Clarion Content

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The Clarion was delighted to get to experience the private chef work of a dear friend recently. The dish on the menu could hardly have been as spontaneous as the chef's ease made it appear. The basis for the meal, apparently, was prior knowledge of certain members of the editorial staff's proclivity for sopes. The Clarion was not able to procure the exact recipe from said chef, so we will talk you through a many layered delight as best we can.

Starting with the sopes. Sopes are a thick circle of fried or baked ground maize (the same base used for tortillas and tamales; the Clarion has heard them referred to anecdotally as Mexican pitas.) Wiki says that they are from the city of Culiacán, Sinaloa. No independent verification of that. At this meal the sopes were baked a tiny bit crispy, but were still soft and chewy on the inside, perfect texture. Wiki claims that sopes are traditionally topped with refried beans and crumbled cheese, as well as onions, red or green salsa (made with chillies or tomatillos, respectively,) and acidified cream.

The Clarion got to eat better than that! These sopes were topped with a spicy black bean paste, and an uber-tender beef brisket that had spent hours cooking with roasted poblano, anaheim and banana peppers. This brisket was melt in your mouth, but with a pungent fire from the capsaicin of the peppers in the background. You could have stopped there and thrown on a dollop of sour cream and it would have been phenomenal.

But this chef didn't! The black beans and brisket were accompanied not only by the requisite sour cream, but also a pico de gallo of red onion, tomato, and yellow peppers, as well as guacamole, and a roasted red pepper tomatillo salsa. (Incidentally, the tomatillo salsa was delightful with corn tortilla chips before the meal.) The coup de grâce for the sopes was a fried plantain garnish that added a little sweet to all that spice. The sopes were served with a side of saffron brown rice. It was off the hook yo!

Labels: Durham, food, Pop Culture