Posole / Pozole (rojo, preferably)

[iprobeattoomuch]

Shockingly, there aren't a whole lot of intense-looking recipes out there... at least they arent that easy to find.

I'm looking for deep red, porky, rich, sticky-fatty-unctuous broth...

Does anybody have a really great recipe? Grandparents' recipes are a bonus!

Also, for that matter, if you have any other soup recipes with really wonderful sticky-unctuous-sinfully-rich broths, I'd love to hear them! Looking for soups, really, not a stew. That is, a broth I can slurp with a spoon (or from the bowl) without succumbing to cardiac arrest on the spot. For this secondary recipe, other cuisines are totally cool...

Help!

[Azmurphman]

http://murphskitchen.blogspot.com/201...

Murph's Posole
It's a busy week end for Murph and the family. We've got the Arizona Wildcats in their last regular season game against Oregon for possible sole possession of the regular PAC 10 season champs. GO CATS! So it seems like a good idea to start a big pot of Posole to have around for a few days. Posole is our traditional Christmas Day dish but we enjoy it throughout the year as well. One of the best things about Posole is the aroma that fills the house, family and friends love it and it's very easy to make.

Murph’s Posole

3-4 Pound Pork Shoulder
3 Medium Brown Onions
4 Cloves Garlic
2 Large Cans Hominy
1 Large Can Whole Green Chili’s
32 oz. Trader Joe’s Free Range Chicken Broth
8-10 Cups Water
3 Jalapeños
3 T Cumin
3 T Red Chili Powder
Salt and Pepper
2 Bay Leaves
1 T Oregano
3 T Olive Oil

For Garnish
Make your garnish items just prior to serving!
Shredded Cabbage
Radishes, Thinly Sliced
Chopped Sweet Onion
Cilantro, Chopped
Jalapeño Rings
Crushed Tortilla Chips
Sargento Shredded Chipotle Cheese
Limes Wedges

Remove Exterior Fat from pork shoulder and cut into bite size cubes. It is always a good idea to have a sharp knife to remove bits of fat from the pork as you trim it away from the bone. You don’t need to obsess over this but well trimmed pork will never be chewy or fatty.

Heat 1 Tablespoon of Olive Oil in your large Iron Pot, of course I always use my Le Creuset which is about a 10 qt. Add trimmed pork over a medium high heat and brown lightly about 10-15 minutes. Continually turn the meat to evenly brown all sides of all pieces. As always, add salt and fresh ground pepper once all the meat is in the pan.

While the meat is browning, peel the onions and chop into larger chunks. Peel and chop the garlic at this point as well. If the meat is still cooking, seed the jalapeños and chop into smaller pieces while retaining the seeds for flavor and heat later in the cooking process.

When the meat is almost brown add a tablespoon of cumin and a table spoon of red chili powder and cook for 2 minutes longer covering the meat thoroughly.

Remove meat and juices from pot and set aside in a large mixing bowl.

Add 2 tablespoons of oil to pot and add onions and season liberally with salt and pepper. Sauté 4-5 minutes and add garlic and chopped jalapeños. Stir continually for 2-3 minutes. Once onions begin to brown add 2 T cumin and 2 T red chili powder. Coat thoroughly and stir constantly for 2-3 minutes longer.

Add pork, juices and chicken broth and turn heat to medium high. Add drained Hominy and half the water and bring to a boil.

While waiting for pot to boil, open green chili’s and pour half the juice from can into the stock. Chop whole chilis into larger chunks and add to the boiling stock. Add Oregano and bay leaves and fill pot to 1 ½ inches from top with remaining water and bring to a good boil for 10 minutes.

Reduce heat to low and simmer for 2-3 hours. Add as many of the remaining green chili’s to the stew as you would like based on your desired consistency and heat profile. Murph and the family like it hot but guests often can’t handle our heat so retain some jalapeno rings for garnishing later on.

This dish requires frequent stirring and needs to be tasted about an hour prior to serving for seasoning and heat. You can always kick it up a notch with a little more red chili powder or a few seeds from the jalapenos.

Once the pork is tender and the stew is bursting with flavor serve with shredded cabbage, chopped fresh radishes, chopped cilantro and quartered limes on the side. Crispy corn tortillas crumbled over the top and fresh hot flour tortillas are great as well. Murph’s crew likes the Sargento Shredded Cheese blends and the Chipotle variety is a good fit for this dish.

Enjoy!

[paulj]

Do you really need a recipe? There are 3 components to pozole:
- the pork broth
- the hominy
- the seasoning

The key to a sticky unctuous broth (it does not have to be fatty) is pork with lots of collagen. The traditional part used for this was the head. Smaller parts that work just as well are feet, ears, hocks, basically anything with a good amount of skin. I prefer to make the broth one day, and use it for soup another.

That broth can be seasoned in two steps - at the start, and later during final assembly. I would not worry about getting the initial seasoning right; a couple of whole anchos would be fine. Often in a restaurant the pozole is kept lightly seasoned, allowing the diner to add condiments (chopped raw onion, oregano, hot sauce, etc) to taste. Rehydrated ancho puree would be good way of adding color and flavor to the soup in the last hour or so of cooking.

It may be best to prepare the hominy from scratch yourself, but that is a lot of work. A good alternative is to use a good Mexican style canned hominy (Teasdale or Juanita are the brands I see), and let that cook in the broth for at least a hour.

[chowser]

Cristina who posts here has a great blog and I really enjoyed reading about her pozole.

http://mexicocooks.typepad.com/mexico...

It looks amazing.

[rainey]

Thank you soooo much for that link!

I've been looking for that element of rich chiles to duplicate some of the fabulous restaurant posoles and albondigas stocks that I've enjoyed.

I'm not going to lie to you. I'm a slacker so I'm not going to be cooking with any pigs' heads complete with eyeballs and teeth. =o I'm going to use my whimpy Boston butts. But I have saved the portion on making the chile paste to add to my sad little gringa stocks.

I really thank you for what I look forward to experimenting with.

[joonjoon]

Whoa chowser...that's an intense posole prep right there...whole pig head. Awesome.