Sopa de Caracol

Chef Carlos Espinal’s sopa de caracol makes its own fish-head broth, blends that broth with a separately fried vegetable mixture and adds prepared caracol near the end. Buen Provecho presents the soup in Honduran and Garifuna food context.

A fish head enters a deep pot with enough water, two culantro leaves, supplied diced white onion and two bay leaves. The broth boils, then cooks over low heat for twenty minutes. It is strained and reserved.

The caracol fillets are opened like butterflies, pounded until completely tender, cut into small pieces and reserved. In another deep pot, supplied finely chopped white onion, garlic, green chile, pear tomatoes and cilantro ancho cook for five minutes. This mixture and the same fish broth move to a blender, are blended thoroughly and return to that pot.

Supplied paraffin-treated yuca cubes and green guineo cubes join the soup and cook until soft. Supplied chopped sweet basil and coconut milk follow. The prepared caracol is added last, and the heat is switched off immediately.

Salt and generic pepper season the finished soup before it is tasted. Espinal’s sequence keeps the fish-head broth, blended vegetables and final caracol addition distinct.