Everything about Sopaipilla totally explained
A
sopaipilla, also spelled
sopapilla or
sopaipa, is a kind of fried
pastry and a type of
quick bread. The term is applied to three distinct breads, one typical of
Central Chile, another of
Southern Chile and
Argentina, the other in
New Mexico and
Texas in the
United States.
The word likely comes from
American Spanish, a
diminutive of the
Spanish word
sopaipa, which is used to indicate fried dough sweetened with
honey. That word seems to have come from the earlier word "xopaipa", from the
Mozarabic "xupaipa", which is a diminutive form of "úppa", "súppa", bread soaked in oil. It could also be from Old Spanish "sopa", food soaked in liquid. However, the term "sopaipa" is almost never encountered in practice in
New Mexico, as the diminutive has replaced it in standard usage. They are sometimes nicknamed "sofa pillows".
South American sopaipillas
In
Chile and
Argentina, a sopaipilla, often called
torta frita, is a
tortilla made from wheat or corn flour and roasted in the ashes in a traditional
horno. In
Central Chile, it's usually fried and made from pumpkin or squash based dough.
The sopaipilla is popular in Chile and Argentina. It can be salty or sweet as a dessert. When eaten sweet it's boiled or dipped in
chancaca after being fried. Chancaca sauce is a sauce made of molten
chancaca (a kind of black sugar made of beet) mixed with
orange peel, cloves and
cinnamon. If prepared salty sopaipillas can be condimented with
ketchup,
mustard or
pebre. In Chile sopaipillas are sold in most
snack bars but are traditionally cooked in winter when it rains.
New Mexican/Tex-Mex sopaipillas
New Mexican sopaipillas are made from a pressed dough, like a
tortilla, made of
flour, a chemical
leavener (normally
baking powder),
salt, and a solid
fat. This dough is
deep fried until "golden brown and delicious" (like a
doughnut), causing the dough to puff and crisp, and creating a large air pocket in its center, unlike tortillas of the same region, which remain flat following preparation. The resulting fried bread is similar to
Native American frybread.
The distinctive
New Mexican cuisine that developed in that state relies heavily on sopaipillas. The "stuffed sopaipilla" is a common
entrée, particularly for lunch, in which the fried and risen sopaipilla is opened and filled with ingredients such as
refried beans,
cheese, diced
chile peppers, and various cooked meats, commonly carne adovada,
ground beef or
chicken. Sopaipillas are also served as a side dish with other regional dishes such as
enchiladas and
burritos, taking the place of
tortillas. It is common in New Mexican cuisine to fill a side sopaipilla with a bit of
honey or
honey butter, or more rarely,
powdered sugar.
Thought to have originated in
Albuquerque in the late 18th century, sopaipillas are served in nearly every New Mexican-style restaurant, and have spread into other areas where New Mexican and
Tex-Mex cuisine is served. They are less common in restaurants specializing in other genres of Mexican food such as even in neighboring Arizona and Utah, and are practically unknown in
Mexico itself, where the closest equivalent would be the
buñuelo. Utah also refers to this fried bread as a sopapilla.
Sopaipilla and Strudel were together named as Texas' state pastries in 2003.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Sopaipilla'.
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