Tortilla soup

Ingredients

Tortilla strips

• 8stale corn tortillas, in strips
• oil for frying
• salt

Broth base

• 6ripe tomatoes
• 1onion
• 4 clovesgarlic
• 2dried pasilla or ancho chillies
• 1.5 litreschicken stock
• 2 tbspoil
• salt

To finish

• 2pasilla chillies, extra, fried and crumbled
• 1avocado, diced
• 150 gqueso fresco or panela, cubed
• 150 mlcrema or soured cream
• 1lime, in wedges
• a sprig of epazote, optional

To serve

• as a first course, at the table with the garnishes separate

Directions

1. Use corn tortillas rather than wheat, since the flavour of nixtamalised maize is central here. They must be stale and dry, ideally a day or two old. Cut them into strips about a centimetre wide. Fry the strips in hot oil in small batches until deep golden and rigid.
2. Fry them until they are genuinely hard, since anything still flexible will collapse into mush the moment broth touches it. Drain them on a rack and salt them while hot. They can be fried hours ahead and kept in a tin.
3. Remove the stems and most of the seeds, then press the chillies flat against a hot dry pan. Toast for only ten to fifteen seconds a side, until fragrant and slightly changed in colour. Soak the toasted chillies in hot water for twenty minutes until soft. Char the tomatoes, onion and unpeeled garlic in a dry pan or under a grill until blackened in patches.
4. Turn them until the skins blister and blacken, which takes eight to ten minutes. Peel the garlic and blend everything with the soaked chillies until smooth. Pass it through a sieve, which gives the clean-textured broth this soup should have.
5. Heat oil in the pot until hot, then pour the blended purée in all at once. Fry it for eight to ten minutes, stirring, until it darkens and thickens noticeably. Add the chicken stock and simmer for twenty minutes, uncovered.
6. Season it well and add a sprig of epazote if you have it. The broth should be flavourful and moderately thin, not a thick sauce. Fry a couple of whole pasilla chillies briefly in oil until they puff and crisp. Crumble or slice them and use them as a garnish, which gives a completely different texture and a concentrated hit of chilli. This is standard in Mexico and it is worth the extra minute.
7. Put the fried tortilla strips in the bowl and ladle the hot broth over them at the table. Assemble each bowl at the last possible moment, since the strips soften within a couple of minutes. Never cook the strips in the soup, which turns the whole pot to porridge.
8. Set out diced avocado, cubed cheese, crema, crumbled chilli and lime wedges and let people add their own. Serve it as a first course, in modest quantities.

Technique

• The tortillas must be stale and fried until genuinely rigid.
• Pasilla chillies are used for depth of flavour rather than heat.
• The broth is poured over the strips at the table, never cooked with them.

Substitutions

• Ancho chillies in place of pasilla.
• Any crumbling white cheese in place of queso fresco.

Variations

• With shredded chicken added to the bowl.
• Made vegetarian, with a vegetable stock.
• With more chilli, for a hotter broth.

Frequently asked questions

What is Tortilla soup?

Tortilla soup is a soup & stew from Mexico: tomato broth with fried tortilla strips, avocado, pasilla chile.

How long does Tortilla soup take to make?

Tortilla soup takes 30 min of preparation and 40 min of cooking. The recipe makes 6 servings. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Tortilla soup?

Yes, within limits. Ancho chillies in place of pasilla. Any crumbling white cheese in place of queso fresco.

What is the most important thing to get right in Tortilla soup?

Use corn tortillas rather than wheat, since the flavour of nixtamalised maize is central here. They must be stale and dry, ideally a day or two old. Cut them into strips about a centimetre wide. Fry the strips in hot oil in small batches until deep golden and rigid.