Roasted Poblano Crema with Mexican Greens

The recipe produced a lovely mild soup.

One of the more memorable dishes from our recent trip to Mexico City was a Poblano Soup, and I was hoping this recipe would be as good. It fell a bit short - but that was probably too high a target.

I encountered many unexpected problems making this - but none were caused by the recipe itself. The first step is to make Essential Roasted Poblano Rajas - roasted peppers, prepared and sautéed with onion, garlic, and spices. This step went well.

The soup base preparation requires chicken broth (I used the recipe in this book) and greens. I was going to use the greens from the beets I had nurtured in a hoop house all winter - but I found them chewed down to the ground. So instead I went out and bought Swiss Chard.

This soup base is thickened with fresh masa or masa harina. However, my masa harina ended up being rancid - so another delay until I replaced it (with fresh masa).

The soup is ladled into a bowl with diced cooked potatoes and a smoked meat -- I used bacon.

This soup was surprisingly mild, but had a nice flavor. As is usual for me, I was too impatient to push the cooked greens through a sieve. I think it would not have been necessary - maybe its important for a restaurant to have textures be perfect but I do not mind a bit of chunkiness.