Sopes, a first attempt

I recently picked up a small sack of masa corn flour thinking I would try to expand my cooking horizons a bit. Pupusas maybe, or after seeing a few recipes posted on blogs I frequent, sopes.

So, I consulted Serious Eats, The Kitchn, and Googled for another recipe.

Shaping them turned out to be the most difficult part. The dough was easy enough (although, I suspect it would have benefited from resting a bit)

Little guy on the griddle, getting warm on both sides.

When hand shaping didn't seem to stick, I tried pushing them into muffin tins, or shaping them around little sauce bowls. Mostly this worked, but a few tore and had little holes in them.

The other issues is that I've never actually had a properly constructed sope, so I had little to go on.

But, there they are, after being warmed, shaped and fried on the bottoms. Not too bad for a first attempt...

The final product, black beans, carnitas, a little cheese, cilantro, salsa and avocado.

This was also the first time I had made my own black beans (from dried beans). This took way longer than I expected but they were super delicious with a little tequila and lime mixed in.

I think I will definitely try these again, but if anyone has made these with any success or has tips, please let me know!!!

Sopes dough: I used the recipe on the back of the bag (but about 1:1 masa to water + pinch of salt).

Carnitas: slow cook pork (I actually oven roasted this one, because they were already sliced) with garlic, onions and cumin. Pull apart and chop into small pieces.

Salsa: 1 large can of tomatoes, drained, + garlic, onion, sugar, splash of vinegar, cumin, jalapeno in a food processor. Chill before serving

Black beans: soak beans over night, cook for 1-2 hours in a crock or large sauce pan. Smash about 3/4 of the beans (I used a mortar and pestle), then stir in about 1/3 cup tequila, salt to taste and squeeze 1-2 limes over. Continue cooking until soft.