Black pea soup (charro bean style).

Charro bean soup is probably best to make with a light-colored bean, if you want to stay authentic. But, you can use black-eyed peas, or, as in this case, black peas. When using black peas, the resultant soup is black, thick and spicy.

Ingredients: 1/2 lb black pea, 1/2 gallon broth, 1 large onion chopped, 4 jalopenos (make sure to discard seeds and veins), 3 strips of smoked, thick bacon (Hungarian smoked bacon is best for this), 1 can chopped tomatos, 1 chicken boullion, 1/2 cup chopped cilantro leaves and about 1 tbsp salt.

Method: Remove rocks (if any) from the beans and soak them overnight in water. Rinse them under hot water and simmer in 1/2 gallon broth (chicken or turkey) for about two hours. Fry the bacon strips and the onions. About half an hour before serving, add everything else except the cilantro. That is added just before serving.

We ate this with flour tortillas.