Favorite of Ana Garcia-Quinonez,
WCF Disability Adjuster
Instructions
• In a large dutch oven or soup pot, add 10 cups water, beef shanks, beef chuck, garlic, bay leaves, and the salt. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer, cover and cook for 90 minutes, or until the meat is tender. Skim off and discard any brown foam floating at the top.
• After I cooked the meat, I remove the beef shank/bones and with a slotted spoon, remove the pieces of cooked beef chuck, bay leaves and garlic cloves. Transfer cooked beef shank/bones to a bowl, and set aside to cool. Transfer cooked beef chuck pieces to a small bowl. Discard the bay leaves and garlic cloves. Taste, and add 1 beef bouillon cube to the pot if more beef flavor is desired.
• Add the potatoes, corn, carrots, jalapeno and 2 cups of water to the pot.
• Bring soup to a boil, then add cabbage, zucchini, chickpeas and mint (See Note 2). Cover and turn heat to simmer and cook until vegetables are tender and cooked through, (check potatoes and carrots with fork), about 15 minutes.
• While the vegetables are cooking, pick over and remove any bits of meat from the bones and discard bones. Add meat to small bowl with beef chuck. Chop the meat into small bite size chunks and add to soup pot. Cook another 5 minutes to heat meat through.
• Remove mint sprigs and discard. Season the caldo de res with salt and pepper, stir everything thoroughly. Serve this Mexican beef soup in large bowls, making sure that each bowl gets a little bit of everything. Serve the soup loaded with beef and top each bowl with cilantro, freshly squeezed lime juice and warm tortillas (optional).