Have you ever had asado? Nope, not carne asada. Asado. You haven’t? Don’t worry; I hadn’t either until a couple of months ago. But I don’t think it’s too farfetched for me to say it’s now one of my favorite dishes. Here’s how I learned about it.Last year, I was dashing through the Times Square subway station during the morning rush hour and I saw a man wearing an Austin College T-shirt. Austin College, my alma mater, is such a small school that you seldom see people sporting kangaroo pride. So even though I was late, I had to stop and chat with him.
It turned out he was my year and yet I couldn’t place him until he said where he was from. “Of course!” I said. “You’re the guy from Gun Barrel City!” And then my memories of him all fell into place. I mean, when someone comes from a place with a name like Gun Barrel City, how could you ever forget him?
He was only in town for a few days, but when he returned to his home in Odessa, Texas we started an occasional correspondence. When I decided this summer to fly into Midland—the sister city to Odessa—I contacted him and he graciously offered to take me to dinner.I arrived on a Sunday and since the area has a large Catholic population, most places were closed. After much research on his part, he finally settled on Ajuua’s. I was delighted to see that the restaurant was packed with Mexican families and most of the men were wearing cowboy hats and boots. This was going to be good.
“You should get the asado,” he said.
“Carne asada?” I said.
“No, asado,” he said. “It’s a local specialty.”
He then explained that asado is pork slow cooked in a red-chile sauce. It’s similar to New Mexico’s carne adovada, except adovada is made with New Mexican red chiles and asado is made with anchos.
I very excited to try the asado, but unfortunately, it was so wonderful that the restaurant was sold out for the evening. It wasn’t until two days later when I stopped at Fabela’s on my way to the Midland airport that I was able to try this regional dish. And after a bite, I understood why it was the local favorite—tender bites of pork were covered in a smoky, garlic-rich sauce brightened with Mexican oregano and cilantro.When I returned to New York I asked, nay, begged Mark to give me a recipe. He consulted with a friend of his who graciously shared with Mark his family’s recipe. Some of the proportions were strange (apparently, Mark’s friend was a bit vague on certain points, not willing to completely divulge his family’s method) but after tinkering with it, I managed to recreate what I felt was a passable asado that would not insult the taste of any of the good citizens of West Texas.
Now don’t be put off by the time involved in making this—yes, day-before prep is involved, but with a little planning you can be eating your own bowl of asado within 12 hours. And if you don’t have a disco—the Mexican wide skillet made from tractor parts (also known as the Mexican wok)—Mark has generously provided directions on how to weld your own, if you are so inclined. Or you can use a Dutch oven, wok or regular cast-iron skillet, too.West Texas Asado (adapted from Mark Flowers)
Ingredients:
16 dried ancho chiles
1 large head of garlic (10 cloves or dientes as it’s said in Spanish) the cloves crushed.
3 pounds of boneless pork shoulder, cut into 1-inch cubes
3 tablespoons of lard, bacon grease or peanut oil
1/2 medium onion, diced
1/2 cup of cilantro, chopped
2 teaspoons of Mexican oregano (or regular oregano if you can’t find Mexican oregano)
Salt and pepper to taste
Method
1. Take the chiles and remove stems and seeds (can reserve seeds to spice up asado later). Place chiles in a large bowl, pour warm water over them and then add two crushed cloves of garlic and 1 teaspoon of salt to bowl. Let soak overnight or for eight hours.
2. After chiles have softened, throw out the soaking water (it will be bitter) and place chiles in a blender with 1/2 cup of fresh water. Puree until a thick paste is formed—it should be about four cups of puree.
3. In a saucepan, sauté on medium heat the diced onion in one tablespoon of lard, bacon grease or oil until cooked and starting to brown, about ten minutes. Add the remaining 8 cloves of crushed garlic (about 1/3 cup) and cook for one more minute. Add the chile paste, 1 cup of water, the cilantro, Mexican oregano, salt and pepper.
4. Cook chile sauce on medium heat for five minutes, stirring occasionally. Don’t be alarmed, but it will probably dramatically bubble and heave.
5. Generously salt and pepper pork cubes. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of lard to a disco, Dutch oven or skillet (may do this in batches) and brown meat on all sides.
6. Add chile sauce to meat, and cook covered on low heat for 2 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.
7. Serve topped with cotija or wrapped in flour tortillas.
Serves 8.
Note: When using dried chiles, you want them to be soft and pliable like raisins—this means they're fresh. If they're brittle and crumbly, they're old and not worth the money. I spent the better part of a Saturday afternoon searching for fresh, affordable anchos in lower Manhattan and I found the best ones were, of course, at a Mexican market (Zaragoza on Avenue A).
Mark Flowers explains how to make your own disco (for cooking, not dancing)
1. Get the materials: One disc harrow blade (go to www.tractorsupply.com and search for "Grizzly Stallion Blade Plain 20 in.”; one 1.25"x 1.25" seven ga piece of steel; and two 3/8" diameter x 4” wide square "U" bolts.
2. Cut the small piece of steel to fit the square hole in the disc. Weld that piece into the hole.
3. Weld the “U” bolts on opposite sides of the underside (the convex side) the disc to serve as handles.
4. Grind away the rough edges of the welds so that the interior of the disc and the underside of the disk are smooth.
5. Sandblast the disc to remove the remant black paint. (I don't have a sandblaster, so I took my disc to “Nipco” a machine shop here in Odessa. They didn’t charge me. When I offered to pay, they said, “Hell, that didn't take but a minute, besides, I wouldn't feel right charging you to strip your disc.” Mighty neighborly, I thought.
7. Season it like I’m sure your grandmother did her cast-iron skillet. Cook with it over a gas flame.
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