POSOLE

                                                                             

Our friend Scott loves posole.  I had never really had it and was curious if we would like it.  We were expecting several days of miserably freezing weather here so I bought the ingredients as best I could find them and tried my hand at it.  Scott orders all the ingredients from The Fresh Chile Company out of Las Cruces, NM, so his version is straight forward. When he traveled through Las Cruces last Spring he brought me several items from there, and one was the Posole seasoning.  I didn't have time to order the dried posole and couldn't find it at any of the Mexican groceries in the area but was able to find a Mexican brand of hominy.  I'm not sure it was much different than any hominy I would have bought at HEB. Secondly I didn't have the red chile sauce that Fresh Chile Co sells so I went to Pati Jinich's recipe for posole and made the chile sauce like she does.  Her recipe was extremely involved but I took parts of it, and parts of Scott's Fresh Chile Co recipe and made my own version.  I made the mistake of salting the pork and then not tasting it before I added the posole seasoning, so my soup was very salty.  I tried the old trick of putting potatoes in it to soak up the salt, and it worked!  However, by having to cook it long enough to soak up the salt some of my meat totally fell apart and shredded.  Oddly we didn't mind the shredded meat.  BTW I picked out the potato chunks before I served it.  My boys loved it, especially with the raw cabbage, onions and radishes stirred into it. Justin didn't think he liked radishes but decided he didn't mind them stirred into posole.  Janice and Kim were coming over to celebrate Janice's birthday and when she shared that posole was one of her favorite dishes I saved the rest of it for us to have that night.  Janice has since asked me how I made it, so I am blogging this for you Janice.  Since it was such a trial and error I recommend tasting as you go to be sure you are happy with the seasonings.  I am going to estimate the amounts I will use next time based on my experience of making it the first time.  Good luck!

2-29 oz cans hominy (or dried posole if you can find it, and follow the directions)

2-4 oz dried chiles (I used a combination of ancho, guajillo and a few chiles de arbol)

3 TB coarsely chopped onion

3 cloves garlic, coarsely diced

Pinch ground cumin

1 t. kosher salt

3 TB oil (I used avocado oil) + more to brown meat

3 lbs. pork roast (I bought pork carnitas meat), cut into 1" chunks

2 TB posole seasoning (estimate so taste as you go) -- It is a combination of salt, granulated garlic, cumin and Mexican oregano ground into a fine powder.

Toppings:

Shredded green cabbage

Onion, diced

Radishes, sliced thin

Avocado, diced

Lime wedges

Sour cream or crema, optional

Cheese of your choice, optional (I offered cotija)

Place the chiles in a 3 qt saucepan and cover with water.  Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and simmer for 10 minutes, or until the chiles have softened and rehydrated.  Once rehydrated remove the veins and seeds.  Place the chiles, along with 1/2 c. of their cooking liquid, onion, garlic, cumin and salt in a blender or food processor and puree until smooth.  Reserve the remainder of the chile water in case your soup gets too thick, and if so only add a little at a time.  Pass the sauce from the blender through a fine-mesh strainer into a bowl, pressing gently on the solids with the back of a wooden spoon to extract as much liquid as possible.  Heat the 3 TB oil and pour in the chile sauce.  Bring it to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer it about 6-8 minutes, allowing it to slightly thicken.

Heat a little oil in a Dutch oven and brown the meat in batches.  Do not season the meat.  Add all the meat back into the pan and add the chile sauce.  Cover and simmer it about 2 hours, stirring occasionally.  Add the hominy and posole seasoning, cover it again and let it simmer for another hour, stirring it occasionally to be sure it isn't sticking.  If it is beginning to stick then stir in a bit of the reserved water you used to soften the chiles.  You might possibly use a little chicken broth if you prefer but only if it gets so thick that it is sticking.  

Serve hot in bowls with the toppings of your choice and a squeeze of lime.  We all used more of the toppings than in the picture.  Surprisingly they really added a nice texture and flavor to the dish without tasting too raw or strong.