Sopa de Lima Yucateca

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 6-quart stockpot or clay olla
• •Cast iron comal or heavy skillet for charring the aromatics
• •Fine-mesh strainer
• •Slotted spoon or spider for frying tortilla strips
• •Cheesecloth and kitchen twine for the spice bundle

Instructions

1. 1

   Char the aromatics

   Heat a dry comal or heavy cast iron skillet over medium-high. Lay down the onion half, the tomato halves cut-side down, the halved head of garlic cut-side down, the four peeled garlic cloves, and the whole chile xkatik. Let everything blacken in spots, turning as needed. The onion should show dark patches on every side. The garlic skins should go from white to gold to brown. The chile xkatik should blister and soften. This char is the foundation of sopa de lima. Yucatecan cooks call it 'tatemar.' Skip it and you are making chicken soup, not sopa de lima.

   Do not be afraid of the black spots. Charred is not burned. You want the surface scorched, not powdered to ash. Real char tastes sweet and smoky, not bitter.
2. 2

   Build the broth

   Place the turkey pieces in a heavy 6-quart stockpot and cover with the cold water. Add the charred onion, tomato, halved head of garlic, and chile xkatik. Tie the allspice berries, peppercorns, cloves, canela stick, fresh oregano sprig, and bay leaves into a small square of cheesecloth and drop the bundle in. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat. Skim the gray foam that rises in the first fifteen minutes. Cold water, slow heat. A rolling boil clouds the broth and toughens the turkey.

3. 3

   Simmer low and slow

   Once the broth is clear, reduce the heat until you see lazy bubbles every few seconds. Cover partially and cook for one hour, or until the turkey pulls cleanly from the bone. Add the salt halfway through, never at the start. Salt early and the meat tightens before the broth pulls flavor from it.

4. 4

   Fry the tortilla strips

   While the broth simmers, heat half an inch of neutral oil or lard in a skillet over medium-high until it shimmers. Fry the tortilla strips in batches, stirring with a slotted spoon, until they are golden and rigid, about 90 seconds per batch. Drain on a paper towel and salt them lightly while they are still hot. Day-old tortillas fry crisper than fresh ones. The Yucatecan cooks I learned from save their stale tortillas in a basket for exactly this. Nothing wasted.

   Fry the strips the day you are serving. They lose their crackle in a sealed container within hours. If you must, hold them uncovered on a wire rack.
5. 5

   Bloom the recado

   Pull the turkey out of the broth with tongs and set it aside to cool. Strain the broth through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean pot. Discard the spices, the spent vegetables, and the bundle. In a small skillet, melt the manteca de cerdo over medium heat. Stir in the recado blanco (or the mixed dry spices) and the charred peeled garlic, mashed to a paste with the side of a knife. Cook for about a minute, until the lard turns pale gold and the kitchen smells of allspice and clove. La manteca es el sabor. Stir this paste into the strained broth.

6. 6

   Shred the turkey and finish

   Pull the turkey meat from the bone in large rough pieces. Discard the skin and bones. Return the meat to the pot of broth. Add the dried oregano and bring everything to a low simmer for ten minutes so the flavors marry. Taste for salt. Off the heat, stir in the juice of two lima agria. Do not add the lime juice while the pot is boiling. Boiling kills the brightness and turns the broth flat. The lima goes in at the end, always.

7. 7

   Serve at the table

   Ladle the soup into wide bowls. Drop two or three slices of lima agria into each bowl. Pile the fried tortilla strips on top so they sit above the broth and stay crisp. Set the diced onion, cilantro, sliced radishes, and the whole chile habanero in small dishes on the table. Each diner crushes the habanero into their own bowl if they want heat, never into the pot. Yucatecans guard the habanero this way because not every mouth at the table wants it. Así se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •If you can source lima agria, do it. Some Latin American markets carry them, sometimes labeled as Persian sweet lime or 'lima boba.' If you find them, buy extra and zest them frozen for later. The peel is the soul of the soup.
• •Turkey is the original protein and gives a richer, gamier broth than chicken. If you can find bone-in turkey thighs, use them. Chicken is the everyday substitute even in Yucatecan home kitchens, but the soup loses a little depth. A compromise, not an upgrade.
• •Do not crush the habanero into the pot. The Yucatecan way is to let each diner decide. A whole habanero on a side plate with a small fork is how it is done. The chile is for perfuming, not for setting the broth on fire. No me vengas con atajos.
• •Recado blanco can be hard to find outside Yucatán. If your Mexican market does not carry it, the spice mixture in the ingredient list will get you there. Toast the whole spices on a dry comal for thirty seconds before grinding for a closer flavor.

Advance Preparation

• •The broth can be made one day ahead through Step 5 and refrigerated. Reheat gently and add the lima agria juice only at serving time. The acid loses its lift if it sits in the broth overnight.
• •Fry the tortilla strips the day of serving. They do not store well. Sealed containers turn them soft within hours, and a soft tortilla strip is the wrong tortilla strip.
• •The recado paste, if you make it from scratch, keeps for two weeks in the refrigerator and gets better as it sits.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 420g)