I recently visited a southwestern restaurant that I once enjoyed the
most fam-tabulous tortilla soup at to find the owners had done the
unthinkable... Sold their collective souls to Megacorporation with
market testing groups at it's heart. The meal, once worthy of driving
8-hours across a summer super-heated Mohave and then staying in this
one-street town, was so bad (how bad was it?) that even the dog sneezed
and turned away from the "slab" of pork ribs we offered it.

I've made a couple rounds of tortilla soup myself and was very shocked
to see tomato puree used for the base. Was this a way to dumb down the
soup (it was very mild and dominated by tomato) or is the recipe I'm
using, calling for crushed, stewed tomatoes, the aberrance?

Many thanks.

The Ranger

"The Ranger" wrote in message
...
I recently visited a southwestern restaurant that I once enjoyed the
most fam-tabulous tortilla soup at to find the owners had done the
unthinkable... Sold their collective souls to Megacorporation with
market testing groups at it's heart. The meal, once worthy of driving
8-hours across a summer super-heated Mohave and then staying in this
one-street town, was so bad (how bad was it?) that even the dog sneezed
and turned away from the "slab" of pork ribs we offered it.

I've made a couple rounds of tortilla soup myself and was very shocked
to see tomato puree used for the base. Was this a way to dumb down the
soup (it was very mild and dominated by tomato) or is the recipe I'm
using, calling for crushed, stewed tomatoes, the aberrance?

Many thanks.

The Ranger

Tortilla soup is one of our favorites and is so flexible that you can make
it with almost anything left over from the past few days. In fact, that is
the origin of tortilla soup - leftover tortillas!

The trick is to slice your tortillas in half inch wide strips, frying in oil
until golden, draining them while making the broth. The broth can be
anything from simple chicken stock with a bit of tomato thrown in, to
bullion cubes or Maggi with Ro-Tel or even a tomato or two cubed... onion
and garlic sometimes... But the key to tortilla soup is when it is ladled
into a bowl and you add slices of avocado, some cheese (grated parmesano or
queso anejo) and squeeze in some lime juice. Add ground red chile to taste
as most people don't like it hot. You serve it by adding the fried tortillas
at the last minute so they don't get too mushy before eating. You want the
tortillas to have that very special and rare taste of a frito, but softened
by the broth.

Use the same basic concept to make fiedo soup. Lightly fry the bundled angel
hair pasta (fideo) and add to the broth immediately, without much draining,
so it sizzles when hitting the broth. Again... serve shortly after adding
the fried pasta. Top with avocado, a squirt of lime and chile 'al gusto'.

Wayne
www.pueblaprotocol.com