Posole

Now I may  only be 1/8 Mexican but I think I thrown down a pretty mean Posole!  I've been craving it since I last had it at Christmas time and Cinco De Mayo seemed like the perfect excuse to make it.  I normally don't "do" soups in this heat.  The thought of eating something steaming hot when its 97 outside makes my butt get swampy just thinking about it......but I decided this was worth an exception.

Here's what you'll need

Start by making your red sauce.  I've heard some people will use canned sauce or even enchilada sauce for a shortcut.....but I just can't bring myself to do it!  Once you see how easy making your own is and how much better it tastes you'll see why.

This is your basic red sauce.  The same stuff I use for making tamales. Start by taking the stems off the dried chiles and dumping out some of the seeds.  Place them on a baking sheet and warm them for about 3-5 minutes until you can smell them, but be sure not to burn them!

Then place them in a pot of hot water....enough to cover them.  Put the lid on and let them sit and soften for abut 30 mins.  After they are nice and soft place them in your food processor along with the salt, garlic, & cumin.  Thin it out to the right consistency with the soaking liquid.

Don't do what I did and try to shove it all in your mini processor because your too lazy to dig around for the big one.  Then you make big messes like this and it looks like your poor appliance is bleeding profusely.  Sorry little guy.

Then strain your sauce through a sieve.  No matter how long you blend it you will never get the skins of the peppers to totally break down so your left with little chunks that are funky and get all caught up in your grill.  It will leave you with a nice smooth sauce like this...

 Set your sauce aside for now and get to work on some juicy piggy!  Dice your pork shoulder as small as you can.  I know that can be hard to do with raw meat....and for gods sake don't cut yourself!  Just try to make it as close to the size of the hominy as you possibly can.  That way you can get both on your spoon and you don't have giant stew sized chunks of pork.

Brown the meat in your soup pot and take it out.

In the porky goodnesss that's left in the pan, saute your onions and bell peppers.  Once they start to soften add your pork back in along with your stock, hominy, and red sauce.  Bring to  boil then let it simmer until the pork becomes tender and the hominy softens.  Adjust seasonings if necessary.

Eat it with TONS of cilantro, citrus juice (I prefer lemon) and green onions mixed in.  Delish!

This makes a ton of soup, but if you going through the work of making it you might as well make alot!  And it freezes beautifully.



Red Sauce

5 oz dried chiles  (New Mexico, California etc)
2 tsp.Cumin
1 tsp. salt
4 garlic cloves

Rip of the stems and dump the seeds out of the chiles.  Warm in a 350 oven for 3-5 minutes until you can smell them but they don't burn.  Put in a pot of hot water, cover and let sit for 30 mins to soften.

After they soften, blend them with the salt, cumin, and garlic.  Add some of the soaking liquid until you get the desired consistency  Anywhere between 2 to 21/2 cups.  Strain the sauce through a sieve to get out all the pepper skins


Posole

2 # Pork shoulder roast diced small
1 Large diced onion
1 Large diced bell pepper
(2) 15 oz cans of hominy
Red sauce (recipe from above)
10-12 C. Chicken broth

Brown the pork and then remove from pan and set aside.  In the same pan saute onion and bell pepper until soft and translucent.  Add pork back in along with the hominy, red sauce, and chicken broth.  Bring it to a boil then let simmer until the pork is tender and the hominy softens.  Adjust seasonings.