Pozole/Hominy

[bimbojones]

Hey! That sounds really good!

But you should also be aware of the wonders of a big pig head thrown in a pot with just seasoning, corn (posole/pozole/hominy), chilis and water. Let it simmer to viciousness and then pick apart the meat and serve in bowls with the usual garnishes...the base can get pretty funkily porky - magnificently so....

ummmm....

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"Funkily"...I like that one. Can't says I've ever had pork head (intentionally). I'm sure, as in most head cases, it's awsome. Is this a whole head or a disassembled one? Would it be looking back at me? Sometimes the whole face thing gets to me...unless it's a fish or a lobster...

[esperanza]

The whole head goes in the pot, ears to snout, eyeballs included.

The first time I ever ate pozole, the woman who made it for me looked at the washbasin-size bowl of food she'd put in front of me and said, "Ay ay ay, you don't have enough meat." With that, she plunged this long two-tined fork into her vat of pozole and hauled out the entire head. I about fell off my stool, but didn't dare screech. She proceeded to slice off some cheek meat for me. Well. I gotta tell you, it was out of this world--but I must say it startled me a good bit. It looked a lot like Bimbo's avatar, only not green.

Now, what the heck--I'm used to it.

Edited March 10, 2005 by esperanza (log)

[sladeums]

ohhhh, yeah - that's the stuff.

...and proof that 'cabeza' really does mean 'head' and not just the more politely Anglo 'cheek-meat' which seems so much more acceptable (but, hey, that cheek has to come from somewhere!).

[bimbojones]

The whole head goes in the pot, ears to snout, eyeballs included. 

The first time I ever ate pozole, the woman who made it for me looked at the washbasin-size bowl of food she'd put in front of me and said, "Ay ay ay, you don't have enough meat."  With that, she plunged this long two-tined fork into her vat of pozole and hauled out the entire head.  I about fell off my stool, but didn't dare screech.  She proceeded to slice off some cheek meat for me.  Well.  I gotta tell you, it was out of this world--but I must say it startled me a good bit.  It looked a lot like Bimbo's avatar, only not green.

Now, what the heck--I'm used to it.

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That just made me laugh! How about some cheeks from the other end, I would've said. That's the kind of thing that needs to happen to me. I wouldn't go out of my way to order head soup. But plopped in my bowl without a chance to say, "er, uh, no thank you"? My pride would tell me get over it and dig in even if I was feeling icked out. I think I'm going to change my avatar...

I have had chicken feet for Dim Sum and loved them. So, go figure.

Edited March 10, 2005 by bimbojones (log)

[esperanza]

The rest of the story about pozole as prepared here in Mexico is that even though the head is important to the soup, it's usually not the only meat that's in it. Other pig meat goes in the pot as well.

Where I go to eat pozole, you can order it with the parts you want: trompa (snout), oreja (ear), labio (lip), lengua (tongue), cachete (cheek), etc. It will also come with some hunks of maciza (which is actually those other cheeks that bimbojones mentioned--what y'all up there euphemistically call pork butt). Or you can order pura maciza, so that you only get delicious not-from-the-head pork meat, tender and juicy, in your bowl of pozole.

Where I eat it, that bowl of pozole--usually served in a basin-size portion--is filled with the long-cooked nixtamal-ized dried maíz that we've been talking about on this thread, the pork meat, the delicious rich broth, and toppings of small-diced onion, shredded cabbage, and thin-sliced radishes. At table, you add a cooked red table salsa, coarse sea salt, a squeeze or two of limón (key lime), and a pinch of crushed dried oregano--all to taste.

It's been a while since I had a bowl. It's only 7AM and now I want some for breakfast. The trouble is, pozole is a night-time soup. Breakfast soup is menudo, an entirely different thread.

Edited March 10, 2005 by esperanza (log)

[bimbojones]

Well, I know what I'M having for dinner tonight! On the other thread I started about masa I mentioned I found the dried pozole (nixtamalized) corn, at least I realized that's the corn I had. I tell ya, your kitchen will smell like heaven when you get these simmering away. I've never tasted the canned pozole. I imagine the dried cooked ones would taste better...no?

So, soak the corn for a few hours then simmer for a couple more? Like beans? I think I'm going to try the carnitas version tonight since I can get a couple more dishes out of them.

The table salsa esperanza is referring to, is that the one that's almost like a red sauce for pasta? Sauteed onions, garlic, tomato but with the addition of jalapeno? Or is it roasted first?

[fifi]

Actually, I cooked the pozole that I got from rancho_gordo last night. It was an experiment. I wanted to try the crock pot and the "Parson's method" that we have been discussing ad infinitum in the dried bean thread. On suggestions from RG, I used more water than for beans. I didn't soak the pozole. I put 1 cup in the little Le Creuset with 4 cups of water, a teaspoon of salt and some onion. Into the oven at 250 degrees F. 3 1/2 hours later, I had lovely bloomin' pozole. If I had remembered to bring it to a boil before putting it into the oven it probably wouldn't have taken that long. I was thinking that I didn't need that much water but, after an overnight sojourn in the fridge, it bloomed even more and is just about perfect. The crock pot took about an hour and a half longer. I started on high and turned it to low after an hour when it had started a good simmer.

More on the Parson's method here and here. (We do go on about beans on that thread. )

The carnitas pozole sounds a lot like what I do with leftover BBQ.

[birder53]

My first taste of posole was in a green chile stew at The Shed in Santa Fe, NM. It was wonderful and the posole were chewy and addictive. I recently prepared a chicken stew with posole from Fine Cooking magazine. It called for canned posole and I located the Goya brand. It had an odd floral taste and smell that overwhelmed the rest of the dish. Nothing like what I remembered from my first taste of posole. I even bought two cans of the stuff in anticipation of making the dish again. That can is going out with the next canned goods collection to feed the hungry!

