I’m having a Mexican food dinner-party tomorrow night, and I’m embarking on a love affair with my fry-daddy (a gift from my MIL). The obvious result is sopapillas.
There are plenty of recipes online, but I don’t know how to choose a good one–so I’m turning to the source of all knowledge, the Straight Dope. Does anyone have a smack-your-mama recipe they’d be willing to share with me?
The one rule: no lard, since I and several guests don’t eat the warm-blooded.
Thanks!
Daniel
I was really hoping to see a post from someone who makes good ones. I know good one when I eat them, but… this one looks right to me. There are a lot of recipies out there that have eggs and milk and stuff in them, but I just know those aren’t proper New Mexico sopaillas. I have (sort of) successfully made them from a boxed mix, generally only available in New Mexican specialty shops. They seemed similar to that linked recipie. The trick, as near as I can tell, is to have your frying oil hot enough to puff 'em up fast and light. Mine, and the only ones I’ve found here in So Cal are always too thick and heavy. More like Navajo Fry Bread. Roll them thin. Like tortillas and tamales, sopapillas tend to need a certain “touch” that you get by doing them. Unlike tortillas and tamales, however, you can’t get them made for you anywhere, so you have to do them yourself, unless you have a New Mexican cocina close-by. Practice a few and good luck.
Here is my own sainted mother’s sopapilla recipe. I’ve never made them myself, but when Mom makes them, they are light and perfect, always.
Sopapillas
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 TBSP shortening
oil to deep fry
honey and butter
Mix dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Cut in shortening till mix resembles cornmeal. Stir in warm water. Turn dough onto floured board and knead about 5 minutes till smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and dry towel and let set about 30 minutes. "Can be refrigerated up to 24 hours). Roll 1/2 the dough to about 1/4 inch thick. Cut it into 3-4 inch squares. Drop into preheated oil which should be about 400 degrees. If dough doesn’t puff up immediately, the oil isn’t hot enough. A test for right temp. is if 1 inch of bread turns golden brown in 30 seconds. Drain when golden brown and open and fill with butter and honey and eat at once. It can be messy eating, but is worth it! You may also sprinkle dough with cinnamon sugar after frying if desired instead of filling with honey and butter
Mom says that the key is getting the oil just the right temperature, and that they have to be eaten immediately- they don’t keep.
Yum–that looks perfect! Sadly, my fryer only goes up to 375; I think I’ll try a couple in the fryer, and if they don’t come out right, I’ll break out the cast-iron skillet and give that a go.
Thank you so much, Fisherqueen!
Daniel
Here’s ours:
4 cups plain flour
3 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp shortening
1 1/4 cup warm water
2 Tbsp condensed milk
Combine ingredients and work into dough. Roll dough into a very thin layer. (Dust pastry cloth with flour to prevent the dough from sticking.) Cut dough into squares or triangles, and fry in oil at very high temperature, using a deep (4 or 5 inches) frying pan. Oil must be nearly at the smoking temperature. Use long-handled spoons to roll the pieces of dough in the oil to ensure that they will brown evenly. When lightly brown, dip from the oil with a slotted spoon. Drain on paper towels.
Serving: Each sopaipilla will puff up, leaving a hollow center. Pinch off a corner and spoon honey into the center. Or use as a fried bread with Spanish dishes, such as chili con carne.
From New Mexico and my Sister-in-law
**SOPAPILLAS **
¼ c lukewarm water
1 pkg active dry yeast
¾ c milk
6 T sugar
1 t salt
2 T butter
1 egg, beaten
3 c flour
Oil for frying
Put water in a mixing bowl. Sprinkle in dry yeast and let stand until yeast is softened and bubbly. In saucepan, combine milk, sugar, and salt. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in butter. Let cool to lukewarm, then stir into yeast. (Too hot will kill the yeast.) Mix in egg.
Gradually beat in flour. When dough becomes too thick to beat, work in last of flour with hands to make a dough which is soft, but not sticky. It should not be stiff.
Cover dough with towel and put in a warm place. Let rise for about 1½ hours. Punch down, turn out on lightly floured pastry board and knead briefly until dough is smooth. Cover – let rest for 10 minutes.
Then roll out dough about ¼” thick into 12” squares. Cut into strips each 2x3”. Heat 2 – 3” of oil in a pan (350º). Add the strips a few at a time and deep fry until golden brown on both sides.
As soon as your hands can pick up the sopapilla, tear open a corner and pour in honey. If you don’t get sticky, you aren’t eating them right.
For the record, Left Hand…according to books like “Why We Eat What We Eat” Sopapillas technically aren’t Mexican.
I asked the 3rd generation owners of Leo’s Restaurants here about the linage of sopapillas and they confirmed the source as Native American.
Um, so is most Mexican food. Why do you think they use so many beans and so much squash in their cooking?
Yeah, no doubt there are common Mexican foods that came after the Spanish set up housekeeping. But Mexican and Spanish cooking bear almost no resemblance - Mexican food draws much more heavily from Indian food.
So quickly can the first blush of love turn into the bitter hatred of betrayal!
Last night, my darling frydaddy was all set up for sopapillas: I added the oil, turned it on, rolled out the sopapillas, cut them, and waited for the green “ready” light to come on, signifying that I could start the frying.
And waited. And waited and waited and waited. Turns out the heating element is kaput. Who knew?
So I fried them up in a cast iron skillet, making a huge mess and a few scenic grease fires. But at least they were damned tasty.
Thanks again, y’all, for the recipes! Fisherqueen, I ended up using yours, as they looked both simplest and most faithful to the Platonic Ideal of sopapilladom.
I did make two changes, though. First, I added a handful of sugar, since I wasn’t sure whether the lack of sweetness in them was a typo or not. Second, your recipe didn’t say how much water to use, which I only noticed halfway through making the recipe :eek:
I guessed two-thirds of a cup, based on the liquid in Devena’s recipe, and they came out very tasty.
Thanks again, all!
Daniel
Oh, and Doug, maybe they’re traditionally Native American, but I’d already decided I wasn’t going to make them from corn :D. Cultural diffusion, don’tcha know.
Daniel