Mexican Chili Pepper Soup
We, in the United States, have a lot to learn about chili peppers. Look at all these different kinds she cooks with! In this soup, she used three varieties - guajillo, dried chipotle and dried habanero. She said her family of four goes through all these chili peppers (thousands!) in about a year. Azminda: "Every chili has a different taste." "If I don't use chili I think the food no have taste."
These are the guajillo or uhajillo peppers, soaking. They're mild but brilliantly colored!
These (below) are what we in the U.S. call tomatillos. They're like little green tomatoes with like a green paper tent around them. She called theses
in Mexican Spanish tomate.
Blend the chilis and the tomatillos together with a little water in the blender. (Once the chicken's done, add quartered potatoes to the broth).
And pour the mixture through a strainer into your pot of chicken and cooking broth.
Rinse dried habanero peppers and add them whole to soup.
And rinse dried chipotles (cool texture!) and add them whole to soup.
Now peel the skin off this cactus pear, and add the flesh of it to the soup. It looks like raspberry sorbet inside. Sweet, like mild watermelon. In Spanish: xoconostle.
