Sopes Are All About The Add-Ons & Refried Beans Might Be The Favorite

Delish

One of the greatest pleasures of Mexican street food are sopes: bundles of masa fried and piled with refried beans, shredded chicken, salsa roja, and cotija cheese.

Transcript

00:00 How's it going everyone?

00:01 It's Justin here in the Delish Kitchen studios.

00:03 Sopes are kind of like a tortilla mixed with a bowl.

00:08 It's kind of like the waffle bowl

00:10 of nixtamalized corn products.

00:12 You can fill it with whatever you want.

00:14 Today we're gonna be making our own homemade salsa,

00:16 refried beans, and it's all gonna come together

00:19 relatively quickly and easily.

00:21 Let's get started.

00:22 If you've never made homemade roasted salsa,

00:24 it's super easy.

00:25 You can decide to roast or not roast

00:27 whatever vegetables you want.

00:29 In this case, we're just doing our tomatoes

00:31 and these are gonna go into a 400 degree oven

00:33 for about 30 minutes until they're blistery

00:37 and you know that they would break down in a blender.

00:39 We've taken our tomatoes out of the oven.

00:41 They're nice and blistered.

00:42 The skin is gonna fall off.

00:44 If I like stuck my finger in this or a fork,

00:46 it would immediately start to like melt away

00:48 and become almost a salsa.

00:49 So we're gonna place it in a blender

00:51 along with some white onion, some parsley,

00:55 some garlic, ancho chili powder, and some salt.

00:58 Then we're gonna just blitz it up

00:59 until it becomes a nice salsa.

01:02 It can be a little bit chunkier if you want.

01:04 You can blend it a little less.

01:05 If you want it smooth like I do in this case,

01:06 you can take it all the way.

01:08 All right, I think this looks good.

01:11 Let's have a gander.

01:12 Yes, this is what I'm looking for.

01:14 I like it to be thin with like a little bit of chunk.

01:17 I'm gonna taste it.

01:18 Really bright, really fresh.

01:22 With that roasted tomato, add some caramelization,

01:24 depth of flavor, really good.

01:26 This is gonna be delicious.

01:27 We made our first topping.

01:28 Now we're gonna make our first filling,

01:30 which is gonna be homemade refried beans.

01:32 You can buy the stuff that already comes in the can,

01:34 which is delicious,

01:35 but I do think there is something special

01:36 and really, really delicious about making them yourself.

01:39 And the real key and trick to doing so is your fat.

01:43 Not just the amount, which should be a lot.

01:45 Again, it's refried beans.

01:47 We're not like going soft on the amount of fat

01:49 we're putting in this, as well as the type.

01:51 You want a neutral oil.

01:53 And in this case, I'm actually using melted lard.

01:55 Lard is the fat of choice in much of traditional

01:58 Mexican cooking.

01:59 It adds a richness, like a fattiness,

02:02 which is crazy 'cause it is just fat.

02:03 But it is just like a different type of flavor

02:06 that I think is really awesome in this dish.

02:09 So, into a skillet, we're gonna go in with our melted lard,

02:13 as well as some white onion and some garlic.

02:16 We're gonna cook that until it's softened,

02:18 about like five minutes.

02:19 Then we're gonna go ahead and stir in our beans,

02:22 salt and cumin.

02:23 We're using pinto beans here.

02:25 Toss those all up until they're covered in fat

02:27 and they're starting to warm up, about five minutes.

02:30 The beans look a little blistery

02:31 and they've had some of the starch get released

02:34 and they're getting kind of coated.

02:36 This is a good time now that we are going to mash our beans.

02:39 And it kind of depends on how rustic you like

02:41 your refried beans, like how hard you wanna go mashing

02:44 or if you wanna get a ricer out or something.

02:46 I'm just gonna use a fork.

02:47 I'm gonna go in and I'm gonna just lightly start crushing

02:51 some of these beans and it should be nice and creamy

02:54 coming through the tines.

02:55 And that should be good.

02:57 And then we're gonna have our refried beans.

02:59 Let's get into our dough for the sopes.

03:01 It's largely made up of masa harina,

03:04 which you can find in most grocery stores nowadays

03:07 or online or in a Latin or Mexican grocery store.

03:10 It is essentially just ground nixtamalized corn.

03:12 Nixtamalized corn is just corn that has been soaked

03:15 for a long time in an alkaline solution.

03:17 Traditionally and historically,

03:19 lime water is what was used.

03:21 And it would reduce the amount of toxins in the corn

03:23 and actually raise the nutrients,

03:24 which is like a crazy alchemical process that is amazing

03:28 and leads to some of the most delicious Mexican foods.

03:31 This process couldn't be simpler.

03:32 All we're going to do is combine masa harina,

03:35 a bit of lukewarm water and some salt

03:38 and essentially just mix it together with your hands

03:40 until it becomes a dough.

03:42 It should be rather pliable and kind of like easy

03:44 to press your thumb into.

03:45 It'll come together super quickly.

