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

16 dried chiles  (New Mexico, Ca etc)  usually ends up being about 5oz
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) 1# cans of hominy
Red sauce
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.

Garlic Lime Shrimp Tacos with Chipotle Sauce

Normally every single recipe I post has some sort of looooong winded story behind it.  The first time I ever had it, it’s family history, I’ve even been known to recap which of my sisters have thrown it up and will no longer eat it.  Cool details like that.

Unfortunately, (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) this one is pretty lacking in history or story telling.  The way it came to be went down a little something like this:

1. Yesterday was Cinco De Mayo

2. I planned to make Posole for Cinco De Mayo

3. I needed something else to serve with the Posole

4. Shrimp was on sale

5. I made shrimp tacos

End of story.

Garlic & Lime Shrimp Tacos w/ Chipotle Sauce

Shrimp

1 lb. raw peeled and deveined shrimp

Zest of 2 limes

Juice of 3 limes

1 large cloves of garlic, minced

3 tsp. Salgado seasoning (see bottom of post)

¾ tsp. kosher salt

Mix all ingredients together and marinate shrimp for a minimum of 4 hours.  Saute shrimp over medium high heat in a high smoke point oil (light olive oil, coconut, vegetable, avocado) until shrimp are cooked through, about 3 minutes.

Chipotle Sauce

½ C. mayo *

Juice of half a lime

2 tb. adobo sauce from chipotles in adobo

1 clove garlic, minced

½ tsp. salt

Combine all ingredients together.  Best if made at least 30 minutes to an hour in advance to re thicken after mixing and let flavors meld

*I have issues with dairy, so I only use mayonnaise, but you can do a 50/50 combo of mayo and sour cream or just sour cream for a tangier sauce

Serve tacos on warmed corn tortillas with shredded cabbage and pico de gallo

Salgado Seasoning

3 parts chili powder

2 part cumin

1 part ground coriander

This recipe can be made in any sized batch you would like following this ratio

Christmas Photo Props

Back in Christmas 2011 I was on a real photo prop kick.  My wedding had just passed in November and I had made a bunch of photo props for my reception which you can check out here and I wasn't ready to quit the prop madness just yet

I hosted Christmas at my house that year so I thought the kiddos (and me of course) might enjoy some Christmas themed photo props.  So Christmas Eve I was up all night doing my usual....wrapping presents, baking Christmas crumb cake, simmering posole, and then just to make things more hectic....making the props

Luckily it's a super quick and easy project.  Just cut your shapes out of craft foam and hot glue them to wooden dowels.....easy peasy

The kids really liked them and it made for some good pictures. Here's Brooke as Rudolph....hoof in the air

Elsa as Santa Clause.....she looks super confused and her hat is falling off

And Katie....the big girl whose never too cool for a Rudolph nose

Apparently nobody wanted to be the snowman with a carrot nose?  Or maybe I just don't have any pictures??

The cool thing is you can keep these year after year to get some real use out of them.  I think this year I may add on to the collection with some elf ears and hat and maybe some reindeer antlers.  We'll see if I get around to it before 3am Christmas morning this time around

Ceviche

The first time I ever had ceviche was at my friend Kristina's house in high school

 That day the clouds parted, the sun came out, and my life was changed forever.  f you think this sounds dramatic....it's not.  It's just really that good...promise

It's so refreshing and addictive....and the bonus of it all is that it's actually really healthy . It's just shrimp and veggies.....whose gonna complain about that? 

It's a perfect summer time dish because like I said, it's super refreshing and requires no heat....so you get a meal without heating up your house.  A bonus for me because living here in AZ I avoid turning on the oven and stove at all costs about 4 months out of the year

Here's the delicious ingredients you'll need

Fresh shrimp, cilantro, red onion, orange and yellow bell peppers, cucumbers, and lemons

Start by fine dicing your red onion

And your cilantro

Then start to finely chop your shrimp.  When you think you've chopped it fine enough...you haven't.  Keep choppin!   I usually buy the larger tail on shrimps and it takes me longer to take the tails off and chop, but this time I paid a little more and got the smaller tail off ones to make it go a littler faster

 In a non reactive pan (I suggest glass) mix together the minced onion, cilantro, shrimp, and the juice of your lemons.  I usually used about 10 or so.   You want to put it in a pan with alot of surface area (I use a 9x13 baking dish) so everything can lay out in an even layer to allow the lemon juice to cook the shrimp evenly

Correction....it's not exactly "cooking"  Let me drop a little knowledge here.......

Technically, to cook something you have to apply heat.  The shrimps reaction to the lemon juice is actually just a denaturing of the protein.  The same denaturing process happens in cooking....but with the use of heat.  In this process the denaturing is being done by acid.   Make sense?

I paid thousands upon thousands, upon thousands of dollars to learn that.  Wanna thank me for this tidbit of information?  Feel free to send a check on my behalf directly to Sallie Mae....please and thank you

I kid, I kid

Unless of course you REALLy want to....I won't fight it ;)

Here's how it will look right after you mix it all together

Put it in the fridge and let it "denature" ;)  Stir it occasionally to make sure it is all getting coated in the lemon juice

I let these ingredients sit on their own for about 2 - 2 1/2 hours

In the mean time, finely dice your bell peppers and cucumber

I've seen some ceviches where they leave the shrimp whole and everything is really chunky, but I prefer everything chopped small so that you get a little bit of everything in every bite

After about 2 1/2 hours you'll see a difference in the shrimp.  It will be firmer and orangeish in color compared to the translucent blue look from earlier.  This means your shrimp is now "cooked"

Now mix in your bell peppers, cucumber, and diced avocado.  Add salt to taste

Your ceviche is ready!

Eat it on a tostada or with tortilla chips

I warned ya.....this stuff is CRAAAAZY addictive.  I crave it so bad I sometimes have to make stops at the ranch markets for theirs to tide me over.....but it's nothing compared to this

I also made some Posole today in honor of Cinco De Mayo

Go Here for the recipe 

*Low Carb Note*  This could easily be adapted to low carb by eating it with pork rinds, lettuce leaves, zucchini chips, or simply with a fork

Ceviche

2lb. Shrimp, finely chopped (white fish can be substituted)

2 sweet bell peppers, finely diced

1 red onion, minced

1 bunch of cilantro, finely chopped

5-7 avocados depending on size

10 lemons (roughly)

Salt

Mix together the red onion, cilantro, shrimp, and lemon juice and let sit in a glass pan with alot of surface area (such as a 9x13 baking dish) for about 2 to 2 1/2 hours, stirring occassionally.

After the shrimp looks "cooked" stir in the bell peppers, cucumber, avocado, and salt to taste and let that sit and marinate together for another hour or so before serving