Bajío Sopa de Tortilla with Queso Ranchero

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Cast iron comal or clay comal de Tolimán for toasting chiles and roasting tomato
• •4-quart clay cazuela from Capula or a heavy Dutch oven
• •High-powered blender
• •Fine-mesh strainer
• •Slotted spoon or kitchen spider

Instructions

1. 1

   Dry the tortillas

   Cut the day-old tortillas into 1/4-inch strips. If your tortillas are fresh, spread them on a sheet pan and dry them in a 250F oven for 10 minutes, then cool. Stale tortillas fry crisp instead of drinking fat. This is household economy, not waste.

   Use corn tortillas from nixtamal masa. If your tortilleria makes a cacahuazintle blend, good. If not, maiz criollo is correct. Flour tortillas do not belong in this soup.
2. 2

   Fry the strips

   Heat 1 cup manteca de cerdo in a wide heavy skillet over medium-high heat until a tortilla strip bubbles immediately when it touches the fat. Fry the tortilla strips in batches, stirring so they color evenly, until golden and crisp, 45 to 60 seconds per batch. Lift them out with a spider or slotted spoon, drain on a rack or paper-lined tray, and salt lightly. Slice 2 of the pasilla chiles into thin ribbons and fry them in the same fat for 3 to 5 seconds, just until glossy and darker. Pull them out fast. Pasilla burns while you are thinking about something else.

   If a chile strip turns black, throw it out. Burned pasilla makes the whole bowl bitter. No me vengas con atajos.
3. 3

   Toast the chiles

   Wipe the comal clean and set it over medium heat. Toast the remaining 3 pasilla chiles and the 2 guajillo chiles separately. The pasilla needs only 10 to 15 seconds per side. The guajillo can take 20 to 30 seconds. The skins should puff, the color should deepen, and the kitchen should smell dark and fruity. Cover the toasted chiles with hot water, not boiling, and soak for 15 minutes.

   Boiling water toughens the chile skin and can pull bitterness into the broth. Hot water softens the flesh. That is the difference between chile flavor and punishment.
4. 4

   Roast the base

   On the same comal, roast the tomatoes cut side down, the onion slices, and the unpeeled garlic until the tomatoes slump and the edges blacken in spots, about 10 to 12 minutes. Turn the onion once. Pull the garlic when the cloves feel soft, then peel them. If using xoconostle, roast the wedges for 2 minutes, just enough to wake up their sharpness. Xoconostle brings Bajío acid. It is not there to make the soup sweet.

5. 5

   Blend and strain

   Drain the soaked chiles and put them in a blender with the roasted tomatoes, onion, peeled garlic, roasted xoconostle if using, oregano, salt, and 1 cup of the chicken broth. Blend until completely smooth. If the mixture is still hot, vent the blender lid and hold it down with a towel. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve, pressing hard on the solids. You want a smooth red-brown puree with no chile skin left behind.

6. 6

   Fry the puree

   Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons manteca de cerdo in a clay cazuela or heavy pot over medium heat. Add the strained puree carefully. It will sputter. Stir and fry for 8 to 10 minutes, until the sauce thickens, darkens to brick-red, and the lard begins to separate at the edge. This step is where the broth gets its backbone. La manteca es el sabor.

   Do not rush this by adding the broth early. Raw puree tastes raw no matter how long you simmer it later. Fry the salsa first. Así se hace y punto.
7. 7

   Simmer the broth

   Add the remaining 5 cups chicken broth slowly, stirring to dissolve the fried chile base into the liquid. Add the epazote sprig and the tiny pinch of chilcuague if using. Simmer gently for 15 minutes. Taste for salt. The broth should be dark, smooth, lightly acidic if you used xoconostle, and mild enough that the pasilla's raisin flavor comes through. Not all Mexican food is about heat. Some of it knows how to behave.

8. 8

   Build each bowl

   Remove the epazote sprig. Place a generous handful of fried tortilla strips in each warm bowl. Ladle the broth over them, then finish with crumbled queso ranchero, a spoonful of crema de rancho, slices of aguacate criollo, fried pasilla ribbons, and a few small epazote leaves. Serve with lime halves on the side. The tortilla strips go in the bowl, not the pot, or they collapse into mush before anyone sits down. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •Buy queso ranchero that crumbles moist and smells clean, not rubbery. At Mercado Aldama in León, ask the dairy vendors which cheese came in that morning. In Querétaro's Mercado de la Cruz, the crema sellers know which crema is thick enough to sit on the soup instead of disappearing.
• •Use chile pasilla, the dried chilaca, for the main flavor. Use chile guajillo only for red color and a clean edge. If your chiles are brittle, dusty, and smell like cardboard, leave them. You can have perfect technique and dead chiles and you will still get a dead soup.
• •Manteca de cerdo is not decoration here. It fries the tortillas and cooks the chile base properly. If you use neutral oil, the soup will still be edible, but it will be thinner in flavor. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
• •Xoconostle belongs to the dry country. Use it when the market has firm fruit with bright magenta flesh. If you cannot find it, leave it out. Do not pour vinegar into the pot and pretend the result is the same.
• •Chilcuague is powerful. One tiny pinch gives the tongue that small electric bite known in parts of Guanajuato and the Sierra Gorda. More than that and you have turned supper into medicine.
• •Cacahuazintle is the great corn of pozole, and some serious tortillerias grind it into special masa blends. If you find those tortillas, use them. Do not add canned hominy to this soup and call it Bajío. That is another dish.
• •The Bajío is not a footnote between Mexico City and Jalisco. It has its own register: pepita in festival moles, garambullo in semidesert salsas, xoconostle in caldos, chilcuague in sharp regional sauces. Not all moles are Oaxacan or Poblano, and not all birria belongs to Jalisco. Aguascalientes does borrego al vapor through the night. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
• •No cheddar, no iceberg lettuce, no flour tortilla strips. Use queso ranchero, crema de rancho, corn tortillas, chile pasilla, and aguacate criollo. The dish is already complete.

Advance Preparation

• •The chile-tomato broth can be made 2 days ahead and refrigerated. Reheat gently and taste for salt before serving.
• •The tortilla strips and fried pasilla ribbons can be fried 1 day ahead. Cool completely, then store airtight with a paper towel to catch excess fat.
• •Crumble the queso ranchero and slice the avocado right before serving. Do not assemble the bowls ahead. Tortilla soup waits for nobody once the broth touches the strips.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 520g)