Mole De Olla - Spicy Beef Soup - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1 lb beef shank, bones
1 lb skirt steak, cubed
1 medium onion
1 -2 garlic clove
1 sprig parsley
1 tablespoon salt (to taste)
2 -3 pasilla chilies
Vegetables
4 ears corn, preferably white, cut into thirds
2 medium chayotes, cut into large chunks
4 mexican zucchini, halved and cut into large chunks
To serve
cooked rice
warm corn tortilla
finely chopped onion
lime wedge

Preparation

Place the meat in a large stock pot and cover with cold water by 2 1/2 inches. Add the onion (peeled, but left whole), the garlic cloves, salt parsley. Bring to a boil over high heat.
Lower heat and skim off any gray foam that rises to the top. Keep doing this periodically. Cook over medium-low heat.
Meanwhile, rinse the chilies and place in a bowl. Cover with hot water and place something on top to keep the chilies submerged.
When the meat has been cooking for about an hour, take the parsley, garlic and onion out of the pot. Reserve the garlic, discard the onion and parsley. Add the corn and chayote and cook for 10 minutes. Add the zucchini.
By this time, the soaked chilies should be very soft. Seed and devein them, using rubber gloves if you need to. Place them in a blender with the reserved garlic and add about 1 cup of the broth from the meat and vegetables. Season with a bit of salt. Blend until everything is pureed. Set aside.
*DO this when all the vegetables are cooked through, but not mushy.* Pass the puree chilies through a colander onto the stock pot, using a spoon to push the mixture through.
Cook until the soup has boiled for 5 minutes after the addition of the chile. *DO not cook longer as the vegetables will become mushy and the soup will be spicier.
Serve piping hot with all of the accompaniments listed above.
Note: This soup is delicious served the next day, but it is best to reheat it over low heat and not boiling it too much so that the veggies stay whole. It will have puddles of solidified fat when cold. You can remove them if you want.