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Mexican Chile Cream Soup with Founders Old Curmudgeon
I've always found it hard to pair Mexican food with wine. There are so many spices and flavors, and so much heat competing for the attention of your tongue, it seems that any wine is destined to run away trembling.
Recently, however, I've been rediscovering Mexican food through an unexpected pairing: strong ales. Last week I paired steak mole tacos with a Hibernation Ale from Great Divide. This week (with a few leftover chiles), I pair Founders Old Curmudgeon Ale with a wonderful chile soup that utilizes the three chiles used as a base for mole: pasilla (poblano), guajillo, and mulato.
As I mentioned in my review of the Old Curmudgeon, the beer is sweet, but almost overpowered when paired with sweet desserts--even the more subtle ones which would otherwise make a nice complement, like biscotti. That's why I went with a savory dish for this pairing, and a creamy one in particular; I figured the cream would cool some of the spices, and yet would be sufficiently hearty to stand up to this strong, eccentric, but bold beer.
The recipe I came up with was a variation of this Poblano Cream Soup Recipe from Gourmet, which utilizes fresh poblanos. As a pair for the Old Curmudgeon (or any old ale or barleywine), however, using the three dried chiles--poblano, guajillo and mulato--instead of fresh ones will instead bring out the raisiny flavor of the chiles, as well as making them somewhat more mild. (If you want to add more spice, add one small fresh chile, any local variety will do, and toast for an extra 3 or 4 minutes when you toast the dried chiles.) That raisin flavor is subtle, like the beer, so that neither one competes with the other. Together they act as a perfect complement.
Mexican Chile Cream Soup
Ingredients (for 6 people)
- 1 oz of dried pasilla (or Poblano) chiles (about 3 chiles)
- 1 oz of dried guajillo chiles
- 1 oz of dried mulato chiles
- 1/8 tsp ground coriander
- 1/8 tsp cloves
- 1/8 tsp allspice
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, crushed and minced
- 3 cups chicken broth
- 1 1/4 cups heavy cream
Begin by toasting the chiles in a pan for 2 minutes on each side. Rinse under cold water and transfer to a dish. Cover with warm water. Let sit for 30-40 minutes. Make sure that the skin of the chile is quite limp after sitting in the water; the more limp the better for the texture of your soup later. De-vein and seed the chiles and coarsely chop after 30-40 minutes.
In a saucepan or stock pot, heat the spices with the olive oil over medium-low heat until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add onion and garlic. Cook until softened. Add chopped chiles and cook, stirring frequently for about a minute.
Combine brothto chile mixture and puree in a food processor or with a handheld immersion blender until smooth. Add cream and stir over medium heat, bringing to a simmer. Season with salt. Cook until soup has reached the desired consistency.
Garnish with raisins and serve with warm tortillas.
This recipe also doubles as an interesting, flavorful curry to lavish over chicken and rice if you have some leftovers. Cube chicken and fry until no longer pink, then let soak into soup for about 5-10 minutes. Add 3 tbsp of cream. Cook soup down over medium heat so that it becomes a little bit thicker. Serve over rice.
A warm soup for cold nights; highly recommended this winter.
Read my review of Founders Old Curmudgeon Ale here; and learn how to make Mexican mole here.
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Where to get ingredients in Carbondale: Most of the ingredients in this dish are standard except the Mexican chiles. Those can be found at Dona Camila Mexican grocery store across from Long Branch on Jackson and at Schnucks.
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