Pozole

The whole dish waits on the hominy, which is ready when every grain has burst open into a four-petalled flower.

Chicken, Pork. Not vegetarian — contains cheese whose rennet the source does not name, chicken, lard, pork.

Ingredients

the pot

• 500 g dried nixtamalised hominy (maiz pozolero), soaked overnight
• 1.5 kg pork shoulder, in large chunks
• 500 g pork ribs
• 1 onion, halved
• 6 cloves garlic
• 3 litres water
• 1 tablespoon salt

the chilli

• 6 guajillo chillies, stalks and seeds removed
• 3 ancho chillies, stalks and seeds removed
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• ½ teaspoon ground cumin

the garnish plate

• ¼ white cabbage, shredded very fine
• 8 radishes, sliced thin
• 1 white onion, finely chopped
• dried oregano, to crumble
• lime wedges
• ground chile piquin
• tostadas, as on their own page

Method

1. EVERY GRAIN HAS TO BURST OPEN INTO A FOUR-PETALLED FLOWER, and the whole dish waits on that. Dried nixtamalised maize does not merely soften: at some point between the second and third hour each grain splits at one end and splays outward into something that genuinely looks like a small flower. Until that happens the grain is chalky in the middle and the broth is thin, because what thickens a pozole is the starch released at the moment of bursting. Once it happens the broth goes faintly cloudy and silky and the texture is right. There is no way to hurry it and no way to predict it -- old maize takes four hours, newer maize two and a half -- so it is cooked until it flowers and the clock is ignored.
2. IT IS THE NIXTAMALISED MAIZE AND NOT SWEETCORN OR PEARL BARLEY. Maiz pozolero is field corn already treated with lime, which is why it can burst at all; its skins have been loosened. Nothing else behaves this way, and tinned hominy -- which is the same grain already cooked -- gives a serviceable pozole in forty minutes with none of the starch in the broth, because the bursting happened in a factory and the starch went down a drain there.
3. THE MAIZE IS SALTED ONLY ONCE IT HAS FLOWERED. Salt toughens the skins and a salted pot can simmer five hours with half the grains still shut. Nothing goes in until they have opened.
4. THE CHILLI IS ADDED AT THE END AND STRAINED IN. Blended chillies simmered for three hours go flat and faintly bitter and their colour dulls to brown. Blended, strained and stirred in for the last twenty minutes, the broth is a clear brick red and tastes of chilli rather than of something that used to be chilli.
5. THE GARNISH PLATE IS HALF THE DISH AND IT IS NOT OPTIONAL. The soup itself is rich, soft and all one texture. Everything sharp, raw and crunchy is on a separate plate -- cabbage, radish, onion, oregano, lime, ground chilli -- and each person builds their own bowl. Served without it, a pozole is heavy by the fourth spoonful.
6. The soaked hominy drained and put in a large pot with the 3 litres of water, the onion halves and the 6 cloves of garlic. NO SALT.
7. Brought to the boil and simmered, uncovered, topped up with boiling water as needed.
8. After 1 hour the pork shoulder and ribs added.
9. Simmered a further 1 HOUR 30 MINUTES to 3 HOURS, and CHECKED every half hour.
10. WATCHED FOR THE FLOWERING: the grains must split and SPLAY OPEN like small four-petalled flowers, and the broth go faintly cloudy. Nothing proceeds until they have.
11. ONLY NOW the 1 tablespoon of salt added.
12. The chillies toasted on a dry pan 30 SECONDS a side, soaked in hot water 20 minutes and DRAINED, the water discarded.
13. Blended with the 3 cloves of garlic, the oregano, cumin and a ladle of the broth, then STRAINED into the pot.
14. Simmered a further 20 MINUTES. The meat lifted out, bones discarded, and shredded coarsely before going back in.
15. Tasted and salted again.
16. Everything for the garnish plate prepared and put on the table in separate bowls, with tostadas.
17. Ladled into deep bowls and each person builds their own.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Mexico · All recipes