Incredibly Simple Tortilla Soup

I've been making lots of tortilla soup recently,
and today's was one of the best. It takes only
a few minutes to make.

Soup for one:

12 tortilla chips
1 fluid ounce of Trader Joe's Jalapeno Pepper Hot Sauce
1 can Swanson Natural Goodness Chicken Broth
1 piece of frozen turbot or orange roughy

Break the chips into large pieces, about 1/3 their
original size. Put the chips, fish, hot sauce, and
broth into a pot. Cover the pot and bring to boil,
then turn down the heat to low. When the fish is
cooked, place in bowl and serve.

I usually make this with broccoli, but it's better
without. (I eat broccoli for health.)

Of course, you wouldn't have to make it with fish.
I happen to like fish, and I can get individual
frozen pieces of wild-caught turbot at Trader Joe's
that are just the right size for a bowl of soup.
Slices of pork sausage would be a good substitute
for the fish.

Up until yesterday, I was using Cholula hot sauce,
but that's no longer on special. So, I switched
to TJ's hot sauce. I think I like it better that
way. Cholula would be too vinegary if used in this
amount. That's the limiting factor on how much
hot sauce you can use -- too much will make the
soup unpleasantly acidic.

"Mark Thorson" <nospam@sonic . net > wrote in message
news:48234EBB.655FC806@sonic . net ...
> I've been making lots of tortilla soup recently,
> and today's was one of the best. It takes only
> a few minutes to make.
>
> Soup for one:
>
> 12 tortilla chips
> 1 fluid ounce of Trader Joe's Jalapeno Pepper Hot Sauce
> 1 can Swanson Natural Goodness Chicken Broth
> 1 piece of frozen turbot or orange roughy
>
> Break the chips into large pieces, about 1/3 their
> original size. Put the chips, fish, hot sauce, and
> broth into a pot. Cover the pot and bring to boil,
> then turn down the heat to low. When the fish is
> cooked, place in bowl and serve.
>
> I usually make this with broccoli, but it's better
> without. (I eat broccoli for health.)
>
> Of course, you wouldn't have to make it with fish.
> I happen to like fish, and I can get individual
> frozen pieces of wild-caught turbot at Trader Joe's
> that are just the right size for a bowl of soup.
> Slices of pork sausage would be a good substitute
> for the fish.
>
> Up until yesterday, I was using Cholula hot sauce,
> but that's no longer on special. So, I switched
> to TJ's hot sauce. I think I like it better that
> way. Cholula would be too vinegary if used in this
> amount. That's the limiting factor on how much
> hot sauce you can use -- too much will make the
> soup unpleasantly acidic.

Sounds great! I'd very lightly brown some chopped onion in the microwave
with a bit of olive oil, and add that in with your other ingredients. Trader
Jose has a good variety of frozen fish one could use for this.

We miss sitting on the beach with a bowl of Tortilla soup at the Camino Real
Hotel in Puerto Vallarta.

Thanks,

Kent

Kent wrote:
>
> "Mark Thorson" <nospam@sonic . net > wrote in message
> news:48234EBB.655FC806@sonic . net ...
> > I've been making lots of tortilla soup recently,
> > and today's was one of the best. It takes only
> > a few minutes to make.
> >
> > Soup for one:
> >
> > 12 tortilla chips
> > 1 fluid ounce of Trader Joe's Jalapeno Pepper Hot Sauce
> > 1 can Swanson Natural Goodness Chicken Broth
> > 1 piece of frozen turbot or orange roughy
> >
> > Break the chips into large pieces, about 1/3 their
> > original size. Put the chips, fish, hot sauce, and
> > broth into a pot. Cover the pot and bring to boil,
> > then turn down the heat to low. When the fish is
> > cooked, place in bowl and serve.
> >
> > I usually make this with broccoli, but it's better
> > without. (I eat broccoli for health.)
> >
> > Of course, you wouldn't have to make it with fish.
> > I happen to like fish, and I can get individual
> > frozen pieces of wild-caught turbot at Trader Joe's
> > that are just the right size for a bowl of soup.
> > Slices of pork sausage would be a good substitute
> > for the fish.
> >
> > Up until yesterday, I was using Cholula hot sauce,
> > but that's no longer on special. So, I switched
> > to TJ's hot sauce. I think I like it better that
> > way. Cholula would be too vinegary if used in this
> > amount. That's the limiting factor on how much
> > hot sauce you can use -- too much will make the
> > soup unpleasantly acidic.
>
> Sounds great! I'd very lightly brown some chopped onion in the microwave
> with a bit of olive oil, and add that in with your other ingredients.

Onion is an old standby in soups. Your suggestion
would nearly double the effort of making the soup,
unless the onion was pre-made and frozen or something.

Onion from a tube or shaker wouldn't add any effort.
I suppose I should consider trying that. Fresh
onions have a lot of juice -- maybe I could add
the onion flavor by squeezing the juice from an
onion, but it's hard to see doing that without
adding some effort.

For a while, I used to stock a type of instant onion
for soup, but it was too much work and I stopped.
I made it by cutting up yellow onions on their axis
to make narrow spears, then slowly drying them in
a big pot over low heat until browned and crispy.

If you whiz them in a blade coffee mill, you get
a brown powder which is an excellent flavor additive
to soup. However, they can't be whizzed in advance
because the powder is extremely hygroscopic (absorbs
water from the air) and cakes up. You have to make
the powder immediately before use. However, the
unground onions keep well in a sealed container.

Before I switched to the coffee mill, I used a small
ceramic mortar and pestle to grind the onions to
a powder.

