Pozole

I love me a bowl of pozole. Especially on a nice, crisp, chilly day. I've always thought it was difficult to cook, since we used to only have it on special occasions growing up. But I've also always wanted to learn to cook it. So when my son asked me for pozole for his 13th birthday, I knew it was time. I called up mom. Hanging on to every last instruction she gave me over the phone, I wrote everything down...and I couldn't help to but say "that's it?". Really? That's it? This didn't sound difficult at all. And it wasn't!

Mom's posole recipe is made with pork and red sauce. Many people will make it with chicken and with no "color" to their broth, aka red sauce. But given that my intent here is to cook like my mom, I've used her recipe.

For those of you who are not familiar with posole, it is a hearty Mexican stew made with pork or chicken, hominy and aromatics. Some of us add a red sauce to it for extra flavors...yum!

INGREDIENTS:

1 can Juanita's Mexican Style Hominy, drained and washed
*3 lbs. Pork shank or shoulder
**3-4 dried guajillo chiles, soaked in warm water for 20-30 minutes
3 garlic cloves
salt to taste

For garnishing:
lemons cut in quarters
chopped onion
shredded green cabbage
sliced radishes, I don't use these but mom does
Tabasco
salt
tostadas- I buy Guerrero tostadas, or you can fry your own.

*I purchased my ingredients at a Mexican market and requested the "carne para pozole", pork meat specifically for pozole. Make sure you get the bones too, it adds flavor. You can take the meat off and shred it later.

**Sometimes you can find the dried guajillos as chile entero, chile New Mexico, and other names.

DIRECTIONS:

Place the pork in a pot of water, a garlic clove and salt . Make sure there's enough water in the pot to cover the pork, plus the hominy that will go in it. Cover and bring to a boil. Boil for about 15 to 20 minutes.

Foam will start to form at the top, remove that and throw it out.

While the pork is boiling prep the sauce.

Cut the stem off the chiles and take out the seeds if you don't want it too spicy. I just cut off the stem and whatever seeds come out I just leave out, but I don't make it a point to empty out the chile entirely. You can also take out the seeds before you soak them, it might be easier that way. Blend the chiles with 2 garlic cloves and some of the water it was softened in.

Add the chile sauce and the hominy to the pot with the meat. Continue boiling until the pork is cooked and tender.

Take the meat out and cut it into bite-size pieces or shred, if the pieces of meat are too big to serve. Put the meat back in the pot with the hominy.

Serve in bowls and provide lemon, cabbage, onion, radishes, salt, and Tabasco for garnishing. Enjoy with tostadas!