FIDEOS: Classic Mexican Comfort Food, Perfect in its Simplicity

Hi everyone, I'm Marci and today I'm making fideos. This is classic Mexican comfort food yet it's one of the easiest dishes you can make. Now you may know it as sopa de fideo because a lot of people will eat this as a soup, sort of like a noodle soup, but growing up we always had it as a side dish just as you would have rice. Either way you're really going to enjoy this recipe. Besides being delicious, fideos is a very inexpensive dish which is why I had it so much as a kid. We were a big family with a lot of mouths to feed. In fact, I'll share a funny story about that if you watch to the end of this video. But even today you can find packages of fideos, sometimes four for a dollar. They used to come in rolls of the noodles, I think was called vermicelli as well, and you would just break it up with your hands. But today you can find it already broken into small pieces and one of these seven ounce packages of fideos is what you'll need for this recipe. You'll also need a quarter of an onion diced finely, one eight ounce can of tomato sauce, anywhere from two to four cups of water. It just depends if you're going to be making this as a soup you would add three to four cups. If you're doing this as a side dish about two cups is right. I like mine just a tiny bit runny so I've got just a little more than two cups of water here. You'll also need some salt and pepper to taste, half a teaspoon of garlic powder, and half a teaspoon of cumin. And you can add other seasonings like chili powder and a beef or chicken bouillon, but these are your basic ingredients. So let's go ahead and get started. You'll first want to heat a large skillet on the stovetop over medium high heat and put just enough vegetable oil in it to coat the bottom of the pan. When it's hot add in the fideos and stir them around continuously until they get nice and toasted. This is going to take a few minutes so as the color starts to change I typically add in the onion so that it too starts to cook at the same time. Just keep moving things around so that nothing burns and do this until the majority of the fideos turn a golden brown. Then you can add in the can of tomato sauce. Give it a quick stir then pour in your water. Finally we add in the seasonings. That's the salt, the pepper, the garlic powder, and the cumin. Stir until dissolved into the liquid then let it come to a boil. Set the burner to low, cover, and let it simmer for about 15 minutes or until the fideos are cooked tender. Then take it off the burner and let it set for a few minutes before serving. It's been 15 minutes and these are done but I just want to show you what they look like. They look yummy. Anyway I'm going to take them off the burner and just let them set for just a few minutes because they're really hot right now and I'm going to serve myself and we'll give them a taste. If you've never had fideos before it's kind of hard to put into words what it's like. Some people have called it a Mexican spaghetti. My husband called it a Mexican top ramen but neither of those seem appropriate because it's just so unique and such comfort food. I'm going to go ahead and take a bite. It's still kind of hot. The fideos are nice and tender and they've got that tomato flavor and the onion and all these wonderful seasonings. It's absolutely delicious. It just tastes like home really for me. Sometimes we would have this with ground beef but most of the time we would have it just like this and I absolutely loved it. Now I said that if you would watch to the end of this video that I would share a funny story about fideos. Well as many of you know I grew up in southern New Mexico and we spoke Spanglish in my home and my mom was very very big on Spanish dichos which are sayings and she had one for every occasion. Some of them were really great. In fact some of them I use today which are like dime con quien andas y te dire quien eres which means tell me who you hang out with and I'll tell you who you are. Excellent saying. But then there were some that were just really weird and the only reason they were said is because they rhymed. So when I was a kid apparently I was kind of annoying because I would ask my mom when I was hungry, what's for supper mom? Mom what are we going to have for supper? And she would always turn to me and say picos y tolondrones para todos los preguntones and I didn't know what that meant. I just knew that whoever would ask would get picos y tolondrones. Well it seemed that every time she would say that we would have fideos so for years I thought that picos y tolondrones were fideos when in fact it means peaks and troughs for everyone who asks. Doesn't make sense even today now that I have the correct translation but I think what it really meant was quit asking. You get what you get and you don't throw a fit. Anyway you'll have to let me know in the comments if you grew up with some of these Mexican sayings what they were because like I said there was one for every occasion and chances are I heard it. I'm going to enjoy my picos y tolondrones now. Thanks so much for checking out this video. If you liked it be sure to give it a thumbs up and subscribe so you don't miss any one of my recipes. I also invite you to follow me at Marci Inspired on Instagram and Facebook. Until next time, blessings from my kitchen to yours.