> Trader Jose has a good variety of frozen fish one could use for this.

Aside from turbot and orange roughy, the only other one
I would recommend is mahi-mahi, but I like turbot the best
and orange roughy second-best.

> We miss sitting on the beach with a bowl of Tortilla soup at the
> Camino Real Hotel in Puerto Vallarta.

You only get one lifetime -- what are you doing spending
any of it in front of a computer?

"Mark Thorson" <nospam@sonic . net > wrote in message
news:4823A187.B3FEEB93@sonic . net ...
> Kent wrote:
>>
>> "Mark Thorson" <nospam@sonic . net > wrote in message
>> news:48234EBB.655FC806@sonic . net ...
>> > I've been making lots of tortilla soup recently,
>> > and today's was one of the best. It takes only
>> > a few minutes to make.
>> >
>> > Soup for one:
>> >
>> > 12 tortilla chips
>> > 1 fluid ounce of Trader Joe's Jalapeno Pepper Hot Sauce
>> > 1 can Swanson Natural Goodness Chicken Broth
>> > 1 piece of frozen turbot or orange roughy
>> >
>> > Break the chips into large pieces, about 1/3 their
>> > original size. Put the chips, fish, hot sauce, and
>> > broth into a pot. Cover the pot and bring to boil,
>> > then turn down the heat to low. When the fish is
>> > cooked, place in bowl and serve.
>> >
>> > I usually make this with broccoli, but it's better
>> > without. (I eat broccoli for health.)
>> >
>> > Of course, you wouldn't have to make it with fish.
>> > I happen to like fish, and I can get individual
>> > frozen pieces of wild-caught turbot at Trader Joe's
>> > that are just the right size for a bowl of soup.
>> > Slices of pork sausage would be a good substitute
>> > for the fish.
>> >
>> > Up until yesterday, I was using Cholula hot sauce,
>> > but that's no longer on special. So, I switched
>> > to TJ's hot sauce. I think I like it better that
>> > way. Cholula would be too vinegary if used in this
>> > amount. That's the limiting factor on how much
>> > hot sauce you can use -- too much will make the
>> > soup unpleasantly acidic.
>>
>> Sounds great! I'd very lightly brown some chopped onion in the microwave
>> with a bit of olive oil, and add that in with your other ingredients.
>
> Onion is an old standby in soups. Your suggestion
> would nearly double the effort of making the soup,
> unless the onion was pre-made and frozen or something.
>
> Onion from a tube or shaker wouldn't add any effort.
> I suppose I should consider trying that. Fresh
> onions have a lot of juice -- maybe I could add
> the onion flavor by squeezing the juice from an
> onion, but it's hard to see doing that without
> adding some effort.
>
> For a while, I used to stock a type of instant onion
> for soup, but it was too much work and I stopped.
> I made it by cutting up yellow onions on their axis
> to make narrow spears, then slowly drying them in
> a big pot over low heat until browned and crispy.
>
> If you whiz them in a blade coffee mill, you get
> a brown powder which is an excellent flavor additive
> to soup. However, they can't be whizzed in advance
> because the powder is extremely hygroscopic (absorbs
> water from the air) and cakes up. You have to make
> the powder immediately before use. However, the
> unground onions keep well in a sealed container.
>
> Before I switched to the coffee mill, I used a small
> ceramic mortar and pestle to grind the onions to
> a powder.
>
>> Trader Jose has a good variety of frozen fish one could use for this.
>
> Aside from turbot and orange roughy, the only other one
> I would recommend is mahi-mahi, but I like turbot the best
> and orange roughy second-best.
>
>> We miss sitting on the beach with a bowl of Tortilla soup at the
>> Camino Real Hotel in Puerto Vallarta.
>
> You only get one lifetime -- what are you doing spending
> any of it in front of a computer?

The Camino Real is no longer.
Puerto Vallarta as it was is no longer.

Grasp each moment in life and cling to it while it's there.

Kent

Mark Thorson wrote:
> I've been making lots of tortilla soup recently,
> and today's was one of the best. It takes only
> a few minutes to make.
>
> Soup for one:
>
> 12 tortilla chips
> 1 fluid ounce of Trader Joe's Jalapeno Pepper Hot Sauce
> 1 can Swanson Natural Goodness Chicken Broth
> 1 piece of frozen turbot or orange roughy
>
> Break the chips into large pieces, about 1/3 their
> original size. Put the chips, fish, hot sauce, and
> broth into a pot. Cover the pot and bring to boil,
> then turn down the heat to low. When the fish is
> cooked, place in bowl and serve.
>
> I usually make this with broccoli, but it's better
> without. (I eat broccoli for health.)
>
> Of course, you wouldn't have to make it with fish.
> I happen to like fish, and I can get individual
> frozen pieces of wild-caught turbot at Trader Joe's
> that are just the right size for a bowl of soup.
> Slices of pork sausage would be a good substitute
> for the fish.
>
> Up until yesterday, I was using Cholula hot sauce,
> but that's no longer on special. So, I switched
> to TJ's hot sauce. I think I like it better that
> way. Cholula would be too vinegary if used in this
> amount. That's the limiting factor on how much
> hot sauce you can use -- too much will make the
> soup unpleasantly acidic.


Try to find a bottle of El Yucateco green habanero hot sauce. Don't get
the red, or the brown "XXtra Hot", the odd bright green is *much*
better. It's pretty hot (but not as hot as the name implies), so start
out with a lot less than an ounce in your recipe.

Bob