Sopa de Flor de Calabaza Poblana

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Wide clay cazuela or heavy 4-quart pot
• •Cast iron comal for charring
• •Sharp paring knife for the blossoms
• •Blender for the tomato puree

Instructions

1. 1

   Clean the squash blossoms

   Lay the blossoms on a clean kitchen towel. Pinch off the green sepals at the base and pull out the yellow pistil from inside each flower. The pistil turns bitter when simmered. Brush off any dirt with a dry pastry brush. Do not rinse them under running water. The flowers are delicate and water collapses the petals. Tear the cleaned blossoms in half lengthwise and set aside.

   Buy the flowers the morning you plan to cook them. By the second day they wilt and the flavor turns grassy. At the mercado, ask for flor that still feels firm at the base.
2. 2

   Char the poblano and tomatoes

   Heat a dry comal or heavy skillet over medium-high. Lay the poblano directly on the comal and turn it every couple of minutes until the skin blisters and blackens on all sides. Drop it into a bowl, cover with a plate, and let it sweat for ten minutes. Char the tomatoes on the same comal until the skins split and blacken in patches. Peel the poblano under your fingers, never under water, and never strip every scrap of char away. Those black flecks are flavor. Remove the seeds and stem and cut the chile into rajas, thin strips. Blend the charred tomatoes with a splash of broth into a smooth puree.

3. 3

   Build the sofrito

   In a wide cazuela or heavy pot, melt the lard over medium heat. La manteca es el sabor. Add the onion with a pinch of salt and cook until translucent and just beginning to color at the edges, about five minutes. Add the garlic and cook one minute more, until fragrant. The kitchen should smell like onion sweetened by fat, not like burned garlic. If the garlic browns, lower the heat.

4. 4

   Cook the calabacita and elote

   Add the diced calabacita and corn kernels to the pot. Stir to coat in the onion-garlic-lard base. Cook over medium heat for about six minutes, stirring now and then, until the zucchini softens at the edges but still holds its shape. The corn should turn a deeper yellow and start to smell sweet. Do not let the vegetables brown. This is a soup, not a sauté.

5. 5

   Add the tomato and chile

   Pour in the charred tomato puree and add the rajas de poblano. Cook for five to seven minutes, stirring, until the tomato darkens from bright red to a deeper brick color and the fat starts to separate at the edges of the pan. This step is not decorative. Raw tomato in broth tastes thin and sour. Cooked tomato in broth tastes like Puebla in August.

   If the tomato puree splatters too aggressively, drop the heat. You want a steady cook, not a fight.
6. 6

   Pour in the broth

   Add the hot broth, the salt, and the epazote. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium-low heat. Cover partially and cook for ten minutes. The vegetables should be tender but not falling apart. The broth should taste lightly tomatoed, herbal from the epazote, and round from the lard. Taste for salt now. A flor de calabaza soup that is under-salted tastes like dishwater.

7. 7

   Add the blossoms last

   Drop the torn squash blossoms into the simmering broth. Stir gently once. Cook for no more than two to three minutes, until the petals soften and turn translucent at the edges. That is all the cooking they need. The flower is the dish. Cook it longer and it disappears into the broth, both its color and its delicate flavor gone. No me vengas con atajos and no me vengas con descuidos. The flower goes in last.

8. 8

   Serve at the table

   Pull out the spent epazote sprigs. Ladle the soup into wide clay bowls. Make sure each bowl has its share of blossoms, calabacita, corn, and rajas. Top each bowl with crumbled queso fresco at the table so it softens on the surface without melting away. Serve with warm corn tortillas and lime wedges on the side. Eat it the day you make it. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •Buy the squash blossoms the morning you plan to cook them. By the next day they have wilted and the flavor flattens. At the mercado, look for bundles where the base of each stem is firm and the petals are still closed or only just opening. If your only option is the wilted bundle at the supermarket, wait a week and make something else. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
• •Fresh epazote is non-negotiable. Dried epazote is a different ingredient and it does not work the same way. If you cannot find fresh, look at a Mexican mercado or grow your own. The plant is practically a weed and a single seed packet will feed you for years.
• •Charring the tomatoes on the comal is not optional. Raw blended tomato makes a thin, sour broth. Charred tomato gives you the deeper flavor that this soup needs to carry the delicacy of the flowers.

Advance Preparation

• •The sofrito with the tomato and rajas can be made a few hours ahead and held at room temperature. The broth can be heated separately when you are ready to finish.
• •The squash blossoms cannot be prepped more than two or three hours ahead. Once cleaned, they begin to wilt fast. Clean them right before the soup is served.
• •This soup does not keep. The blossoms collapse in the refrigerator and turn slimy by the next day. Make what you will eat and eat it that night.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 460g)