Sopa De Vegetal

Sopa  is a traditional Mexican soup. It is an easy dish that is often made as a snack or a side to a main course. It is usually called sopa de fideo/pasta depending on which type and shape of noodle or pasta you use. You can add plenty of vegetables or different meats and spices to kick up the flavor. Sopa is just the basic soup and when you add more ingredients is when the name changes, for example, sopa de vegetal and sopa de pollo. However, these kinds of sopa are different from chicken soup and vegetable soup because it uses the pasta.

A few years ago, the restaurant Matador, a Mexican eatery, in downtown Phoenix was popular and served sopa de vegetal. It was delicious and I would go there with my Nana and eat that dish often. It had fideo, tomatoes and carrots.

However, when the restaurant closed its doors, I could no longer find a Mexican food restaurant that offered this dish on the menu. But since my mother made this dish regularly, I decided tor recreate it using my own recipe and see if I could match the same flavor profile as Matador did with their sopa.

Sopa is simple. The pasta used already comes prepackaged. It is at most grocery stores in the Latin American food aisle. Just one package(7 ounces) will do the job. You will also need:

• 5 diced tomatoes or 1 can diced tomatoes(14.5 ounces)
• 4 cups of liquid (water or chicken stock)
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, chopped finely
• 1 cup of fresh, chopped cilantro
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon of olive oil
• 2 sticks of celery, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped

Start of by heating the olive oil. The key to making this recipe successful and authentic is to fry the pasta before actually cooking it with the other ingredients. Once the oil is heated, add the chopped onions and garlic. The flavor will infuse the oil. The onions should be chopped in strips. Then add the pasta and stir it frequently so it won’t burn. This will take about a minute and you will see the color change.

For the tomato sauce, you can use a can and it will be easier. However, for the authentic taste, use fresh tomatoes. In either a food processor or blender, add the tomatoes with chicken stock or water. Add some salt and pepper then blend it all together. Add it to the pasta, onions and garlic.

To make this sopa de vegetal, add the carrots and celery. Make sure that the tomato mixture covers the vegetables in order for them to properly cook. Then cover the sopa and let it cook for 20-30 minutes or until the pasta and vegetables are cooked. It would help to cover the pan you are cooking the sopa in. Be aware that sopa absorbs the water/tomato mixture so you may need to add more water and stir often so it won’t stick to the bottom of the pan. And don’t use a small pan because it will eventually spill out.

You may need to add more salt and pepper. You might also want to try adding a cube of chicken bullion to enhance the flavor especially if you are not using chicken stock.

I like my sopa with broth so I add water throughout to thin out the tomato mixture.

 

You can top it off with fresh cilantro, cheese, or whatever other toppings work well for you. This truly is one authentic Mexican dish that is simple for anyone to make. And it is as cheap as it gets! Yet, it still has those delicious flavors that a five-star dish would. I hope you enjoy this dish as much as I did. It was nice to know I could recreate this dish after years of having it in a restaurant. Enjoy!

 

Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

There’s no comparison to the taste of fresh, warm homemade chocolate chip cookies! This simple recipe will guide you to baking perfect cookies. Using cookie cutters will enhance the appearance and make any occasion special.

Thai’d Up in Downtown Phoenix

Downtown Phoenix has grown tremendously over the last few years. It now offers a wider variety of restaurants and food from different cultures. More places are now offering discounts to students who attend ASU. This lead me to try a few new places near Cityscape.

One of my favorite places was Thai’d Up. I was a little hesitant to try Thai food because I’ve never had it before and this place was just opening up for business.

Before trying this place, I decided to find out some information about the history of Thai’d Up. I decided to stop by and grab menu. I was greeted by three women who I later found out were the owners.

They opened the restaurant based around cuisines from Thailand. The women have combined their recipes, which were passed down from earlier generations, and cooking experience of 30 years to create food adhering to four prominent flavors: sweet, sour, bitter and savory.

The menu was extensive but the dish that stood out to me immediately was L2, the broccoli delight with chicken. (You can pick any type of meat, fish, tofu or vegetarian)

I am a broccoli fanatic. It’s my favorite food to eat especially with Asian cuisine and spices. I knew if I loved this dish that I would pretty much be this places number one customer. That’s how intense my love for broccoli is.

