Thursday, February 12, 2009

Chicken enchilada soup and kabocha squash taquitos

I pulled some leftover soup from the freezer the other day, to make room for a tub of ice cream, and got around to heating it up for dinner. You can scarcely contain your excitement, right? Well sit tight, pretties, it actually gets interesting.

The soup was some of my spicy chicken-chile soup, or what I like to call sopa del fuego (aka "soup of fire", or Napalm in a Bowl). Holy shit, you know what? When I was pulling up that link just now and saw the recipe and photos of that Napalm in a Bowl post from January 2008, I came to the realization that the soup we ate tonight was literally the same soup from 13 months ago. I need clean out my freezer more often.

It was still good though! And slightly improved. Here's how, in a winding tangent: I was craving a crunchety taquito-type thing, had some leftover roasted kabocha that needed eating, and figured hey, squash - properly spiced and seasoned with cumin, achiote, Mexican oregano (actually a verbena) and diced chipotle* en adobo and onion - would be an excellent taquito filler. I hadn't, however, planned for the epic fail of rolling stiff corn tortillas without proper steaming, and ended up with several cracked and torn tortillas which were summarily tossed into the soup. Hence, enchilada soup. Besides, the broth is pure enchilada sauce. Top it with a dainty quenelle of crème fraîche (the last of it, I swear) and torn cilantro.


The rest of the tortillas were fail-free after microwaving them in a bowl (with another on top as a dome lid) with a sprinkle of water to hydrate. Scott helpfully suggested rolling them like streudel, so I gave the tortillas a complete smear of the squash mixture before rolling them up like cigarillos. Spritzed with some cooking spray (I only use the pure canola oil version that Trader Joe's makes) and baked until toasty in a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes. Rotating halfway helps address the hotspot in my oven and ensure even browning. Next time I'll totally add black beans and sweet corn to make them more nutritionally complete, then someone will comment that they look like Southwest Eggrolls from Chili's and I will get hell of Google traffic from assholes who want to recipes to cook garbage chain restaurant food at home (you think I'm kidding? More than 10% of all of my traffic comes from people Googling the Olive Garden's chicken gnocchi soup.)

Serve with a lime margerita (on the rocks) and Pepto Bismol (straight up).


*I'm taking this opportunity to spank everyone who insists on spelling and (pronouncing) it "chipolte". Let's get it right, people. Say it with me: chee-pote-lay. Chipotle. And remember, when in doubt, Google is your friend.

40 comments:

Abigail (aka Mamatouille) said...

Oh my word. I should never read your blog when I'm A.) breastfeeding and hungry ALL THE TIME, B.) breastfeeding and can't have any alcohol but would adore a margarita and C.) living in Japan and can't get very many of those ingredients in your meal.

So basically I should stop reading right now.

Dewi said...

Love the idea of Serving this with a lime margerita (on the rocks) and Pepto Bismol (straight up). Ha...ha...ha...
Cheers,
Elra

Alicia Foodycat said...

I am so very happy that your freezer has "vintage" ingredients in it too!

Anonymous said...

If the American English speaking mouth could wrap itself around the atle string we wouldn't have "chocolate" "avocado" or "guacamole". Quite frankly, I'll take "chipohltee" over "nukular" anyday.

Nathan Crook said...

As I was reading along with you, I was thinking "hummm...this would be especially good with black beans and corn in the filling," and then you wrote EXACTLY what I was thinking! BRILLIANT! I’d even throw some black beans into the soup and, perhaps, some hominy. Uummmm….

NC

Manggy said...

Gee, can I misspell it on purpose? ;) I love enchiladas, and when in doubt at a Mexican restaurant, it is *always* what I order.
I'm glad there were no fuzzy bits growing on the frozen soup (or, I hope they were all ice crystals!).

Syd said...

Looks delicious, but I got acid reflux just reading. I'd still eat it.

peter said...

If you mixed the Pepto in with the margarita before shaking it, you could call the resulting frothy pink concoction a "chupacabras."

Lo said...

OK, Heather. Now YOU can be MY mommy. I'm pretty sure this soup could cure anything that ails ya. And it would taste good to boot. YERRMM!!

Judy@nofearentertaining said...

Looks delicious Heather. I am so going to make taquitos with the butternut squash I have all over the counter. Will add black beans and corn though!

Heather said...

Abigail - You should take a little break from nursing one night and have a lime chu-hai. I love those.

Elra - This time it didn't give me heartburn, but it is SPI-CY!

Alicia - I'm afraid to look in the meat drawer at the bottom...

Jess - I dunno, I think xocolatl rolls right off the tongue.

Nathan - You love SW eggrolls from Chili's, don't you. I should make them and call them Three Sisters Taquitos.

Marky - You, my dear, can do anything you want over here. ;) There actually weren't any ice crystals - it's why I didn't realize it was so old.

Syd - Pepto shooters all around!

Vetro Alto di Carne - I've been talking a LOT about naming a cocktail el chupacabra. It never involved pink bismuth subsalicylate.

