Sopa de Piedra (Hot Stone Soup)

About this recipe

Sopa de piedra is a pre-Hispanic dish from the Chinantec community of San Felipe Usila in Oaxaca. It is prepared by placing river stones heated to red-hot directly into a gourd bowl containing water, river shrimp, tomato, chile, onion and epazote. The blazing stones cook the soup instantly, creating a unique culinary experience. It is one of the oldest dishes in Mexico still prepared using the same ancestral technique.

1. 1

   Prepare the ingredientes: chop the tomato, the onion and the serrano chile. Limpia the shrimp dejandoles the cascara for mas flavor. Ten listo the epazote and cilantro.

   

   💡 If you don't have shrimp of rio, the langostinos funcionan well.

2. 2

   Heat stones of rio limpias on brasas or high heat for at least 45 minutes until esten to the red vivo.

   

   💡 Use stones of rio redondeadas, nunca stones calizas that pueden estallar.

3. 3

   En a jicara large or container resistente to the calor, place the tomato chopped, the onion, the chile, the garlic, the epazote and the shrimp crudos. Anade water until cubrir.

   

   💡 You can use a plate hondo of barro thick como alternativa a the jicara.

4. 4

   Con pinzas largas, introduce a piedra hot in the jicara. El water hervira immediately. Repeat with 2-3 stones mas until all this cooked.

   

   💡 Mete the stones a a for controlar the coccion. Los shrimp cocinan in seconds.

5. 5

   Remove thes stones with cuidado, anade salt, chopped cilantro and a drizzle of limon. Serve immediately in the misma jicara.

   

   💡 La sopa should comer of inmediato while this hirviendo.

6. 6

   Alternativa without stones: hierve water in a pot, anade tomato, onion, chile and epazote. Cook 15 minutes and add the shrimp to the final for 3 minutes.

   

   💡 La version without stones pierde the flavor mineral pero mantiene the esencia of the platillo.