Cooking & Conversation: Posole (Hominy Stew)

HAPPY NEW YEAR !

2013!

Delicioso!

Posole has been a favorite soup of mine since I first tasted it when living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I love the sunny Southwest and all of the flavors of the Mexican and Native American cuisines. I fell in love with the painted dessert and the 310 days of sunshine a year. Albuquerque has a charm of being one of the most culturally diverse cities in America. It is also included in an international list of top travel destinations for 2013. It holds a special place in my heart because that is the city where my son was born. I would love to take him and his wife and three boys there and show them the many different facets of the Mexican culture and heritage. This New Year I will take him a batch of Hominy Stew and remind him of his early childhood in Albuquerque.

I discovered that posole (in Spanish means hominy) is often cooked around Christmastime or to bring in the New Year as well as being served for other special occasions or parties, as it can be made in large amounts to satisfy many guests. It originated from Jalisco, Mexico.

This soup is spicy from the chiles, earthy from the hominy, and rich from the tender pork pieces.

(from explorandomexico.com) Pozole is a delicious dish prepared with corn, meat, pepper and vegetables in a hearty broth. It has been a very popular dish in Mexico ever since Pre-Hispanic times.

Pozole, word of Nahuatl origin meaning froth, is a soup prepared with grains of a special corn called cacahuazintle, pre-cooked in a water solution with calcium oxide for a couple of hours, making the corn grains lose their fibrous outer layer so that they open like flowers when boiled, giving them the appearance of froth.

As you can see from the ingredients, it typically includes pork, hominy and chilies.

Ingredients:

1-1/2 lbs. pork shoulder or pork steak
salt and pepper to season
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic or 1 tsp. prepared minced garlic
1/2 tsp. ground or crushed oregano
4 cups water
1-2 red chiles (I used dried New Mexico Hatch Chile)
3-15.5 oz. cans of drained hominy

Printable Version of Recipe: Posole PDF https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6nRIiDbLtgGLUdnNkZsT0Vkdnc/edit

Treasured all around Mexico, pozole has many variations, mainly green, red and white. Each
distinct and beautiful, and coincidentally, representing the colors of the Mexican flag.
What makes a pozole red or green is the seasoning sauce added to the stew. If there is no
sauce, it is a white pozole (blanco). It is popular in Guadalajara. Though there are many kinds
of green pozole, they use green ingredients, as tomatillos, cilantro, and jalapenos. Pozole Rojo
uses dried chiles as ancho or poblano. Green chile is generally a reference to its fresh state and red chiles refer to those chiles that have dried, thus the variations of color. (from patismexicantable.com)

Gather the ingredients.
The cookbook pictured is one that Mom bought for me during one of her visits to Albuquerque purchased in 1985 at Old Town.

Cube pork.

Brown pork in vegetable or olive oil in heavy dutch oven or saucepan.

Salt and pepper to taste.

Dice a medium onion.

Add to dutch oven.

Add 1 tsp. minced garlic or 2 minced fresh garlic cloves.

Add 1/2 tsp. ground or crushed oregano.

Chop red chile pods. I used 1 large New Mexico Hatch Chile that was dried.
This chile is named from the region where it comes from, Hatch, New Mexico.
It has built a reputation as the Chile Capital of the World.

I also used 1/2 of a fresh green Poblano pepper and a Serrano pepper because I had them on hand.

The seasoning for this soup comes from the color you want, red or green or white, and how hot you want the flavor. I seed my fresh peppers so they are not so hot. I have also used a jar of salsa when making red posole. If you want to make green, you can use a jar of salsa verde.

Add to browned meat and sauted onions, 4 cups of water.

Add the red chiles.

These are 2 peppers that you can season the soup with.
Ancho Chile is a poblano that is red.
Chipotle Chile is a smoked jalapeno pepper.

A little fresh serrano pepper and poblano pepper.

Drain 3 cans hominy.

Add to the sauce pan.

We like heat, so I sprinkled a little Ancho Chile Pepper into the pan.

Let simmer for 30 minutes before serving.
Your house will be fragrant with pork, chiles, garlic and corn as the posole simmers on the stove.

DRESS IT UP!

When it is done, you can sprinkle dried oregano, chopped fresh cilantro, fresh lime juice, crispy finely shredded cabbage, bits of diced green onion, sliced avocado, and sliced red radishes.

Don't forget tortilla chips on the side.