Sopaipilla

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 a sopaipilla is made from wheat flour, manteca, zapallo pure and salt. In 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.Fact|date=February 2008 In Chile, it is fried and made from pumpkin or squash based dough called zapallo.

The sopaipilla is very popular in Chile. It can be salty or sweet, in which case it's eaten as a dessert. When eaten sweet it's boiled or dipped in chancaca after being fried, when served this way they are called Sopaipillas Pasadas. Chancaca sauce is a sauce made of molten chancaca (black beet sugar) mixed with orange peel, cloves, and cinnamon. If salty, sopaipillas can be eaten 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. In Texas and Oklahoma, restaurants tend to differ from traditional New Mexican practice, and they add powdered sugar or cinnamon 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. [ [http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/ref/abouttx/symbols.html State Symbols] , "Texas State Library"]

References

*cite book | author=Sheila MacNiven Cameron (ed.) | title=The Best from New Mexico Kitchens | publisher=New Mexico Magazine | year=1978 | id=ISBN 0-937206-00-8

External links

* [http://www.yourdictionary.com/sopaipilla American Heritage Dictionary definition]