Sopa de Pilitas

Last week I took two young men from my community to an HIV/AIDS training so they could learn to teach others about HIV, AIDS, discrimination and safe sex. It was their first time out of the community, and their first time in contact with people from all over the country sharing ideas and teaching each other. Some other PCVs brought health promotors or nurses, so there was a large body of knowledge to pull from, and everyone was excited and engaged. At the end they put everything in practice and gave a three-hour talk to 9th graders at the local high school. I was so proud of my "kids" during the entire week as I saw them learn and participate and, in the end, take the lead. Yesterday we visited the school up the hill to ask the director if we can teach the 9th graders for a day, so they can put everything into practice in our own community. Most of the young people may be leaving my community, but the ones I still have are great, and these guys are super excited to be leaders.  

We had a blast and ate far too much and, as per usual, talked about food and traded recipes. The Salvadorans from the other side of the country were confused when I explained that my host family makes a soup that tastes like pasteles that I absolutely love. Evidently it's just something my host family makes, not a typical Salvadoran dish, so I thought I would share. They call it sopa de pilitas, and it feeds our family of ten easily.

Sopa de pilitas (albóndigas)

Zanahorias (carrots)

Guisquil (chayote or squash) 

Hilote (baby corn) 

Ayote (pumpkin or squash)

Consome de pollo (chicken bouillon) 

1 tomate (tomato)

1 diente de ajo (garlic clove)

½ cebolla (onion)

1 cuchara comino (cumin)

2 tajadas de cuajada (o un poco menos para que no se deshace la masa) (milk curd)

2 libras de masa (2 cups water, 2 cups maseca)

Papas (potatoes)

Achote (annato)

1. Picar zanahorias, guisquil, hilote o cualquier otra verdura. Echar en agua con un poco de consome de pollo para hervir.
2. Licuar tomate, ajo, cebolla y comino con un poquito de agua.  Apartar un poco para la masa y el resto para la sopa
3. Mezclar bien cuajada, un cubito de consome de pollo, y 2 libras de masa. Echar un poco del licuado si queda muy seca. Hacer pequeñas pelotitas para echar a la sopa (80-100 pelotitas)
4. Picar papas.
5. Agregar licuado, papas, pelotitas y achote (para dar color) en la sopa.
6. Cocinar 20 minutos

1. Dice carrots, quisquil, baby corn, or whatever vegetables you want. Boil in a big pot until slightly soft with a couple of chicken cubes. This is your broth.
2. Blend tomato, garlic, onion and cumin with a little bit of water. A little of of this will go into the dough and the rest into the soup. 
3. To make the dough, mix cuajada, one chicken cube, and 2 pounds of tortilla dough. Add the liquid you just made little by little if it’s too dry. Be careful not to add too much cuajada because the dough will fall apart in the soup if you do.
4. Make little balls of dough, about 2 inches in diameter. Make an indentation in each one with your thumb.
5. Dice the potatoes and add the extra tomato liquid to the soup. Add annato until the soup is a good red color.
6. Add the balls of dough one by one.
7. Cook another 20 minutes until the potatoes are cooked through.

Makes one huge pot of soup. Feeds 10 easily.