Lo - It definitely chases away any bug I've ever caught.

Judy - Be sure and make that zesty dipping sauce Chili's has, too! :D

eatingclubvancouver_js said...

For some reason, I've been craving spicy, spicy lately. Napalm bowl and cheepoltee sounds mightee fine right now.

cookiecrumb said...

Smear and roll like a streudel. Great idea, Scott!
And if you want to toss anything, by all means toss it summarily.
I just rescued the last sack of 2007 tomato sauce from the freezer today. :(

Mike of Mike's Table said...

lol@Foodycat calling it vintage. It only makes it better, right?

This does look really tasty though. I wish I had some of that soup in the freezer. The taquitos sound like a perfect thing to pair with the soup

The Duo Dishes said...

The taquitos look bomb! Perfect to dip into the soup.

Anne said...

I've been itching to try baking taquitos...how cripsy were they? Yours look really good.

Abigail (aka Mamatouille) said...

Sadly, chu-hai has alcohol, too!!! Bummer, hey. I love it but I think I'll have to wait till Baby Beansprout is weaned...

(I do have a sip of hubby's Guinness every once in a while, I have to confess.)

michael, claudia and sierra said...

absolutely brilliant
but i give all the credit to scott

ok he gets 45%

Cynthia said...

13-month old-soup, now that is a soup to market!

Heather said...

mmmm. that sounds great! i love the squash taquitos! how creative :)

Heather said...

JS - Me too! I'm working on a pot of chili right now.

Cookie - Scott is a smart one. I think I'll keep him around for awhile.

Mike - I was happy the soup was still edible, but the taquitos were the star of this show.

Chrystal - Every soup needs something crunchy for dipping!

Anne - They were well-nigh crispy, even for not frying. The spritz of oil helped.

Claudia - He can steal some of my spotlight, just this once.

Cynthia - Ha! I wonder if the Campbell's folks are listening...

Heather - I was just really glad to use up the leftover squash.

Peter G | Souvlaki For The Soul said...

I'm glad you haven't emptied out your freezer either! As always heather, you amaze me with your recipes and combinations!

Jen said...

We had something very similar earlier in the week, those soups rock. Love the accompaniments!

Langdon Cook said...

Ha ha! I hear you on the freezer maintenance front. The other day we thawed and ate a yummy pea soup with tons of ham in it--meat from the '07 Christmas ham!

Peter M said...

They say spicy foods like this are the equivalent of an adrenalin O, did you get toe-curl here? If so...I want soup!

Heidi Leon Monges said...

Hi,love your funny writing style, I have a very small fridge but always have the same problem of finding real extra old leftovers in it.

I like the Mexican Style feeling on your taquitos, even thought I had never stuffed my tacos with kabucha squash, but now I'm willing to try. I love to stuff my tacos with a mix of sauteed mushrooms or with refried beans...yummie!

thanks for the spanish lesson ...Viva el chipotle...haha...lol...

p.s I'm mexican...hehe...

Anonymous said...

That's a long ass time to allow the flavors to meld. I wonder if the heat level mellows out somewhat after a year.

MrOrph said...

Gotta love the smell of napalm in the morning.

That just may be a bit too hot for moi, but now my wife is drooling for a bowl.

YarnTraveler said...

I've really been craving Mexican flavors lately, and this sounds so good!

We tried a "Mexican" restaurant here in London, and it was the culinary equivalent of the grade school game 'telephone'. It's as if someone went to Cancun for spring break and then tried to explain it to someone else, who then tried to recreate it using things out of their cupboard. I'm pretty sure the "refried beans" were made from BBQ baked beans.

Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...

Yes a marharita would go down well too:D

Brittany said...

Mmmmm. Taquitos.

The margarita is key, but I would be going for rolaids rather than pepto. Pepto makes me barf. Isn't that weird?

Brittany said...

BTW- I'm in no way saying that my stomach would require medical treatment after eating this soup. I'm just rolling with the theme....

Anonymous said...

LOL... i need to write words like "PF Changs Secret Sauce" and "Olive Garden Breadsticks Secret Recipe Here" on my blog. thanks for the traffic tip.

i think the kabocha squash taquitos look nice - and they do kind of look like that chili's egg roll thingy that i've only eaten once in JFK airport cause i was fucking dying of hunger pains and it was weirdly good (did i just admit that?).

glamah16 said...

Your a genius. But you know that.

Anonymous said...

This actually sounds so good. Damn I lvoe enchilada's and I love soup and having it as one item is awesome. Thanks for it!

kyouell said...

I know my cooking is nothing like yours, but I'm starting to wonder if I'd feel better about it if I took nice photos of it.

And I'm with Abigail on the still nursing and dying for a margarita thing. Sigh.

Anonymous said...

Your recipe inspired me to make similar taquitos with duck.
http://chefholly.typepad.com/holly_hadsell_el_hajji/

Anonymous said...

I spell it right and i'm French! Now if that doesn't deserve a hug! :-)

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Anonymous said...

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