

• 1 turkey, cut into pieces (or the beef equivalent) turkey or beef
• 3 heads, roasted garlic
• 1, large onion
• 500g, parboiled once nixtamal (prepared corn)
• cumin, toasted
• 1, sautéed tomato
• sweet chile
• achiote
• cumin (for the achiote paste)
• for garnish pumpkin seed, ground, to garnish
• to taste chile amashito, to garnish

Method

1. Blanch the turkey or beef with garlic and onion until tender, then remove.
2. Grind the nixtamal with toasted cumin into a masa, strain through cloth, and add back to the broth with tomato and a sweet chile.
3. Cook over low heat with constant stirring until it reaches an atole-like consistency.
4. Grind achiote and cumin separately in a molcajete and stir in.
5. Serve in a clay cajete, garnished with ground pumpkin seed and chile amashito.

Notes

Prepared specifically for Día de Muertos and placed on Chontal altars on 2 November, concentrated in the Chontal zone.

What a modern chef changes

Chinois-strained masa, fresh-toasted spice

Method

1. Nixtamalize the maize at home, the same controlled transformation used for the garnachas above.
2. Strain the ground masa liquid through a chinois rather than cloth alone, for a genuinely silkier finished broth.
3. Toast the cumin and achiote fresh in the spice grinder immediately before use rather than relying on pre-ground spice, the comal-toasting principle applied to a wet-ground rather than dry-ground paste.
4. Dehydrate the pumpkin seed garnish briefly after toasting for a more concentrated crunch against the broth's own smooth body.