Sopa China Mexicalense

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 8-quart stockpot
• •Fine-mesh strainer
• •Small skillet for frying the chiles
• •Tongs
• •Ceramic Chinese soup spoons for serving

Instructions

1. 1

   Build a clean broth

   Place the beef shank or chicken thighs in a heavy stockpot. Cover with the cold water. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat, never a hard boil. Skim the gray foam that rises in the first fifteen minutes. A clean caldo starts here. Cloudy broth means you walked away too soon.

   Cold water draws the flavor and the impurities out slowly. Hot water seizes the proteins and traps the foam inside the meat. Start cold.
2. 2

   Add the aromatics

   Once the broth is clean, add the halved onion, garlic, ginger, celery, and salt. The ginger is not optional. This is what makes it sopa china and not caldo de res. The Cantonese cooks who came to Mexicali in the 1910s brought ginger with them and it stayed. Cada estado, su propia cocina, and Mexicali's kitchen has been bilingual for over a century.

3. 3

   Simmer the broth low

   Cover partially and simmer at a lazy bubble for one hour for chicken, or one and a half hours for beef. The meat should be tender enough to pull apart with a fork. Skim any foam that returns. Strain the broth through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean pot. Pull the meat off the bone, shred it into bite-sized pieces, and set aside. Discard the spent vegetables. Taste the broth for salt now.

4. 4

   Fry the chiles guerito

   While the broth simmers, heat the vegetable oil in a small skillet over medium-high heat. When the oil shimmers, add the whole chiles guerito. Fry them, turning with tongs, for two to three minutes total, until the skin blisters and the chiles turn a deeper yellow with brown spots. Lift them out onto a plate and sprinkle with salt while hot. These go on the table whole. The diner bites the tip and squeezes a little of the smoky heat into their bowl with each spoonful. This is how it is done at Café Nueva Asia in La Chinesca.

   Pierce each chile once with the tip of a knife before frying. They will pop in the oil if you skip this step. No me vengas con atajos: the small step matters.
5. 5

   Cook the noodles separately

   If using fideo chino, bring a pot of water to a boil and cook the noodles for three to four minutes, until just tender. Drain and rinse under cold water to stop them from cooking. Hold to one side. Cook them separately, never in the broth. Noodles cooked in the soup turn it cloudy and starchy and the broth you spent an hour building becomes a sad imitation of itself.

6. 6

   Add the vegetables in order

   Bring the strained broth back to a simmer over medium heat. Stir in the soy sauce. Add the carrot first and cook for two minutes. Then the broccoli stems, then the florets, the bell pepper, and the Napa cabbage. Cook for three minutes more. Add the bok choy and the scallions last. Cook for ninety seconds. The vegetables should be bright, crisp-tender, never soft. This is the Cantonese hand at work in a Mexican kitchen. Mushy vegetables are not the tradition here.

7. 7

   Finish and serve

   Return the shredded meat to the pot. Drizzle in the toasted sesame oil. Taste one more time. The broth should be clean, savory, with the ginger and soy sauce sitting just behind the meat flavor, not in front of it. Place a small nest of noodles in the bottom of each bowl if using. Ladle the broth, meat, and vegetables over the top. Send the bowls to the table with lime wedges, the fried chiles guerito, soy sauce, and Salsa Maggi. Each diner finishes their own bowl. Asi se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •Use beef shank with bone for the deepest broth. Chambarete is what the Mexicali cooks use, and the marrow gives the caldo body without making it heavy. Chicken thighs work for a lighter version. Boneless meat will not give you the same broth, no matter what.
• •The fried chiles guerito are the signature of this soup. If you cannot find guerito, the larger fresh yellow chile sometimes labeled caribe or Hungarian wax pepper will work. Anaheim chiles are the wrong shape and the wrong heat. A jalapeno is not a substitute. The yellow chile is the one.
• •Salsa Maggi and Salsa Huang are both common at the table in Mexicali. Salsa Huang is a Chinese-Mexican condiment made locally and you will not find it outside Baja California. Soy sauce and a few drops of Maggi will get you close.

Advance Preparation

• •The broth can be made one or two days ahead and refrigerated. Reheat gently and add the vegetables fresh at serving time. The vegetables must be cooked the moment the soup goes to the table, never reheated.
• •The fried chiles guerito are best fried within an hour of serving. They lose their crisp blistered skin if held too long.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 700g)