Tortilla Soup

The strips are the body of the dish, not a garnish, and a whole pasilla is fried apart to crumble over.

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

Ingredients

the broth

• 700 g tomatoes
• 1 onion, quartered
• 4 cloves garlic, unpeeled
• 2 pasilla chillies, stalks and seeds removed
• 1.5 litres chicken stock
• a sprig of epazote
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 2 teaspoons salt

the tortillas

• 12 corn tortillas, as on their own page, a day old
• oil, for frying, about 2 cm depth

on top

• 2 pasilla chillies, whole, for frying and crumbling
• 1 avocado, diced
• 150 g crumbly white cheese
• soured cream, to drizzle
• lime wedges

Method

1. THE STRIPS ARE THE BODY OF THE DISH AND NOT A GARNISH, which is the difference between this and every other soup with fried tortilla on it. Twelve tortillas for six people. Most go INTO the bowl first and the broth is ladled over them, so they soften and thicken it and become the substance of the thing -- it is closer to a bread soup than to a broth. A handful is kept back and scattered on top for contrast. In a sopa de lima the strips are deliberately kept out of the pot; here keeping them out leaves a thin tomato broth with nothing in it.
2. A WHOLE PASILLA IS FRIED SEPARATELY AND CRUMBLED OVER. Two of them, dropped whole into the hot oil for about five seconds each -- they puff and go brittle almost instantly -- then drained, cooled and crumbled between the fingers onto each bowl. It is a different thing from the pasilla blended into the broth: crisp, smoky, almost like a crisp. Five seconds is the whole window and at ten they are burnt.
3. THE TORTILLAS ARE A DAY OLD AND CUT IN STRIPS, NOT WEDGES. Strips about a centimetre wide, so they tangle in the bowl and take up broth evenly. And day-old, for the same reason as everywhere else: a fresh tortilla fries limp and greasy and will turn to paste in the broth rather than softening.
4. THE BROTH IS STRAINED, AND THAT IS WHAT KEEPS IT ELEGANT. Charred tomato, onion, garlic and soaked pasilla blended and then pushed through a sieve. Unstrained it is a thick rustic sauce, and once a dozen tortillas go into it the bowl is stodge. Strained, the broth stays a clean soup and the tortillas provide the body.
5. EACH BOWL IS BUILT AND SERVED IMMEDIATELY. The strips go in the bowl, the broth over them, the garnishes on, and it goes to the table. Assembled in a tureen and left even five minutes, every strip is equally soft and the contrast the dish is built on has gone.
6. The tortillas spread out uncovered OVERNIGHT to dry, then cut into STRIPS about 1 cm wide.
7. The tomatoes, onion and unpeeled garlic charred on a dry griddle 12 minutes until blackened in patches. The garlic peeled.
8. The 2 pasillas for the broth toasted 20 seconds a side, soaked 20 minutes and drained.
9. Blended with the charred vegetables until smooth, then PUSHED THROUGH A SIEVE.
10. The 2 tablespoons of oil heated in a pot and the strained purée cooked 10 MINUTES until darkened.
11. The stock, salt and epazote added and simmered 20 MINUTES. The epazote lifted out. Tasted and salted.
12. The frying oil heated to 2 cm. The strips fried in batches 20 to 30 SECONDS until crisp and pale gold. Drained on paper.
13. The 2 WHOLE pasillas dropped into the same oil for 5 SECONDS each, until they puff. Lifted out at once and cooled.
14. A GENEROUS HANDFUL of strips put in the bottom of each warm bowl -- most of the batch, not a sprinkle.
15. The hot broth ladled over them.
16. The remaining strips scattered on, then the crumbled fried pasilla, avocado, cheese and cream.
17. To the table immediately, with lime.

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