Cooking For Pleasure: A taste of Mexico in the dead of winter — tortilla soup

Many years ago on a family vacation near Zihuatenejo, we loved eating at a tiny restaurant down the beach from where we stayed. There we discovered tortilla soup. It was so good my sister Mary, with her limited high school Spanish, persuaded the cook who spoke little English to give her the recipe. So with a lot of trial and error, she scribbled it down in her little notebook. It has been popular with our family ever since. Please don’t be disturbed by the list of ingredients. All together they make a memorable soup, good enough for company.

There are two parts to this recipe, the soup and the garnishes, each one equally important. It is not difficult to make at all and if you don’t want to cook a chicken, you can just use canned good quality chicken broth and a fresh rotisserie chicken from your favorite store. If you are really in a hurry, you can substitute two cups of your favorite salsa for the tomatoes, peppers and onion.

PART I: THE SOUP

Ingredients:

6 cups chicken broth, canned or homemade

1 cup minced onion (about one medium size)

1 minced clove of garlic

1 serrano pepper, minced

2 tablespoons of cooking oil

1 can chopped tomatoes

1 teaspoon of cumin

1 teaspoon of dried oregano

¼ cup chopped cilantro

1 tsp chipotle in adobo (easily obtained in the Hispanic section of the supermarket)

2 cups of shredded cooked chicken (boned and skinned)

2-3 tablespoons of sour cream

Salt to taste

Step One:

Prepare all the above ingredients and put them on the counter to easily access.

Step Two:

Saute onion, garlic and pepper in oil at a medium heat until soft. Add broth, tomatoes and remaining ingredients except for chicken and sour cream. Taste for seasoning, adding salt and cayenne pepper if necessary. Remove ¼ cup of soup from the pan and stir in sour cream. Add to soup.

Step Three:

Add shredded chicken and set aside.

PART II: THE GARNISHES

8 corn tortillas, cut into ½ inch strips

1 avocado, cubed

1 cup, chopped fresh cilantro

1 cup cubed Monterey jack cheese

Two ancho/pasilla chiles, seeded, stemmed and toasted and thinly sliced

Diced fresh roasted green chiles (poblano or Anaheim)

Step One:

Prepare all garnishes except for the tortilla strips, put them in separate bowls and place them on the table so that guests may help themselves.

Step Two:

Fry tortilla strips in hot oil until golden (be careful not to brown). Drain on paper towels and salt. Place in large bowl on the table.

Step Three:

Ladle hot soup onto the tortilla strips at the table.

Let your guests garnish the soup as they wish.

• Patty Schied is a longtime Juneau resident who studied at the Cordon Bleu in London, has cooked meals for both AWARE and the Glory Hall, and has written a cookbook. Cooking For Pleasure appears every other week in Capital City Weekly.