"A gourmet who thinks of calories is like a tart who looks at her watch." - James Beard
This is the second time I've made tortilla soup on this blog. My previous recipe uses tomatoes, but this one has a clear broth flavoured with chipotle peppers in adobo and cilantro.
It starts with a broth made from whole chicken legs, onions and garlic and adds a few beef bones for extra meaty flavour.
While the broth is simmering, fry two whole tortillas and 4 tortillas cut into strips.
After simmering for an hour, the chicken is shredded. Chipotles, cilantro, onion and crumbled fried tortillas are pureed and added to the broth.
The broth takes on a greenish colour with the puree added in. The shredded chicken goes back into the soup and I added some corn as well.
Once the soup is warmed through, place the garnishes in the bowl - avocado, chopped cilantro and shredded cheese.
Ladle the hot soup over the garnishes and top with fried tortilla strips.
This soup is slightly spicy, hearty and warming. It makes a fantastic winter dinner.
Here's the recipe, adapted slightly from Mark Bittman's Tortilla Soup recipe in the New York Times.
Ingredients:
4 large chicken legs
2 meaty beef bones (optional)
1 medium onion, skin on, quartered
1 whole head garlic, halved, skin on
1/4 cup vegetable oil
6 corn tortillas
2 chipotles in adobo
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
salt
1 cup frozen corn (optional)
shredded cheese
diced avocado
Directions:
Place chicken legs, beef bones, garlic and 3/4 of onion in a large pot. Cover with water, about 10 cups.
Bring to a boil, then reduce to a low simmer. Cook for about an hour.
Strain the broth through a fine sieve lined with cheesecloth or a coffee filter. Set chicken aside to cool. At this point you can also chill the broth to let the fat rise to the surface.
Meanwhile, slice 4 tortillas into strips. Heat oil in a pan and cook 2 whole tortillas until light brown and crisp, about 1 minute per side. Remove tortillas and drain on paper towels. Add tortilla strips to oil in pan and toss until brown and crisp, about 2-3 minutes. Drain strips on paper towels.
Add the chipotles, 1/4 cup cilantro, the remaining 1/4 onion and a teaspoon of salt to a blender. Crumble in the two whole, fried tortillas and add 2 cups of the broth. Puree until smooth.
Remove the chicken from the bones and shred the meat.
When ready to serve, skim the fat from the chicken broth and pour into a pot to reheat. Add the chipotle mixture and bring to a boil. Simmer for 10 minutes.
Add the corn and chicken and bring back to a simmer to warm through. Season with salt to taste.
Add avocado, cheese and cilantro to serving bowls and pour soup over top. Sprinkle fried tortilla strips over the top and add more cheese if desired.
Enjoy!
It's clear if you've read my blog that we love tacos. We eat them every chance we get when we're out and about whether in Mexico, California, North Carolina, Toronto, Niagara or here at home in London, Ontario. And I love to make them at home too.
Tacos de Carnitas are time consuming to make, but not difficult at all. And while you're taking the time to roast pork shoulder in its own fat, it only makes sense to make enough to feed a crowd.
Even if, like me, you know people who "don't like tacos", these carnitas are so mildly spiced, tender, crispy and delicious, I can't imagine anyone not falling in love at first bite.
The recipe and technique comes from The Food Lab at Serious Eats. I didn't make their salsa verde, because I have my own, canned last summer. But I followed the rest of the directions pretty much exactly.
Here's what you need for these amazing tacos. This amount will feed 8-10 people but you can easily halve or double the recipe. I froze half of the roasted pork and then thawed and crisped it weeks later.
We just got back from our first trip to Mexico! We had a relaxing beach vacation with some fun activities and amazing food and I'll tell you all about it soon.
I was looking through my archives and I think Mexican food is the kind of food I cook the most. Matt loves it and so do I, so I have a lot of Mexican and Mexican-inspired recipes on this blog, and I thought I'd do a round-up for Cinco de Mayo this week.
First a fantastic salsa verde that's great with chips but even better as a sauce or condiment with grilled or braised meats. We made our own from tomatillos in our garden, which grow amazingly well in our climate, but you can easily buy tomatillos in the summer, or even buy pre-made salsa verde for a tangy change from red salsa.
These tortillas are so easy to make, and masa is widely available now. It really makes sense to make your own tortillas if you like them as fresh as possible.
We finally harvested the last of our miracle tomatillos from our garden. Peppers do well in our garden in the fall, but these tomatillos have been the most successful thing we've ever grown.
Chilaquiles (fun to say: chee-lah-KEE-less), like tortilla soup, is another great way to use up stale tortillas. It's a dish that usually uses corn tortillas, but I used flour tortillas in this.
Here's what you need:
This recipe was originally intended to use up stale tortillas, but it is so good, I bought fresh corn tortillas just for this soup. It's rich, spicy and flavourful, and so easy to pull together in just minutes.
I used store-bought white corn tortillas for this but you can always make your own.
Here's what you need:
One of the best techniques I discovered this year is creating a rich, flavourful sauce from dried chilis. It works beautifully with pork, chicken, and now here's a beef recipe that tastes incredible.
The original recipe comes from Serious Eats. I made a few adjustments based on the chilis and meat I had available. Here's what you need:
These tostadas are wonderful! Matt went bananas for them. Tostadas are fried, flat corn tortillas topped with beans, meat and vegetables. You can be very creative in your toppings and make things from scratch or use shortcuts. These have refried beans, shredded chicken in a smoky sauce, avocado, sour cream, lettuce, onions and radish, topped with Mexican queso.
The tostadas themselves can be made or bought. I found these at our local Asian grocery store that also has a great Latin food section. I found four kinds of queso and real Mexican crema as well! Instead of these you can buy corn tortillas and fry them in oil until crispy. Or you can make your own corn tortillas and fry them. The point is a crispy, flat shell to hold the toppings. This dish was created to use up stale, leftover tortillas.
Quesadillas are such an easy, satisfying meal. I rarely think of them but they can usually be whipped up quickly from stuff on hand.
This adventure came about completely by accident. I had a meal planned that called for corn tortillas and I was planning to pick them up at the grocery store, but after trying two different stores, corn tortillas were nowhere to be found. I did find instant masa though, and figured I could make my own tortillas.
I ordered a tortilla press online and got to work!
.JPG)
.JPG)
