Fonda san miguel's sopa de tortilla

1 Servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
10 Plum tomatoes, broiled and pureed (2 cups)
½ medium Onion, roughly chopped
1 Clove garlic, peeled and chopped
4 tablespoons Peanut or safflower oil
8 cups Chicken broth, fortified for extra richness by adding chicken necks and backs when cooking
1 Sprig fresh epazote, * see note
14 Corn tortillas, cut in match stick strips
4 Pasilla chilies, stems and seeds removed, * see note
6 ounces Panela cheese, cut in small cubes, * see note (up to 8)

Directions

To Prepare the Tomatoes: Cut in half and broil until lightly browned and tender. Cool and blend into a puree. Mix with the onion and garlic.

Heat a frying pan and add the oil. Add the tomato mixture and fry, stirring continously, then add the chicken broth and simmer 8-10 minutes. Add the epazote at the last minute.

In hot oil, fry the corn tortilla strips until crisp but not dark. Drain them on paper towels. Cut the pasilla chilies into narrow strips and fry quickly until slightly crisp.

Ladle the soup into serving bowls. Add about 6-8 cubes of panela cheese, more if preferred, and 2-4 strips of fried pasilla chilies. Garnish with a fistful of fried tortilla chips, assembling crisscrossed for an interesting presentation. Serve immediately. Makes about 2½ quarts.

NOTES : This is close to the classic tortilla soup recipe, widely found throughout Mexico. If avocado and chicken are added, it is called Sopa Azteca. Epazote is a pungent herb popular in many Mexican dishes. Pasilla chilies are long, blackish-brown dried chilies. Panela cheese, or queso panela, is a white, semisoft, salty Mexican cheese that is rather mild tasting.

Recipe by: Fonda San Miguel Restaurant Posted to TNT - Prodigy's Recipe Exchange Newsletter, by Sherry Zeiss <zeiss@...> on Wed, 15 Jan 1997.

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