There are parts of the chili peppers that are bitter. If you enjoy bitter notes in your food, use the whole pods. If you’d like to exclude bitterness, your first step in preparing dry peppers for use in any dish is to remove seeds and membranes. The second step is to cut them into smaller pieces. Then you have a choice to rehydrate them as is or dry toast them in a hot skillet or an oven for the third step. A few seconds of toasting will contribute more chili flavor to the final taste of your dish, making it more dramatic. Try both ways and choose your favorite. Finally, rehydrate peppers in hot water for 20-30 minutes to fully extract their flavor.
Soup’s On: Sopa is a Mexican Menu Essential
"The soup course is known as sopa aguada, or “wet soup,” to distinguish it from the rice course, which is called sopa seca, or “dry soup.” And since sopa aguada is such an important part of a Mexican comida, a nearly endless array of soups has been created by the country’s home cooks and chefs. And many of these are substantial enough to be served as a main course for lunch or even dinner. [...] The sopa azteca at El Jardin is served in a bowl of broth with fried tortilla strips, accompanied by side dishes of shredded chicken, avocado, chile strips, and queso fresco, so that the customer can add ingredients according to individual prefer- ence. Other takes on tortilla soup are the Michoacán style sopa tarasca, flavored with ancho chile, at Don Artemio in Saltillo, and the sopa sacristia with chipotle at Meson Sacrista in Puebla. Los Danzantes in Coyoacan serves tortilla soup with chicharron, while the Los Danzantes in Oaxaca serves it with the local tasajo, or thinly sliced grilled beef."
Xóchitl (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈʃotʃitɬ]), the Nahuatl word for flower (so cheel).
