Memories of Hermosillo: Roberto's Tortilla Soup

The Magic of Mexican Food, Tales from Hermosillo, a Lagniappe for Paid Subscribers, a Podcast, and and Immersive Dining Experience

Here’s Issue #49. We are closing in on a full year of weekly newsletters. Hard to believe. If you are a paid subscriber, a few days ago you should have received my Tel Aviv Notebook. If Tel Aviv isn’t on your list of food-travel destinations, by the time you get to the end of my eating guide I think you’ll agree that it should be. This notebook joins my Paris Notebook in a series of detailed dining guides for subscribers to Kitchen Sense. While in general, the point of this newsletter is to get people cooking more simple, delicious food at home—and that will always be free—there is so much to explore and to learn and to be inspired by from eating out. I actually think being a good home cook makes you a better restaurant diner because you can spot and appreciate real talent and value when someone else is cooking. If you are going to spend the money to eat out, which is getting increasingly more expensive due to all of the challenges facing the industry of late, you better pick right. That’s the point of these notebooks. They are my personal recommendations based on my personal experiences. I pay for my meals. I tip well. If I have a relationship with someplace I will say so, but mostly I just come in quietly and keep coming back to places I love. I send you where I would send my family and friends. Future notebooks to New York City, Milan, Florence, London, and Los Angeles are in the works. Let me know what else you might like to have an inside scoop on. Thank you for your continued support. —Mitchell

The breadth and depth of Mexican cuisine is awesome. Having only visited Mexico a few times, and then only to Mexico City, Oaxaca, and Hermosillo, I know very little about it except that every time I scratch the surface, I’m overwhelmed by the longstanding traditions and unique flavors. I also know enough to know that, as for any centuries-old food culture, to say “Mexican food” is ridiculously reductionist. The regional variations are vast and the cultural identities associated with those variations run deep.

One place I’ve spent more time than many is Hermosillo, the capital city of the Sonora region in the north. A dear friend of mine and Nate’s, Elia Tello, served as the U.S. Consul General in Hermosillo for three years, and we took advantage of her post to spend as much time as we could visiting the area. During that period Elia and I even planned a cultural culinary exchange for the U.S. State Department with American chefs Traci Des Jardins, whose grandfather was from Sonora, and Mary Sue Milliken, who gave inspiring talks, did cooking demos, and toured the culinary highlights of the region. Despite its population of almost one million, Hermosillo is so not on the tourist map that the first time Nate and I arrived at the airport, the passport control officer was audibly surprised when we said the reason for our visit was tourism. Close to the U.S. border, Hermosillo is a business town, manufacturing and agriculture, where the focus is on trade.

A roadside stop on our Sonoran culinary tour, part of a U.S. State Department exchange with Traci Des Jardins and Mary Sue Milliken.

Still, there is a rich food culture in the area, as there is everywhere in Mexico. But it isn’t necessarily what you would expect. Cattle and wheat are the agricultural staples. Steakhouses are the restaurants reserved for special occasions and the streets are lined with women making amazing flour tortillas from the silky Sonoran wheat that grows in the region. The climate and food of Hermosillo may has more in common with Arizon, which is a short few hours drive away, than they do with the Yucatan.

Elia was fortunate to have a very lovely, talented young cook at the Consul’s residence, Roberto Rodriguez. On occasion Nate and I pressed on Roberto to take us to the local food sites, the central market, local shops, and the neighborhood where the bakeries that make coyotas—Hermosillo’s traditional lard-pastry disks filled with piloncillo sugar and pecans—are made. I also asked him to teach me a few dishes.

Coyota production at the traditional Doña Maria bakery in Hermosillo.

Though not necessarily typical of the region, Roberto’s tortilla soup was one of our favorites. He was almost embarrassed to show me how to make it because it was his mother’s recipe, not some special dish he learned at the local culinary school, which he attended and where he now teaches. But we loved the soup—yes, even Nate, who doesn’t like soup at all. In fact, Nate and one of Elia’s other friends, Dudley, got into a bit of a tortilla soup eating contest. A former Marine, Dudley “won” at five bowls. Nate stopped at three. Both of them felt sick afterwards. This soup is that good.

Roberto proudly presents his tortilla soup to an adoring audience.

Anyway, I make this soup on occasion when we want to remember the lovely time we spent in Hermosillo. And every time I do I can’t believe how simple it is to make and how delicious and complex the flavor is. This soup has a high culinary ROI. I love that it uses up old tortilla chips that might have lost their crunch. For me, this puts it in the same family of the bread soups of Tuscany, sensible and delicious home cooking that by its very nature provides an appealing antidote to food waste.

My version of Roberto’s tortilla soup, served last night with a drizzle of fermented garlic chili sauce.

RECIPE: Roberto’s Tortilla Soup

The soup is best if made a day or two in advance. Be sure to save some stock to adjust the texture before serving.

