While you are working on one tortilla, cover the remaining balls with a damp towel so they won’t dry out. Next, turn the edges of the dough up 1/2 inch to form a ‘boat’ shape, using your thumb and index finger. Smoothing the edges of the tortilla using a pastry scraper If the edges of your little ‘fat’ tortilla are a bit uneven, wet the edges with a little water, then use the edge of a pastry scraper to round off the edges. Next, place the tortilla on your cutting board or bench top and continue pressing with your fingers to form a uniform circle about 4 inches wide and 1/4 inch thick. In fact, the doyenne of Mexican cooking, Diana Kennedy, prefers this technique and laments the gradual demise of this ‘lost art’ of making tortillas through the hand-patting method. However, since I don’t own one, I used my hands to pat the dough into a disk shape, passing the dough back and forth between the palms of my hands. Many recipes call for flattening the dough using a tortilla press. The Sope dough is usually made with Masa Harina, dehydrated powdered corn masa, often sold in American supermarkets and in Mexican specialty stores.Īfter the masa is mixed with water, salt, and olive oil, the dough is kneaded then divided and rolled into about ten balls (each weighing about 60 grams or two ounces). The pork is then covered with water and chicken stock and cooked for several hours until tender.Ī separate al pastor-style sauce is then made and will be used to flavor the pork and other ingredients used in the sopes filling. The pork shoulder is first marinated in a blend of chopped chipotles in canned adobo sauce, achiote paste, water, salt and olive oil. Some of the ingredients used in al pastor style recipes The mixture of pungent chiles with sweet citric fruits produces some mouth-watering flavors! Pork al Pastor, then, is the combination of slow-cooked pork with these spicy/citrus al pastor flavors ( see note below). Al Pastor style (or ‘shepherd style’) combines flavors of dried chiles, tomatoes, onion, orange and lime juice, garlic, coriander, achiote paste, and fresh pineapple. When Lebanese immigrants started to settle in Mexico in the late 19th century, they began to combine their own traditional Middle Eastern flavors with those of Central Mexico. Although my sope in Ensenada was quite simple, I decided to ‘raise the bar’ a bit and make my sope filling with slow-cooked pork and al pastor flavorings- hence my recipe for Sopes Pork al Pastor. There are many toppings for Sopes, including chicken, pork, beef and fish. My sope was simple but delicious- filled with beans and salsa and topped with fresh onion, coriander and some queso fresco.
Wanting to taste something different from the usual taco, I decided to try these little tortillas shaped like boats ( sopes) and fried in a little oil. I was first introduced to Sopes last year from a street vendor in Ensenada, Baja California.
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