Caldo de Res (Mexican Beef Stew)

Delving deeper into my authentic Mexican recipe repertoire, we find another very popular soup that I serve quite often. Caldo de res is a great crowd pleaser; it is very easy to make enough for a large number of people without having to do so much work. This soup is not at all spicy and is very versatile. In addition to or in substitute of any of the vegetables that I used in the recipe, you can use any of your favorite vegetables. I have also used cabbage, mushrooms, garbanzo beans, yucca, and some people even add a little bit of hominy. People from El Salvador add in plantains. In order to successfully use plantains in this soup, you must cut them into 1 inch pieces and leave the peel on. The person eating the soup would then need to fish out the plantain and peel it in order to eat it. This is perfectly fine in Hispanic cultures as many soups and stews are made with bone in meat and other vegetables or seafood that must be deboned or peeled. That is why many soups in the Hispanic culture are served with tortillas; the tortillas are used to handle the items in the soup that must be peeled or deboned.

I normally use roast beef without a bone for this recipe. Today I used stew beef because it was on sale. But I have also used chuck roast and other types of roast beef. The key to having tender, falling apart meat is cooking it low and long. In other words over low heat for a long time. You can even cook the meat in the slow cooker and then transfer to a soup pot when you're ready to do the vegetables. It's a good tip for on the run cooking. Let's get started:

Here is what you will need:
4 pounds stew beef or a 4 pound roast beef (look for red, marbled meat)
1 large onion, quartered
2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
2 potatoes , peeled and roughly chopped
2 Chayote squash , peeled and roughly chopped
2 Mexican zucchinis , roughly chopped
6 ears niblet corn on the cob
10 to 12 tortillas
Salsa verde (recipe below)

Cilantro and onion, chopped for garnish

Lime wedges

In a soup pot over medium high heat,  bring the beef and the onion to a boil in plenty of water . Once it has come to a boil, let it simmer on medium low heat for about 2 hours minimum. I usually put the lid on the pot crooked so that its not completely covering the pot.

When the meat is very tender and falling apart, remove all of the onion with a slotted spoon. Now it is time to add the vegetables. Raise the heat to medium-high and bring to a slow boil. Cook until the vegetables are tender.

Serve with warm tortillas and salsa verde. Provide chopped onion and cilantro to sprinkle over the top of the soup. Also lime wedges should be available for those who enjoy a spritz of lime juice in their soup.

Hints and tips:
1. The chayote squash should be fairly easy to find. If it is not you can just add in more potatoes if you would like. The squash has a core in the center which you can take out if you like , but I just leave it in because it softens up quite well in the soup. It does however need to be peeled.

2. If you cannot find Mexican zucchini, you can just use regular zucchini. They taste about the same. Just like zucchini, this vegetable does not need to be peeled but it does need to have the ends cut off.

3. You can use corn or flour tortillas, but it is most common to use corn tortillas. To heat these you can use a Comal or just a regular non-stick pan heated over medium low heat. The comal simply adds to convenience of being able to heat up more tortillas at a time. You can get comal at just about any Mexican store or flea market. For my local readers, I got mine at Pendergrass flea market. To keep the tortillas warm, you can wrap them in a cloth napkin or in aluminum foil. If you serve tortillas often, you can also get a tortillera (tortilla keeper) which is just basically a container in which you put a cloth napkin to wrap the tortillas in and serve them.(see photo below)

When eating, you can either roll your tortilla and take a bite of it along with your soup, or you can fish out some of the beef and eat it on the tortilla with salsa verde as a taco.

4. When I made my salsa verde, I did not feel like doing the picture thing for the blog so I apologize for not having a real blog entry for this. But it is quite simple:

Here is what you will need:
5 tomatillos with husks removed
1 medium jalapeno, stem removed
1 small onion, chopped
A few sprigs of cilantro, chopped
A small clove of garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1 Hass avocado, optional

Just add the tomatillos and 1 medium jalapeno pepper to a half pot of water. Boil until the tomatillos and jalapenos are soft. Add these into a blender with a small chopped onion, a few sprigs of cilantro finely chopped, a small clove of garlic chopped, and a teaspoon of salt. Blend to a nice puree. In order to make this authentic guacamole , just use a fork to mash up a avocado into the Salsa. Whether you add the avocado or not, this salsa is a very good addition to this meal.

Chipotle Chicken with Rice and Vegetables

I love a hint of chipotle! But just a hint, because it can get hot! This dish has just the right amount of Chipotle flavoring giving it a nice smoky flavor without too much heat. It is a easy meal perfect for a busy weeknight utilizing one pot.

Here is what you will need:
4 chicken thighs
1 medium onion or 1 half large onion, diced
One lg can of whole tomatoes
2 Chipotle chiles in adobo
1 teaspoon cumin
3 carrots, cut into sticks
3 stalks of celery, cut into sticks
3 small potatoes, cut into sticks

3/4 cup rice

Salt and pepper to taste

2 tablespoons of olive oil

Cilantro and limes for garnish

Heat the olive oil in a heavy skillet over medium high heat. Salt and pepper the chicken thighs and brown them skin side down in the hot oil. 

When the skin side is brown turn them over and brown the other side as well.  

Meanwhile put your can of tomatoes your Chipotle chilis with the adobo that they come in and the cumin into a blender and puree all of this together. 

When the chicken is brown, take it out of the skillet and put it onto a clean plate. Reduce heat to medium low. Add your coarsely chopped onion to the pan and cook until translucent scraping the bottom every now and then to loosen the pieces of chicken that were left.

Once the onions are translucent, add the garlic and stir around with the onion. Strain the tomato mixture through a sieve into the pan. You can use a spatula to help get all of it through the sieve. This will get out the chili and tomato seeds and I did not get blended up.

Turn up the heat to medium. Simmer until the tomato sauce is bubbly (about ten minutes) and then add the chicken back in. Now take your potatoes carrots and celery which have been cut into sticks, and arrange them around the chicken and on top of the chicken. Cover and simmer on medium heat for about 25 minutes.

Take the chicken and vegetables out of the pan and put them on a plate, add one cup of water to the skillet, and raise heat to medium-high. Bring the water and tomato mixture to a boil and add the rice. Reduce heat to medium low. Make sure that all of the rice is submerged in the liquid. Put the chicken and vegetables back on top of the rice and put the lid on the skillet. Cook on medium low heat for 25 more minutes.

Serve with torn cilantro and lime wedges. Makes enough for two hungry people.