The sopitos the other night were so good, I thought we needed a replay.  But I didn’t want to go Mexican, again.  I had seen Debbie”s post about a Mushroom Ragu Pasta and was inspired to do something a bit different.  I had chicken and I had mushrooms.  I had the shells.  I had an idea…

We also have lots of dried porcini mushrooms in the cabinet.  They’re one of those things that I would buy, put in the cabinet and then forget about – and then buy, again.  After bringing home yet another container last month, I collected all of them and put them all into a quart mason jar where I can keep an eye on them.

But I digress…

I was looking for a bit of a creamy chicken and mushroom filling, without being, well… creamy.  (As in the heavy cream I would usually use to make such a thing.)  I decided that diced onion, diced crimini mushrooms, and diced chicken along with porcini mushrooms (and their soaking liquid) and a few herbs and spices would work really well in a corn cup if I just thickened it a bit with some cornstarch.

I also came really close to buying some fresh cranberries to make a cranberry sauce to go on top of the chicken and mushrooms.  And then I remembered we had LOTS of lingonberry preserves at home that would work even better.

Side story:  There’s a small upscale grocery store in San Francisco called Andronico’s.  They make (or, at least used to make) a fantastic smoked turkey sandwich on a whole wheat sourdough french roll with spicy-hot mustard, mayonnaise, and lingonberry preserves.  One of the best sandwiches in the known universe!

I knew the flavors would work here…

So…  I diced some mushrooms, onion, and chicken, sauteed it in a bit of olive oil, added some garlic, salt, pepper, and a bit of poultry seasoning, and cooked it all down.  I added the liquid from the mushrooms – maybe a cup – and when it was boiling, added a bit of cornstarch to thicken.

Into the cooked sopes it went, and then topped with the lingonberries.

It was really, really good!

I love sweet/savory combinations and this really worked well.  The sopes have a rich corn flavor and crunchy/chewy texture that – while very unique and with a decidedly Latin flavor – matched very well with a very non-Latin filling.  I can see a lot of uses for these – just about anything that could go atop a puff pastry shell would work.

The gastronomic wheels are spinning!