Bean Chorizo Sopes
Ingredients
- For the Sopes Masa Dough:
- 2 cups Masa Harina the same one used to make tortillas and tamales. You can find it in the Mexican/Latin food aisle of your grocery store.
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp pork lard, shortening or olive/vegetable oil
- 1 - 1.5 cups warm tap water
- enough oil to fry the sopes if you desire to fry them. You can just cook them on the griddle/cast iron skillet if you want to slash calories.
- For the Sopes Topping:
- 1-20oz can black refried beans
- 8 ounces fried chorizo
- For garnish:
- Shredded lettuce
- Sliced or chopped onion
- Crumbled Queso Fresco
- Salsa
Instructions
- Make the sopes: In a large bowl combine masa harina, the salt and the lard/ shortening/oil tbsp. Start adding the warm water gradually as you knead, until masa dough comes together and doesn’t stick to your fingers anymore. You might not need the full amount of warm water. That's why you need to add it gradually, 1 or 2 tbsp at a time and then knead.
- Preheat a large griddle/cast iron/heavy skillet while you shape the sopes.
- Divide the dough into 8 equal balls (if you want smaller sopes, divide into more equally sized balls). Line your tortilla press with plastic sheets or cling film and flatten each ball into flat disks. Do not flatten them too thin as you would flatten the dough for normal tortillas, but a little thicker. If you don't have a tortilla press, you can use a heavy pot or baking dish to press them down. Just cover top and bottom of your masa dough ball with plastic so it doesn't stick to the press/pan/pot surface.
- Once your griddle/skillet is hot, start cooking the flat disks for about 1 minute on each side, until slightly brown. Remove each sope from the pan, let them cool down for about 30 - 40 seconds and then pinch the border all around the edge of the disk, to form a small wall of sorts. This will give the Sopes their traditional shape and will also help to keep the toppings in place.
- At this point you can either return each "walled" sope to the griddle to finish cooking them through (for an additional 1 - 2 minutes each), which will save you some calories. You can also fry each sope in the hot vegetable/olive oil for about 1 minute per sope, until slightly crunchy. Place sopes on a paper towel to drain excess fat from frying.
- Spread warm refried black beans on each sope with a knife, top with the warm fried chorizo, garnish with the lettuce, onion, and queso fresco. Dollop with your favorite salsa and enjoy warm!
Notes
Try to keep sopes, beans and chorizo warm at the time of assembly, but if any of them got cold during the process, just spread the beans and spoon the chorizo on top of each sope and warm up the assembled sope on the hot griddle or skillet for a minute or two, being very careful not to burn the sope bottom. Thay can burn very fast if you don't watch it. Remove carefully with a spatula and then garnish.