Recipe of the Week: Posole, by L.S.

Posole notes: My husband and I developed a blend of my mother’s tomato-based posole (a hominy-meat soup) that she learned in Mexico and his sister’s red chili-based posole. Neither of those recipes was a written recipe but more a method. My posole is significantly distinct from the other two and is our own creation. I have never printed it before and have not had it copyrighted. I use a church cookbook recipe for the red sauce, but it may be copyrighted. (Use whatever red chili sauce or recipe you have available.) This is a two-day process.

Posole Ingredients

• 1 large pork shoulder roast (or any pork roast that has a bone in it).

Soup Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp each black pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder
• ¼ tsp each cinnamon, ginger, cayenne, and salt
• 1 tsp each seasoned salt and lemon pepper seasoning salt
• 3 tsp regular chili powder
• dash of Worcestershire sauce
• ¼ cup red chili-based sauce (like a New Mexico Red sauce)
• 1 can (16 oz) tomato sauce
• 2 cans hominy, 25 oz

Garnishes

• Cabbage, chopped
• cheddar cheese, shredded
• green onions, chopped
• tortilla wedges
• lime wedges
• carrots, grated,
• additional red chili sauce

Directions (Two-day process)

Day 1

1. First day, put the pork shoulder roast in a large crockpot and cook all day.
2. Remove the meat from the crock pot.
3. Pick apart the meat from the fat and bones. (I usually divide the meat into two to three roughly equal portions, depending on the yield and I reserve one third for the next day’s posole, saute one third with barbecue sauce for sandwiches that night, and put one third in the freezer plain for quick quesadillas, enchiladas, et cetera on another night.)
4. Strain the broth with a wire mesh strainer and put in the fridge overnight.

Day 2

1. In the morning skim most of the fat off the broth. (Leaving a little of it enhances aroma and flavor, but too much makes it greasy.)
2. For this second night’s dinner, I put the broth in a stock pot. Then I add all the soup ingredients, except the hominy, and simmer until the flavors are well blended (at least 30 minutes). You control the heat of the posole with the heat level of the chili sauce used. I usually use medium hot sauce in the stock and serve extra-hot sauce on the side for the “pepper bellies”.
3. Set aside half of the soup and half of the reserved meat to seal and freeze when it is cool.
4. Add the other half of the reserved meat and the hominy to the stock pot. Add water, usually an amount equal to the broth in the pot, adjusting to taste. (This varies with the strength of the broth.)
5. Bring it all up to temperature.
6. Set the garnishes out on the table in separate bowls.
7. Each person places the desired garnishes in their bowl. (Lime gets squeezed in the bowl first.)
8. Then, the posole is ladled on top.

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