When I was a kid, my mom mostly got vegetables out of a can, and hominy (not the grits) was a routine canned vegetable. Heat it up, put it on the plate next to the meat loaf.
I think I first heard the word pozole-posole in the movie Frida, in which Diego Rivera’s wife is telling Frida Kahlo how to take care of him, “here’s my recipe for Posole, it’s his favorite soup…”
My foodie antennae went up and when I looked up the dish, I recognized good old hominy.
Now, 30 years ago when I moved to NJ it was difficult to find black eyed peas. Now it is easy to find them, even in Vermont. But finding hominy was rather difficult, I had to call half a dozen stores until I found one that had it, and it was shelved with the Mexican foods.
We are having a Mexican themed Superbowl party and I was thinking of making red or green Pozole. Probably green, because red would be too close in flavor to the chili.
I have read that in South America they scramble hominy into their eggs as a breakfast dish.
Do you eat hominy? How do you prepare it? I think there are casseroles topped with cheese, there are lots of possibilities. My wife (from New England) says “yuck” to hominy but honestly it isn’t THAT different from cauliflower, and it would probably be interesting even in dishes like Aloo Ghobi. Give it some spices and let it shine…
Frank, I had a hankering for green chile stew a couple of weeks back, and here is what I made without benefit of recipe:
Ingredients
About 3 lbs. pork shoulder, cut into 1-1/2 inch pieces
One large sweet onion, diced
4-5 fat garlic cloves, minced
3-4 cups chicken stock
6 poblano peppers, roasted, peeled, and chopped
3-4 dried pequin peppers
One tsp. ground cumin
3-4 cups chicken stock
One large can (29 oz) white hominy, drained and rinsed
Method
Season pork with salt and pepper, sear in a hot skillet until well browned on all sides. Remove pork from skillet, add onions, cook until starting to brown a bit. Add garlic, cook until softened. Place pork, onions and garlic, poblanos, pequins, and cumin in a pot and cover with stock. Simmer until pork is very tender (I think I went about 1-1/2 hours). Add hominy, adjust seasoning, and serve.
I was quite pleased with the result. Would have been more pleased, I think, if Hatch peppers had been available, but this came close to what I remember from trips to Santa Fe.
Robert, if you DID find a recipe that would be called Posole Verde. Looks good. I am stuck with trying to figure out a vegetarian version of a very porky dish.
FWIW I stopped at a Mexican grocery on the way to work. I had looked there before for cans of hominy, in vain. This time I decided they HAD to have some, so I really combed over the place. The reason I hadn’t seen it is probably that the cans are ENORMOUS. I mean, you could hide a football in the largest can. And they had the dried South American kind as well – it has already been lye-soaked and expanded, but then the puffy white kernels are flattened and dried, so you have to reconstitute with a long simmer. On the bag (“Mote Blanco”) was the recipe for the Ecuadorian breakfast with eggs. I would have bought it but it was an $8 bag and as I said, Louise would sneer…
The expensive thing I -did- buy was a little can of Huitlacoche. I’ve heard about this many times but never saw it before today. $4.50 for a little can. Now I need to figure out what to do with that, perhaps just open a can, warm it up and eat it?
Thanks for all the ideas. Isn’t Menudo based on tripe?!? Not sure I’m quite there yet.
Yes, Robert, your recipe reminds me of New Mexico Posole I had in Sante Fe, and I made similar at home a few times. To get it to taste like the New Mexico version requires a lot of cumin.
You have 3-4 cups of stock down twice, is that correct or a typo?
The expensive thing I -did- buy was a little can of Huitlacoche. I’ve heard about this many times but never saw it before today. $4.50 for a little can. Now I need to figure out what to do with that, perhaps just open a can, warm it up and eat it?
Ah. . .one of my favorites. Chino farms, a story in itself, is several miles from where I live and produce some of the best corn I have ever had. Ten years ago I asked Tom Chino if he ever got huitlacoche. He looked one way, then looked the other and whispered “where did you find out about that?” He gave me several ears infected with corn smut. Now he sells them for $5/ear. When I burst some of the kernels at home, my sink was quickly covered with spores as persistent as lampblack. My Mexican house keeper taught me how to cook it. Very simple, just saute some chopped onions in oil, put in the huitlacoche, saute for several more minutes and it is cooked. I prefer it spread on some grilled beef, but she simply loads it onto a heated corn tortilla and downs it. I have never had the canned variety. I have had it in high end restaurants in Tijuana, but it seemed to lack the fungus taste of the fresh preparation. Mexican truffles, it is called by some. Good luck and let us know of your experiments withi it.
Just to finish the story – I made the vegetarian green posole from “World Vegetarian Cookbook” – Jaffrey simulates meat with quartered mushrooms (for the chew) and cannelini beans (for the umami I think). The tangy hot flavor from all of the finely diced tomatillos and poblano peppers was something new for me. And the “toppings” were also fun. We had a batch of 20-somethings at the table, my son and his friends, and they all enjoyed it. You pass around Mexican oregano, lime wedges, green salsa, crunchy tortillas, thinly sliced radishes, slices of avocado, etc. and people decorate their bowls of soup with these things. Thinly sliced cabbage or iceberg lettuce is also recommended but I didn’t get around to that. This is definitely something I want to try again, without all the vegetarians around. Most recipes pay more attention to how the pork is prepared than the rest of the dish. I am sure it is a very different experience with meat!
BTW the Huitlacoche crepes were the hit of the meal…
