Sprilogy: Sopes de Huevos Rancheros Tutorial

My husband is Mexican and mi Suegra (mother-in-law) has been teaching me how to make all sorts of delicious Mexican food. A couple of weeks ago she taught me how to make Sopes and after trying it once on my own I fell in love with Sopes and started thinking of all different things I could make with them. I decided to try and merge two of my favorite things Sopes and Huevos Rancheros and was very pleased at how they turned out. My family loved them and the kids named them "Volcano Eggs".

Now mi Suegra makes all her delicious food by hand and from scratch. I, however, am always looking for a shortcut so this is homemade Mexican food plus modern appliances.

Salsa

First I made the sauce/salsa that is poured over the top of the Huevos Rancheros. Mi Suegra sauteed onion and green pepper in oil until tender. Next she takes 3-5 tomatoes slices them in half and using a cheese grater, grates out of the seeds and flesh away from the tomato skin. The tomato skin is discarded and you are left with a yummy tomato base for your salsa. She adds some Knorr brand Caldo de Pollo (chicken bouillon) and a little salt to taste. Leave it on low to simmer for about 30 minutes and then let it rest while you are preparing the Sopes.

That is the authentic way, but this day I was feeling lazy and I didn't have a good large grater so I grabbed out a pan and boiled some water and then dropped 3 large tomatoes in. After about 3-5 minutes I lifted them out with a slotted spoon and the skins were split and I easily peeling the skins off. Then I put the grater attachment on my food processor and was done. Grated tomato went into the pan to simmer with the Caldo de Pollo, and sauteed onion and pepper.

Sopes

The ingredients:

Maseca

Salt

Water

I just followed the directions on the back of the package for making tortillas. I tripled the recipe because the last two times I doubled it and we didn't have enough. I used:

6 C Maseca (corn flour)

3/8 tsp Salt

4 C Water

Mi Suegra mixes the ingredients by hand, which I tried the last two times, but I couldn't get my dough mixed very evenly even though I tried hard. So I thought there has to be an easier way, and there is! I pulled out my Bosch mixer and went at it. My Bosch did a great job my dough was smooth and easy to work with. I don't think I'll make a batch larger than the 6 C of Maseca because even though my Bosch did it I could tell it was making it work hard. Next you get a small bowl of water for your hands and start rolling the dough into balls. These pictures were taken when the dough was almost gone, but you can still see the rolled balls on the plate.

Next you flatten the ball out into basically the size of small pancakes, but thicker. You can see my daughter holding the one she flattened herself which looks more like a flower than a pancake. Use the water to help keep the edges from cracking. The smoother the edge the better the next step turns out. Some people flatten them with a rolling pin, but mi Suegra just used her hands, so my girls and I just went at it.

Next you cook them on either a flat pan or this time to make it go faster I got out my griddle. This way I was able to cook 12 at a time instead of 4. After a couple minutes flip them over and cook the other side.

After they are hardened on the top and the bottom, remove them from the griddle and place them on a towel. This is where you pinch them into their cute little shape. For a better picture of their cute little shape check out Maseca's website. Mi Suegra told me that most people pinch them into shape with their fingers, but she said that it was too hot and so she uses a spoon instead to push up the edges, for me it was like making a pie crust.

Once shaped, they go into a pan with a little oil in the bottom. Mi Suegra used more oil, but I used a smaller amount and left it in longer and it gave it a crunchy bottom, which my husband liked better so we will keep doing it this way! After cooked remove from pan and place on a paper towel (which we were out of that day, so it just went on the plate.)

The Huevos part I got from my mom. Crack one egg in the little tupperware, give it a quick stir with a fork and pop it in the microwave for 38 seconds. (microwaves can vary so watch it the first time)

We then flipped it out upside down onto the Sope (which you could add frijoles (refried beans) underneath but I was out of cooked beans in my freezer from making sopes earlier in the week.)