The menu allows you to pick how spicy you want a dish since Thai food is typically cooked with garlic and crushed red pepper flakes. It’s all combined in a wok to created crisp, explosive flavors and textures. The broccoli and chicken is mixed with carrots and the Thai’d up sauce, which has been a family recipe for generations and the owners do not share it with anyone except each other. They won’t allowed anyone to alter the original recipe because they want to keep the flavors as close to the ones right from Thailand as they can.

The dish was very generous in size and came with a side of tofu soup. It was extremely flavorful and the broccoli was perfect. I never thought Thai food would be so tasty and delightful.

The Thai’d Up sauce, which was passed down from generations, was definitely the secret ingredient that made this dish spectacular. It was smooth, spicy and had depths of flavor that adhered to every taste bud in someway. The fact that the owners only use locally grown, fresh produce also made this dish extra special. And to top the day off, Thai’d Up gave me a 10% discount off my bill just for being an ASU student with my sun card. It doesn’t get any better than that.

Not only did Thai’d Up have a fascinating story behind it, but the food was excellent as well. And the best part is that it is college student friendly and supports locally grown produce.

My Version of a Family Favorite

Food has always been a major part of my families bonding time. I grew up in a very “nontraditional” Mexican home. My parents never really cooked our cultures food. Most of my friends mothers would make homemade tortillas and tamales weekly but my mother didn’t. It was fun to joke about it but I would wonder what I was missing out on. One year my dad came home and began making green chili stew using my Nana’s recipe. It was amazing to see him make something so new to me. And it was the most delicious food I’ve eaten to this day.

Ever since then, whenever I go to a mexican restaurant, I have to sample their green chili stew whether it be in a burro or accompanied by rice and beans. I’ve tried some pretty good ones and some that were less than decent. But none of these recipes compared to my father’s recreation of my nana’s green chili stew. The main reason his is unique is because he uses potatoes in the recipe, which is the only time I’ve ever had it this way in green or red chili.

However, this recipe takes a few hours to make and is only really made on special occasions like my birthday or my dogs birthday because she loves it too. So when I began cooking, this was one of the first recipes I wanted to try. But it is challenging and I saved it until now.

I watched my father cook this dish a few times but he is very secretive about the exact recipe. And since I’ve watched tons of cooking shows and read different cookbooks, I decided to make my own and try to replicate my father’s recipe.

• 2 white onions, chopped
• 2 pounds of russet potatoes, chopped (1-inch cubes)
• 1 pound tomatillos (husked, rinsed, and halved)
• 2 pounds of pork shoulder or “pork butt” (chopped 1-inch cubes)
• 3 jalapenos, stemmed, seeded and halved
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 can diced tomatoes in juice
• 4 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
• 5 cups water or chicken stock
• 1 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 1/2 a cup of flour

1. Put oil in a large soup pot or dutch oven. Cook the pork until it is browned then add the onions, potatoes, and garlic. Add the water or chicken stock. Add salt and pepper. Add water then tomatoes, tomatillos, and cilantro and jalapenos. Bring to boil.
2. In order to thicken the chili, you will need to add flour. Brown the flour in a skillet. This should only take a minute to a minute and a half because any longer will burn it and leve you chili too smokey. Make sure the flour isn’t in clumps. Whisk out any clumps.
3. Reduce the heat to low and let the chili simmer for an hour or so until the meat and potatoes are tender. Stir it every few minutes. Add additional salt and pepper to taste.

Many people top off their green chili with cheese or crisp tortilla strips. Any toppings work well and don’t forget the warm tortillas!

When I made this recipe I made both red and green chili. Both are similar except for the chiles and peppers use. Rice and beans make great sides for the meal.

This was a successful recreation. I believe I made this exactly like my father’s recipe. He enjoyed it and it was a great bonding experience.

As for the ingredients I used, I was able to go to the Farmer’s Market at the ASU Tempe Campus at the end of January and get some of the fresh produce. It was convenient for any college student.  For the other ingredients, I went to a local Pro’s Ranch Market after hearing positive reviews about it being Arizona’s 2012 Retailer of the Year. It was budget friendly and the selection of meats and spices were abundant.

Overall, this dish was satisfying and would be easy for college students to make especially with a wide variety of resources such as farmers markets available. So if you are looking for a hearty, delicious dish to make with local ingredients, this is definitely a winner!