Sopa de Pan Oaxaqueña de la Sierra Norte

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •12-inch glazed clay cazuela or deep ceramic baking dish
• •Cast iron comal or heavy skillet for charring tomatoes and toasting chiles
• •High-powered blender
• •Fine-mesh strainer
• •Wide skillet for frying plantain and almonds
• •Wire rack for drying the bread

Instructions

1. 1

   Dry the pan de yema

   The night before you cook, slice the pan de yema into half-inch rounds and lay them on a wire rack at room temperature, uncovered, until morning. Fresh bread will turn to mush in the broth. Day-old bread holds its shape and drinks the broth without falling apart. If you forgot to do this the night before, lay the slices on a sheet pan in a 250F oven for 15 minutes until they feel dry to the touch but are not toasted.

2. 2

   Toast the chiles and spices

   Heat a dry comal or heavy skillet over medium. Toast the chile ancho and chile guajillo separately, about 20 to 30 seconds per side. The skin will puff and the kitchen will smell like the chile vendor's stall in the Mercado de Etla. Move them to a heatproof bowl and cover with hot tap water for 15 minutes. While they soak, toast the cloves, peppercorns, and canela on the same comal for about a minute, until fragrant.

   Hot water, not boiling. Boiling water cooks the chile skin and turns the broth bitter. Hot tap water softens the flesh and lets the flavor come through clean.
3. 3

   Char the tomatoes and aromatics

   On the same comal, char the whole tomatoes, the half onion, and the garlic cloves in their skins. Turn them as the skins blacken in patches. The tomatoes are ready when they collapse and the skin splits, about 8 minutes. The onion takes about the same. The garlic should be soft inside its papery skin, about 4 minutes. Peel the garlic and pull off the worst of the burned tomato skin, but leave some. The char is the smoke that gives this broth its Sierra Norte depth.

4. 4

   Build the caldillo

   Drain the soaked chiles. Combine them in a blender with the charred tomatoes, onion, garlic, toasted spices, oregano, vinegar, piloncillo, and one cup of the hot chicken broth. Blend until completely smooth, two full minutes. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl, pressing on the solids. You should have a smooth, brick-red caldillo with the body of cream. Discard what stays in the strainer.

5. 5

   Fry the caldillo

   In a heavy saucepan, melt 3 tablespoons of the lard over medium heat. Pour in the strained caldillo. It will sputter. Stand back. Cook for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring often, until the puree darkens, the fat starts to separate at the edges, and the kitchen smells of cooked chile and clove. La manteca es el sabor. This step is the difference between a thin tomato bath and a real Oaxacan caldillo. Add the remaining 3 cups of hot chicken broth, the thyme, and the bay leaves. Simmer 10 minutes. Taste for salt. The broth needs to be assertive because the bread will absorb a lot of it.

6. 6

   Fry the plantain, almonds, and raisins

   While the caldillo simmers, melt the remaining 3 tablespoons of lard in a wide skillet over medium heat. Fry the plantain rounds until deep gold and caramelized at the edges, about 2 minutes per side. Lift them out onto a plate. In the same fat, fry the almonds until they turn the color of toasted bread, about 2 minutes. Lift them out. Last, drop in the raisins. They will plump and shine in seconds. Pull them off the heat. The pine nuts, if you are using them, go in with the almonds for the last 30 seconds.

7. 7

   Toast the bread in the lard

   Add a little more lard to the skillet if it looks dry. Lay the dried bread slices in the pan in batches and toast them for about 30 seconds per side. You are not browning them. You are giving them a thin coat of seasoned fat so they hold their shape in the broth. Move them to a plate as they finish.

8. 8

   Layer the cazuela

   Heat the oven to 375F. Grease a 12-inch clay cazuela or a deep ceramic baking dish with lard. Lay down a single layer of toasted bread, edges touching. Scatter half the plantain, half the egg slices, half the raisins, half the almonds, and half the queso fresco across the bread. Ladle a third of the hot caldillo over the layer, slowly, so the bread drinks it without floating. Build a second layer the same way: bread, plantain, egg, raisins, almonds, queso fresco, broth. Finish with a third layer of bread and the last of the caldillo poured over the top. Press down lightly with the back of the ladle so the top layer of bread sits in the broth.

   The bread should be wet but not floating. If it floats, you have too much liquid. If the top is dry, ladle a little more broth over the corners. The dish wants to read like a saturated savory pudding, not a soup with bread in it.
9. 9

   Bake to a crisp top

   Scatter the remaining queso fresco and a few extra raisins across the top. Bake uncovered on the middle rack for 30 to 35 minutes. The top should turn deep gold and crisp at the edges where the bread peaks above the broth. The center should be set, not soupy, when you press it with the back of a spoon. Pull it out and let it rest 10 minutes before serving. The bread keeps drinking broth as it sits.

10. 10

    Serve from the cazuela

    Bring the whole cazuela to the table. Spoon generously into shallow clay bowls, making sure each portion gets a piece of plantain, a slice of egg, and some of the crisp top. Pass pickled jalapenos en escabeche on the side for the people at the table who want them. This is a dish that feeds a Sunday table in Ixtlan or Capulalpam, and it is meant to be eaten slowly, with conversation. Asi se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •Pan de yema is the dish. If you cannot find it at a panaderia oaxaquena or a Mexican bakery that knows what it is, a good brioche or challah is the closest compromise, never a baguette or sourdough. The bread needs sweetness and an enriched crumb, or the caldillo has nothing to lean against.
• •The plantains have to be very ripe. Black-skinned, soft, fragrant. Yellow plantains will taste starchy and the dish will feel flat. If your plantains are not there yet, leave them on the counter for two more days. Mexican grandmothers cook with what is ready, not what is on the calendar.
• •Make the caldillo a day ahead if you can. The chile, clove, and canela settle and marry overnight, and the broth on day two tastes like the broth a senora in Ixtlan would serve you. Reheat gently before assembling.
• •If you want to serve this for a fiesta, double the recipe and bake it in two cazuelas. One large one will steam the bottom layer instead of crisping the top. The cazuela's surface area matters more than its depth.

Advance Preparation

• •The caldillo can be made up to two days ahead and refrigerated. Reheat gently before assembling so it ladles cleanly over the bread.
• •The bread must be sliced and dried at least one full night ahead. There is no shortcut for this. Wet bread collapses the dish.
• •The plantain, almonds, raisins, and eggs can all be prepared the morning of, kept covered at room temperature, and assembled an hour before guests arrive. The cazuela goes into the oven 45 minutes before serving.
• •Leftovers reheat well, covered with foil, in a 350F oven for 20 minutes. The flavor deepens on day two, though the top will lose some of its crispness.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 440g)