Carne en su Jugo...

My friend, Lupita, wanted to show me how to make Carne en su Jugo which is a soup very specific to Guadalajara. Of course, I jumped right on the offer! This soup is so simple and easy and fills you up. One thing I've come to learn about Mexican cooking is how to keep it simple. Most recipes only take 5-6 ingredients yet taste like they must have a million things going on in
there. The trick is to compliment the meat with the appropriate chili and let them cook together for awhile and become friends. Party in the pot, if you will.

After the bacon is almost crispy, then we add the cebollitas (Mexican green onions).

Look at all the wonderful goodness in there! Don't you just want to gobble it all up?

Then we add the carne and let that turn brown. Ohhhh, I can smell it right now!

While all that magic is happening on that side of the kitchen, we move over to the other side to make the other part of the magic....salsa verde. On a side note, all Mexican kitchens have a good blender. Its used to make all the salsas in their food, and I've yet to see a dish made without using the blender. Funny because in the US, I only used my blender to make margaritas. Now, I use it all the time for soups and salsas and no margaritas. Funny how things change.

 Everything cooks in the pot for about 30 minutes so that the flavors can be enhanced.

 And all Mexican kitchens have a griddle. All.

We top off the soup with beans, cilantro, and onions. Oh c'mon. You know you want some! I think this may be my favorite soup I've had here. Who doesn't like bacon, onions, and beef? Seth and I both had 2 bowls. I know we looked like pigs because Lupita and Hector only at one each. But honestly, it was so good we didn't care what we looked like. I would have eaten that whole pot if I'd had the room in my belly. This was just a feel good, warm and fuzzy all over soup.

Hector pulled out the tequila as an after dinner drink for Seth and him. Tequila in Mexico is sipped, not done as a shot, and its a high quality tequila that makes you savor the flavor.