Sopa Paraguaya

Ingredients

• 300g fine white maize flour (harina de maiz)
• 400g Paraguayan queso fresco, or a mix of feta and mozzarella
• 3 large white onions
• 150g lard or butter
• 5 eggs
• 350ml whole milk
• 2 tsp fine sea salt
• 1 tsp caster sugar
• 1 tbsp lard, for greasing

Before you cook

• Peel the onions and slice them thinly
• Grate or crumble the cheese and leave it at room temperature
• Separate the eggs into two bowls
• Grease a 25cm square baking tin generously with lard and dust it with a little maize flour
• Heat the oven to 180C fan

Steps

1. Put the sliced onions in a pan with just enough milk to cover them and a pinch of salt.
2. Simmer the onions gently for 12 minutes, until they are completely soft and have lost all their sharpness.
3. Drain the onions, keeping the milk they cooked in, and leave both to cool.
4. Beat the 150g of lard with the sugar and salt in a large bowl until it is light and creamy.
5. Beat in the egg yolks one at a time.
6. Stir in the cooked onions and the crumbled cheese.
7. Fold in the maize flour alternately with the reserved milk and the rest of the milk, a third at a time, until you have a thick batter that drops heavily from the spoon.
8. Whisk the egg whites in a clean bowl to soft peaks.
9. Fold the whites into the batter in three additions, keeping as much air in as you can.
10. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and level the top.
11. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until the top is deep golden and a skewer pushed into the centre comes out with only a few moist crumbs.
12. Let the sopa settle in its tin for 15 minutes, because piping hot it will crumble under the knife.
13. Cut it into thick squares and serve it warm.