Recipe - Fonda San Miguels Sopa De Tortilla

10 Plum tomatoes, broiled and
pureed (2 cups)
One half md Onion, roughly chopped
1 Clove garlic, peeled and
chopped
4 tablespoon Peanut or safflower oil
8 cup 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 ounce Panela cheese, cut in small
cubes, * see note (up to 8)

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 810 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 68 cubes of panela cheese,
more if preferred, and 24 strips of fried pasilla chilies. Garnish with a
fistful of fried tortilla chips, assembling crisscrossed for an interesting
presentation. Serve immediately. Makes about 2 One half 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, blackishbrown 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@tab.com on Wed, 15 Jan 1997.