Sopes

A masa cake part-cooked, then taken off the heat and its rim pinched up into a wall to hold the topping.

Chicken. Not vegetarian — contains cheese whose rennet the source does not name, chicken, lard.

Ingredients

the bases

• 500 g masa, as on its own page
• 1 teaspoon salt
• oil, for frying the bases

on top

• 300 g refried beans, as on their own page
• 200 g chicken, poached and shredded
• 150 g crumbly white cheese
• ½ small white onion, finely chopped
• shredded lettuce
• soured cream, to drizzle
• salsa verde, as on its own page

Method

1. THE RIM IS PINCHED UP WHILE IT IS STILL ALMOST TOO HOT TO HOLD, and the timing of that is the entire skill. The disc is given a couple of minutes a side -- set on the outside, still soft and pliable within -- then lifted off and the edge worked up between finger and thumb all the way round into a wall a centimetre high. Pinched raw, the wall slumps flat as it cooks. Pinched cold, the edge is rigid and cracks and crumbles away in pieces. There is a window of about a minute, and a folded cloth in the other hand is how it is survived.
2. THE WALL IS THE WHOLE REASON. A sope is a plate made of masa, built to carry wet things -- beans, cream, salsa -- and a flat disc lets all of it run off onto the table at the first bite. A centimetre of raised edge holds a surprising amount.
3. IT IS FRIED AFTER IT IS SHAPED, NOT BEFORE. Shaped first, then a few minutes in shallow oil, and the base goes crisp and golden on the underside while the inside stays soft. Fried before shaping, the surface is already set and the rim will not come up at all.
4. THE BASES CAN BE SHAPED AHEAD AND THE TOPPING CANNOT. Shaped and fried bases keep an hour quite happily under a cloth and reheat on a dry griddle. Topped, they begin to soften from the beans down within a few minutes, so they are assembled at the table and not in the kitchen.
5. The masa kneaded with the salt and divided into 8 balls.
6. Each pressed between plastic to a disc about 8 cm across and 7 mm thick.
7. A dry griddle over a medium heat. The discs cooked 2 MINUTES a side -- set on the surface but still soft inside, and NOT browned.
8. Lifted off one at a time and, HELD IN A FOLDED CLOTH, the edge PINCHED UP all the way round between finger and thumb into a wall about 1 cm high. Worked quickly, while hot.
9. A frying pan with 5 mm of oil set over a medium heat.
10. The shaped bases fried 2 to 3 minutes, bottom side down only, until golden and crisp underneath. Drained on paper.
11. The refried beans warmed and spread 5 mm deep inside each wall.
12. The shredded chicken laid on, then the cheese, onion and lettuce.
13. Soured cream drizzled over and salsa verde spooned on at the table. Eaten within minutes of being topped.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Mexico · All recipes