Happy Birthday Cori

Yesterday was Cori's birthday, and I surprised her with a dish that we had at our anniversary dinner a few months ago. For our anniversary, we had gone to Topolobampo in Chicago. All the dishes were outstanding, but the Sopa Azteca (a traditional Mexican tortilla soup) was truly eye-opening. Thankfully, Rick Bayless has made the recipe available on his website. So I decided to give it a shot for Cori's birthday.




The Sopa Azteca gets its wonderful flavor from fire-roasted pasilla chiles and tomatoes, so i lit the Big Green Egg, and dropped the tomatoes right onto the coals. When they were black all over, I held a pasilla chile over the coals with a pair of tongs, just long enough for it to lightly roast on all sides...Ok, to be honest, first I just dropped one into the coals, as I had done with the tomatoes, but it charred immediately. I didn't want it to turn my soup bitter, so I started over and used the tongs instead. Live and learn. Chiles are cheap. The tomatoes were peeled and seeded; and the chile seeded and cut into pieces. All were tossed into a blender.



In a dutch oven, I sauteed one sliced onion and a few cloves of garlic until all were goldeny delicious. These too were added to the blender, and everything was pureed. In the background of the photo, you can see a one-quart brick of frozen, homemade chicken stock thawing. I made a huge batch of stock a couple weekends ago.



The puree was then returned to the dutch oven and reduced and reduced and reduced until it was a thick paste.



Since it was just the two of us, I removed half the paste, and refridgerated it for later use. To the remaining half, I added the chicken stock, and a sprig of epazote, a Mexican herb. These simmered for about 15 minutes. In the meantime, I boned and cut up a couple chicken thighs (saving the bones and skin for the next batch of stock), and sliced a corn tortilla into strips, which I fried. The chicken was added at the end of the simmering time and cooked for a few minutes. Meanwhile, I prepared the bowls by arranging the shredded chihuahua cheese and tortilla strips in the center, and slices of avocado around the bowl.



The soup was then ladled into the bowl, and served with mexican crema and slices of lime. It was truly outstanding, if I do say so myself, and easy to make. The recipe called for canned fire-roasted tomatoes, which would have shortened the prep work considerably. Had I done this, the soup would probably have taken about 45 minutes to make, and when I make it with the pre-made leftover paste, it will probably take about 15 minutes. Quick, easy and delicious.



After choir practice, we had pumpkin muffins (Cori's a big pumpkin fan). I hope she had a wonderful birthday, and knows that Elly and I love her dearly.