06 October 2013



It's time for this month's Secret Recipe Club! The Secret Recipe Club is a group of food bloggers who secretly make one of someone else's dishes and post them all on the same day at the same time.  It's really fun, choosing a recipe to make, making the recipe, then reading about everyone else's recipes.  It's a great way to "meet" other bloggers and check out some great blogs that you never knew about before.

Secret Recipe Club

This month I was assigned the blog An Opera Singer in the Kitchen.  I was really happy to get this assignment as I have been reading Noelle's blog for a long time now.  She and I have a few things in common.  When I first discovered her blog, she and I both lived in Michigan, on the west side.  She lived in Holland, I believe, and I lived near Grand Rapids.  We have both since moved to different states.  Also, Noelle and I are both mommies to two little girls.  She often posts pics of their family activities and her little girls are just adorable.  

I knew without even looking at Noelle's blog that I wanted to a meatless dish.  Noelle has a great variety of recipes on her blog, but I knew she had a great collection of vegetarian dishes and while I am not vegetarian, I do observe a meatless day once a week or so.  I am always looking for new, creative meatless dishes that my family will love.  I decided to try her Mexican Sopes.  Even though I love cooking Mexican food and have eaten at many different Mexican restaurants, I have to admit that I had never even heard of sopes.  In case you haven't either, they are miniature fried corn-dough bowls filled with beans and sauce and topped with cheese. They are delightful. 

Mexican Sopes

Ingredients:
2 cups instant corn mix (Masa preparada)
1½ cups water
1 tsp salt
Canola oil
2 cups shredded cabbage 
½ cup red onion, diced
½ tsp salt
½ lime, juiced
2 tomatoes, diced 
¾ cup Queso Fresco
1 can refried beans
Salsa of your choice

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°.

First prepare the masa by mixing the instant corn mix, salt, and water in a mixing bowl. Let the dough sit for 5 minutes. Grab some dough and roll it until golf ball size. Press the dough on a mat or on your hand until flattened.  They should be thicker than a tortilla.

Heat a pan on med-high with ¼” inch of oil. Fry each dough patty about 3-5 minutes until golden brown. Keep the corn patties warm by placing them on a baking sheet in the warm oven.

Warm the beans in the same pan after frying the patties and set aside.  In a small bowl, mix the cabbage, ½ tsp salt, red onion, and lime juice.

To assemble the sopes. Take one corn patty and spread it with 1 tbsp beans. Sprinkle on 1 tbsp queso fresco and then add the tomatoes. Then top with the cabbage salad.

Makes 4 servings.

I actually had everything I needed for this recipe except for the queso fresco.  I tried three grocery stores before I finally found it at the fourth. (Meijer, I miss you! Start work on that Kenosha store, stat!)  I had masa because I use it to make my Sweet Corn Tomalito.  And I'm glad to have another recipe to make with it because it always comes in a huge bag and I can never use it up fast enough.


Here is one of the little corn patties.  I don't ever fry things and it's because I'm really bad at it.  The first four of these turned out perfectly.  Then I got distracted with assembling those and let the other six burn.  Oops!  

I had to add a little more water than what Noelle's recipe called for to get the dough to the right consistency.  And I found them a little on the salty side, so next time I will cut back on that.  The only other thing I changed was due to my own inattentiveness.  When I was making my grocery list, my eyes skipped right over the word "refried" in the ingredients list and thought it called for regular whole beans.  It wasn't until I started assembling the sopes and the beans were rolling all over that I realized the recipe called for refried beans.  Duh!  That was the one thing my husband mentioned when trying them.  "Next time, I think refried beans would work better."  Yep!

This was my first time using queso fresco and we all loved it.



I served these with salsa and sour cream, but you could do guacamole or any other topping you like.

These were a big hit with my family.  Thanks so much for adding a great new meatless main to our rotation, Noelle!


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8 comments:

  1. I JUST had sopes at a restaurant this weekend. Now I can make them myself...with your recipe. Thanks for sharing with the SRC.

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  2. I've never heard of Sopes before Lesa. But I love Mexican food and I can't wait to try these. They look delicious.

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  3. Mmm, these sopes look amazing - love them. :)

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  4. I'm also a frying school reject - but it didn't stop me from trying a fried recipe this month either :-) These look outstanding, love all the flavors layered in this dish!

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  5. Sopes are like mini Mexican pizzas, an invitation to cover with your favorite toppings. Delicioso!

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  6. Those look incredible! I also read Noelle's blog and have made a few recipes of hers. Small world, right? :)

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  7. So fun-- and it is always good to find another recipe to use up masa.

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