Pozole

(po-só-lay)

This is a great dish and I really want you to try it. That is unless you're a vegetarian — because this is definitely a meat eaters meal. I've been struggling with how to write out this recipe because this is truly a dish where amounts don't matter. I've eaten pozole all over the country and no two have been the same........ and I've never had bad pozole. This dish is almost impossible to screw up. Instead of giving you a detailed recipe I'm just gonna tell you how I make it.

PARTS LIST

meat
I use short ribs of beef, breast of chicken (we use chicken breast at the restaurant because we charge a lot of money for the dish but when I make it at home I use drumsticks and thighs), beef shanks, boneless pork shoulder and loin. To my way of thinking, short ribs and shanks are the two tastiest cuts of beef and make the richest broth. I cut the rack of ribs into individual ribs. I trim the skin and ribs off the chicken breasts (save them for the stock) and cut the breasts in half. The beef shanks are about 1/2 inch thick and I trim the meat off of them, saving the bones for the stock. I cut the pork shoulder into golf ball sized pieces. If I am making it at home I don't even use pork loin — but it sounds high tone on the menu.

hominy
Just use the canned hominy. Dealing with the dried hominy just doubles the work and the time and doesn't really improve the dish. I've eaten pozole a jillion times and usually can't tell if the hominy is fresh or canned.

guajillo chiles
This is a large dried red chile that we are using only for color. We don't want any heat from this chile since we are going to be serving chopped, hot, fresh chiles as a garnish. If you can't fing guajillos you can use anchos or pasillas....or you could leave them out entirely. But I highly recommend that you use them because they make the dish really pretty.

Let's do it!

If you didn't do anything but put all the meat in the pot and boil it for 5 or 6 hours — adding more water as the water boils away — you will wind up with a pretty damn good pozole. However if you do it my way you're gonna have something really special. You'll need two big pots and not much else. In one pot start the short ribs browning. Don't be timid — use a pretty high flame. You want to brown them really well on all sides, just short of burning them and you want lots of brown stuff stuck to the bottom of the pot. When the ribs are good and browned put them into the other big pot. Brown the meat from the shanks and the pork and put them in the pot with the ribs. . If you're using chicken legs or thighs go ahead and brown them too. Put the shank bones in the rendered fat and brown them well on both sides....real well, making sure you get all the marrow out of the bones and into the mix. Cover all the meat in the other pot with cold water and bring it to a boil and turn it down to a simmer. When the bones in the first pot are good and brown you can add a chopped onion, some chopped celery and even a carrot or two.......brown all the veggies just slightly. When the bones and veggies are browned nicely add a bunch of water and scrape up all the good brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Add any chicken skin or ribs you trimmed from the breasts — if you're using breasts. You can toss in the onion skin and the celery leaves if you want....I do. Bring it to a boil and turn it down to a simmer. Go have a beer or do some gardening or something. We're gonna let both pots simmer for about an hour and a half. Your only job during this time is to skim the fat and foam and little bits of junk that seem to keep appearing and to replace any water that boils away. One way to judge a pozole is by how clear the broth is...so skim, skim, skim!

dealing with the chiles
If you're making a whole lot of pozole (enough for 12 or 15 people or so) you'll want to use about 5 or 6 chiles. For a smaller batch a couple will do. Cut the chiles open with a sharp knife or some scissors and scrape out all the seeds and veins and any pithy stuff — all we want are the dried skins. Cut or tear the chiles into small pieces and cover them with water and simmer them for about 20 minutes. Let them cool. When they have cooled run them — with the water through the blender and dump the whole mess into the pot with the meat. This will give your broth that nice red color.

finishing it up
When the pot with the meat has simmered for about an hour and a half — check the meat for tender. If it's real tender , turn the heat off. If not, keep simmering for another half hour — then check again. The next step is to strain or filter the stock into the pot with the meat. You can do that any time after an hour and a half or so, but the longer the stock simmers — the better it's gonna be. Okay, turn the heat back on and add the chicken. Bring it to a boil and simmer for about 40 minutes or until the chicken is real tender. As the chicken cooks some foamy junk may form on the surface — so skim. Hey, you just made pozole. Except for the SALT, (YOU HAVE TO ADD SOME SALT. So taste it and add salt to taste.) and the hominy. Open the can of hominy and dump the liquid and rinse the hominy. Put it in a pot with some water and bring it to a boil — simmer it for a few minutes and we're ready to serve. We cook the hominy apart for a couple of reasons. One, if you over cook the hominy it will get mushy and that's not the texture we want. Two, the left over pozole will last about for ever in the fridge and each time you reheat it it will be better. Unless, that is, you have all the hominy already added. It will deteriorate and get all cloudy and we don't want that.....now, do we??

serving it up
As you're ready to serve, the pozole should be very, very hot — so should the hominy. This is because we're gonna be adding a whole bunch of room temperature garnishes at the table....and this will cool the pozole down considerably. Serve it in a deep bowl. Put about an ice cream scoop of the hominy in the bottom of the bowl. Add a short rib or two, a couple of pieces of the pork and a piece of chicken.....and some of that rich red broth(almost enough to cover everything...I like to see the chunks of chicken and meat sticking up through the broth). If you didn't do anything else, your guests would probably say it was the best soup/stew they ever tasted — but you're gonna do something else. With each bowl you serve a plate of garnishes and let the eater finish the pozole right at the table. Every part of Mexico serves a different garnish and the folks from these areas say that theirs is the only real 'pozole.' In Baja California the garnish almost always includes thinly sliced radishes, lime sections, dried oregano (whole, not ground), chopped onions, chopped serrano chiles, chopped cilantro and shredded cabbage. In Guerrero they add some chopped avocado and in Michoacan they toss in some toasted pumpkin seeds. At Felix' we add some strips of red and green bell pepper and zucchini that we have sauteed briefly. Also I like to use shredded Iceberg lettuce instead of cabbage, and we include some grated Monterey Jack cheese. I like to break up some tortilla chips in mine too. Tell your guests to watch out for the grated chiles and some of them may not like cilantro — but tell them to squeeze some lime in it and then just go ahead and pile everything else on......sorta like an ice cream sundae. The radishes and pumpkin seeds give it some crunch, the avocado and cheese add some creaminess, the lettuce serves to thicken the broth and adds an almost fennely taste, the lime juice adds some tang, the chiles and onions give it some bite, the cilantro gives it ...well a cilantro taste and the broken tortilla chips and the peppers and squash give it some body. Let me know how it turns out.