Sopes - 106

I kept wondering when we'd get to feature SOPES on this blog.

I came home from work one evening, and Javier had been experimenting all day with a combination of recipes he'd found on the Internet to make homemade SOPES for our dinner that evening. He'd done his homework and had taken it upon himself to surprise me with something different that night, something I wasn't expecting.

SOPES are made from the same dough that you can use for making corn tortillas. You can either buy the masa pre-made in a Mexican market, or you can mix your own from a combination of dry masa harina, water and salt. Javier used the latter method.

SOPES start out as thick corn tortillas that you heat on the comal. When they begin to look golden colored, and before they become stiff, you pinch up an edge on them (sort of like a crown) and then return them to the comal to finish the toasting process. At this point, some people remove them and deep fry them in oil - and believe me, they are delicious this way. Javier wanted to keep our dinner healthy and low-cal, so he continued to toast them on the comal and then kept them warm in the oven until I got home from work.

SOPES are assembled in the same way that you assemble a bean tostada: beans, salsa, guacamole, shredded lettuce, tomatoes and/or salsa, and cheese. They are delicious with a nice queso fresco crumbled on top, but this particular evening we only had some grated Monterrey Jack cheese on hand. You can see from the pictures that they look delicious. They were!