Chef Eddie Vargas has a long history with birria — a flavorful stew that is slow cooked until the meat of choice is fall-apart tender. Filled with dried chiles, garlic, and spices, the stew is traditionally made with large cuts of goat or lamb. However, in the U.S., it is most often made with beef.
Vargas is the operational manager for El Parian Hospitality, a restaurant group that manages properties across Detroit. He also runs a catering business called Izquitl Catering with his business partner Nancy Diaz and he hosts pop-ups events around the city — most recently at Frame in Hazel Park.
“A family of food”
Vargas is no newcomer to the culinary world. In his words, he comes from “a family of food.” His grandparents were taqueros in Jalisco, Mexico, and were known for their tacos.
“When I eat tacos and they taste similar to my grandparents’, it just takes me back to when my grandmother was still alive and they would cook tacos for us in our garage here in southwest Detroit,” Vargas said. “That flavor just instantly transports me back to those times.”
Vargas’ father inherited their affinity for cooking. Vargas recalled growing up watching his father making birria for family events, quinceañeras, and parties. As he got older, Vargas said birria always brought him back to his roots. A few years ago, Vargas asked his father to teach him how to make birria.
“He said, ‘No, because you're going to give out the recipe.’” Vargas said. “And at first he didn’t want to give me the recipe. So then I asked my mother, and she gave me part of it, until I kind of persuaded him and convinced him to give me the rest as well.”
Refining a family recipe
Vargas now uses his father’s birria recipe. The secret ingredients: ginger and pineapple skins, which release the enzymes and make the meat a bit softer. The recipe also includes beef, bay leaves, a little bit of cinnamon, fresh tomatoes, cilantro (Vargas uses the stem as well, which contains a lot of the cilantro taste), fresh onion, garlic, and orange. For the peppers, he uses dehydrated guajillos and dehydrated anchos. He supplements the dish with Mexican oregano, salt, and pepper.
Vargas said one of the most important parts of making birria is not just that the consommé (the broth) is seasoned, but also that beef absorbs the salt and has some flavor. To do this, Vargas recommended adding the salt into the consommé at the very beginning.
“Obviously the meat is the star of the dish, but the consommé follows with that,” Vargas said. “So, if you're an under seasoned consommé … your birria’s not going to be the star of the dish. I think there needs to be a perfect balance between both of them.”
Grounded by memories of his grandmother and parents’ cooking techniques, Vargas said he tries to stick to traditional recipes. However, he often adds his own touch by finding an ingredient that might add color or flavor to “[elevate] the plate and [present] it a little better.”
“It excites me because now there's so much you can do with, for example, masa,” Vargas said. “Yesterday, I did some masa potato gnocchis. So there were … the cornmeal masa, … the little potatoes — I added guajillo chilies to give it color — and I used a cream sauce with huitlacoche and birria on it. So that was pretty good.”
As Vargas continues to experiment and build on family recipes, his memories and connections with the food remain. Even after making birria on his own for years, Vargas said he and his father are in constant competition over whose birria is better.
“Every time I eat birria [it] obviously reminds me of my father — that takes me back to the idea that he didn't want to give me the recipe,” Vargas said. “So every time I make it, I'm like, ‘I'm making it better’... Every day I'm trying to perfect it even better than his.”