03:47 However, if it, for some reason, feels a little dry,

03:50 it could be your climate, how hot it is,

03:52 how cold it is in your room.

03:53 You could add a little bit of warm water,

03:55 like a teaspoon or two at a time

03:57 until you have the correct hydration levels.

04:00 This should have the texture of Play-Doh.

04:02 Like that's a very accurate comparison.

04:05 It should feel light.

04:06 And when you like press into it, it should have no give.

04:08 You should leave an indent on it.

04:10 It should feel like you can sculpt with it.

04:12 Make the dough into a ball

04:14 and then divide that into six equal portions.

04:17 Before we cook, we have to flatten these.

04:19 You could use a tortilla press,

04:21 but not everyone's going to have that.

04:21 So all we need is just a flat surface, like a pie plate.

04:24 We'll put down a piece of parchment.

04:25 We're going to place one of our dough balls

04:27 and then we're going to push down with equal pressure,

04:30 kind of on the sides, not in the middle,

04:32 until you have something that is about yay big in diameter.

04:36 You want to be applying equal pressure

04:38 so that you're not getting uneven sides.

04:40 And we're eventually then going to cook them,

04:42 par cook them, and then form them

04:44 into those little bowls that I was talking about.

04:46 Our pre-pressed soap base are sitting in this pan

04:49 under a wet paper towel.

04:51 These will dry out relatively quickly,

04:52 so we want to work fast,

04:53 but a wet towel or paper towel will help us greatly.

04:56 So I have a cast iron that's been preheating

05:00 over medium high heat.

05:01 We're going to go into a dry pan with three soap base.

05:05 You don't want to overcrowd.

05:06 And they're going to go right in.

05:08 This is a pre, like a par cooking

05:12 that we are doing on these soap base

05:13 because they're going to cook for a bit

05:15 and then we're going to form them

05:16 into the little bowls or boats that you're used to seeing.

05:19 They're going to go for about one to two minutes

05:21 on each side, just so you see a little bit of browning

05:23 and you can still pliably move around with them.

05:26 In this initial cooking process,

05:27 they're going to start to dry out on the surface

05:29 and form a skin that will resemble a tortilla.

05:32 That's exactly what we're looking for.

05:33 We want to see that on both sides.

05:35 Once you remove the soap base from the pan,

05:37 you want to work as quickly as possible.

05:39 You can let it cool a little bit,

05:40 but they should be still pretty warm to the touch.

05:42 And you're going to be able to make the border.

05:44 Basically, you're just going to use your fingers

05:46 to pinch up to get like a quarter inch

05:48 or a half an inch of a rim around the edges of the soap base.

05:52 These look awesome and they're going to fill really nicely.

05:53 We just need to do a second round of cooking and crisping.

05:57 This is going to be done in oil.

05:58 So you're going to get some more vegetable oil

06:01 or lard or whatever you're using

06:03 and make enough of a layer to kind of coat

06:07 the bottom of the pan.

06:08 That's what we're looking for.

06:09 These are going to go for about one or two minutes a side.

06:11 We want to give enough time for the inside

06:13 of the soap base to cook and for everything

06:14 to get golden brown on the outside.

06:16 Once they are nice and golden brown,

06:18 we're going to let them cool.

06:19 And then you can fill them however you want.

06:21 It's kind of beautiful that way.

06:23 If you have foie gras and caviar, you could use it,

06:26 but we're going to use some stuff that we made earlier.

06:28 We're going to use those homemade refried beans,

06:31 some rotisserie chicken we shredded,

06:32 some veg, lettuce, onion, radish.

06:36 Then that really bright, beautiful roasted tomato salsa.

06:39 And we're going to finish it with a little bit

06:40 of Mexican crema.

06:42 Just slightly different than regular sour cream.

06:44 I absolutely recommend that you add it to your pantry.

06:48 Oh, I almost forgot.

06:49 We're going to finish it with a bit of cotija cheese.

06:51 It's that crumbly, briny, salty cheese

06:53 that's really awesome to garnish with.

06:55 I'm going to say something very trite.

07:01 This feels like a party in my mouth.

07:03 There are so many different flavors, textures,

07:06 things going on, which is why the soap is

07:08 such an incredible vehicle for different foods.

07:11 I honestly think it's like, this is the ideal hors d'oeuvre.

07:13 Like, get out of here with the mini quiches

07:15 and like caviar on blinis.

07:17 This is genuinely what I want at a party,

07:20 especially when you pair it with a little beer.

07:22 You take a munch, you take a sip.

07:24 It's perfect.

07:24 These refried beans are the perfect base.

07:26 They kind of act like the glue

07:28 that holds everything together,

07:29 both from a flavor perspective

07:31 and from like an actual structural perspective.

07:33 I sincerely hope you make these

07:35 for your next big gathering of friends or like the big game.

07:38 It's really such a spectacular party food.

07:40 So for other incredible little bites,

07:42 just like this, stick around here on delish.com.

07:45 [MUSIC PLAYING]

07:48 (upbeat music)

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