(Serves 8, or 1 or 2 if Nate and Dudley are coming to dinner)

• 2 tablespoons avocado oil or other neutral vegetable oil

• 1/2 large white onion, diced

• 1 fresh poblano or Anaheim pepper, seeded and chopped

• 1 small stalk celery, chopped

• 1 small carrot, peeled and diced

• 3 medium cloves garlic, chopped

• Salt

• 3 Roma or plum tomatoes, diced

• Large pinch dried oregano

• 1 bay leaf

• 2 cups (500 ml) tomato purée, such as Italian passato (without basil) or other cooked tomato sauce or pulp

• 2 tablespoons double-concentrated tomato paste

• Up to 1 chipotle in adobo, plus additional adobo sauce, depending on your spice tolerance

• About 6 cups rich chicken or vegetable stock

• 1 ½ cups (5 ounces) unsalted, fried tortilla strips or chips

• Freshly ground black pepper

• 1 small bunch cilantro with stems, chopped

• Ripe avocado, sour cream, chopped cilantro, shredded cotija cheese, and lime wedges, for garnish

Heat the avocado oil in a large saucepan or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the onion, poblano pepper, celery, carrot, and garlic along with a pinch of salt, and cook, stirring often, until the vegetables are soft, about 10 minutes. Lower the heat to medium. Add the diced tomato and continue cooking until the tomato is reduced to a paste and the whole mixture has softened to a mush, 25 to 30 minutes. The mixture shouldn’t color, so modulate the heat as necessary. Stir in a large, generous pinch of dried oregano and the bay leaf and cook another 5 minutes or so.  

Cook down the aromatics and vegetables (aka sofrito) with the tomatoes until it’s almost a mush.

Turn the heat up to high. Add the tomato purée (rinse the container with water and add that, too), tomato paste, the chipotle in adobo and a few spoonfuls of the adobo sauce, 5 cups of the stock, another pinch of salt, a decent amount of black pepper, and the tortilla strips. Bring the soup to a simmer, reduce the heat to low, cover, and let cook for 30 minutes until all of the ingredients are very soft. In a small pot or a microwave, heat the remaining stock to a simmer.

Add everything to the pot and bring it to a simmer. These fried tortilla strips from my freezer were the last of the ones I brought back from Mexico.

Remove the bay leaf from the soup and discard. Stir in the chopped cilantro. Using an immersion or stand-alone blender, purée the soup until creamy smooth. Adjust the viscosity with the warm stock, as necessary. Taste for salt and pepper. Serve with ripe avocado, sour cream, chopped cilantro, cheese, and lime wedges for your guests to garnish their soup as they wish.

The soup is best if made a day in advance. Be sure to save some stock to adjust the texture when you reheat it, as it will thicken to a virtual solid as it chills. Taste again to season before serving.

A Few Notes

• If you have a Vitamix or other powerful blender, I would recommend using it to purée this soup. An immersion blender works fine. But the Vitamix produces a creamy, ethereal texture. If you are using something less powerful, you may want to peel the Roma tomatoes before adding them. A food processor produces the least desirable texture.

• Like most soups, this one is best made a day or two in advance. It will thicken to a near solid in the fridge. Reheat it over a low flame and adjust the texture and seasoning as described below.

• As with most recipes that call for one tomato product or another, I generally substitute what I have open or on hand, adjusting the consistency with stock or water. That is, purée, chopped tomatoes, fresh tomato, paste, etc. In my book they are all interchangeable with a few adjustments.

• One can of chipotle in adobo is enough to last me a lifetime. I love the flavor but they are very powerful. Nate can’t tolerate an entire chili in this pot of soup and so I just use about 1/3 of a pepper. When I open a can, freeze the chilis in small snack bags with a spoonful of the adobo sauce so I always have some available.
  

  

  Scenes from my freezer. Individual chipotle peppers in adobo from a single can, frozen for future use.

• As for the tortillas in the soup, it’s best to use good, fresh, all natural tortilla chips, not too greasy, which they sell in Mexico in strips for just this purpose (maybe they have them here to? I haven’t seen them). If you can’t find them, use a good quality chip, unsalted and without any flavoring or preservatives. You could also use old tortillas and fry them yourself. Will the soup work with tortillas that are just baked until dry? I’m not sure but will try it next time.

• The final viscosity is a matter of preference. The soup can be quite thick when it is made and it will thicken more as it sits. It’s best to thin it down with hot stock or water before you serve it. Be sure to simmer it for a few minutes after you add the stock and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper, as needed.

Hear Me on a Podcast

I was recently a guest on IsraelCast, a podcast produced by Jewish National Fund USA and hosted by Steven Shalowitz, who is also the producer of my own What’s Burning podcast. I’m talking about my career in food, Israel’s developing food culture, and other delicious subjects. I hope you enjoy it.

Immersive Gastronomy

There are still a few tickets left for the upcoming Aerobanquets RMX pop-up, the immersive virtual and augmented reality dining experience created by artist Mattia Casalengo with food from Unapologetic Foods chef-partner Chintan Pandya (Dhamaka, Semma, Adda), produced by Flavor 5 Studio. If you will be anywhere near Bushwick, Brooklyn, May 11–13, consider buying a ticket.