I'm glad to hear that there can be such differences in this product. I thought maybe I liked it the first time only because the margaritas we were drinking were so good! I'll have to add this to the list of things to try again. Now, about that "head'...

[esperanza]

To make the table salsa that I mentioned, you roast the ingredients first on a comal (or something that serves that purpose, like a big cast iron skillet). My friend Doña Mago, who lives down the street from my old house, makes the best red salsa of this type that I've ever eaten. She roasts the deeply ripe Roma jitomates* and the green tomates* for up to an hour, until the skins burst and blacken and the juices sweeten, over a very low heat, roasts the onions until they are well-carmelized, and roasts the chiles serrano until they are well-blackened. No fat or oil of any kind is used, just roasting over that slow flame on the comal. Everything is then blended either in a blender or in a molcajete and salted to taste. I don't know her proportions, but man oh man what a salsa. Experiment!

This is the most common type table salsa made in this part of Mexico. The next most common salsa is salsa verde.

*jitomates: What folks north of the border call tomatoes

*tomates: What you call tomatillos

[sladeums]

As an alternative to roasting each individual item I've also had good results by pitching everything under the broiler and then blending.

For a red (tomato-based) salsa some garlic is always good; and for a green (tomatillo-baseed) salsa I prefer to leave the onions not roasted.

Always top it with some freshly chopped cilantro and stir in a bit of salt - salsa (sauce) is very easy and forgiving.

[bimbojones]

Thanks, you guys and for the spanish lesson! That's funny, I had that exact salsa on hand this evening. I was going to make roasted tomate salsa but didn't have enough so I added a couple jitamates to the roasting pan. I used jalapeno instead of serrano, though, and a clove of garlic and onion. Also whiz banged it in the machine with cilantro. Really good.Anyway, here's dinner! I just took the basic ingredients and ad libbed the rest. The pozole didn't really bloom and could've cooked a bit longer in the broth but I liked the texture. Kind of had the same "al dente" as with risotto. I used our home made chicken broth and added a spoonful of chipotle salsa I made to give it some depth. For the toppings we had the sliced cabbage, red onions and lime, then my ad libbing with juliened roasted poblanos, queso fresco, cilantro, salsa and a little daikon radish (didn't have red ones). It was really good! I'm sure tomorrow the pozole will have bloomed and taste even better soaking in the broth overnight.<table width="700" border="0" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td><img src="http://www.geocities.com/michele_graybeal/pozole.jpg" width="300"></td> <td><img src="http://www.geocities.com/michele_graybeal/carnitas.jpg" width="400"></td> </tr> <tr> <td><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br> pozole soup with carnitas</font></td> <td><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br> here's the carnitas simmering away</font></td> </tr></table>

[Terrasanct]

I bought some dried hominy, which I've never cooked before. I soaked it overnight and cooked it on the stove for an hour until it started getting cooked, then put it in a slowcooker with a ham hock. Not quite sure where I'm going with it, but either tomatoes or cheese will probably be involved. But now that the hominy is cooking, the very hard outer skins are loosening. I realized that those things aren't present in canned hominy and don't seem very edible. Will they come off in cooking? If not, how do I remove them?

Any other general advice about dried hominy would also be appreciated.

[RobertCollins]

I had this happen and it is a pain. I think next time I will find one of my Mexican friends and ask them but I think the husk will release and float for skiming.

I do emphasize, I have not tried this; only pulled the skins from my teeth.

[Terrasanct]

I'm kind of wondering now if there is more than one kind of dried hominy. Maybe this is stuff you have to soak with lime or something?

[Chris Amirault]

Yeah, I'm wondering if you got some other kind of corn. I've never seen this problem with hominy, but green dent corn that's used to make tortillas has that skin....

[rooftop1000]

In Laura Ingalls Wilders first book...Little House in the Big Woods she describes a meal/process that seems to be Hominy.

They took dry corn and boiled it with a bag of Ash from a freshly burned Oak log until the corn was tendar then put the corn into a wash tub filled with cold water and rubbed till all the skins floated off. This was then dried to be eated boiled again with maple syrup...Parched Corn

thats all I know...where is Rancho Gordo

tracey

[rancho_gordo]

Sorry- I missed this.

To make hominy, you need nixtamalize the corn, as described by rooftop1000, only you can use common lime (cal, not the citrus).

To a pot of corn and water, you add about 2 spoonfuls of cal and gently bring it to just short of a boil. Cook for about 40 minutes for hominy (10 to 15 if you're going to make tortillas) and then cover and let rest all night. Then you rub, rinse and (here comes the hard part), you pinch the small germ off of each kernel. You don't have to pinch but if you want the hominy to "flower" when it's cooked, you'll need to.

An alternate is buying Prepared Hominy or Posole (in the US Southwest and from ranchogordo.com) where the work has been done. You just soak (in plain water) and simmer. The germ is there but the process allows it to flower without the labor.

WHole corn with the skin on is good for grinding dry into polenta, cornmeal and mush but I can't imagine a situation where you just cook it.

[Paul Bacino]

So..today

 

I'm pressure cooking my dried corn./Pozole

 

I soaked it over night..in garlic and onion with Olive salad juice

 

The first 30 min cook@15 psi was not enough..going another 30 mins

[cyalexa]

4 hours ago, Paul Bacino said:

The first 30 min cook@15 psi was not enough..going another 30 mins

Thanks, good to know. I have an abundance of tomatillos and pozole is on the agenda.

[Paul Bacino]

16 hours ago, cyalexa said:

Thanks, good to know. I have an abundance of tomatillos and pozole is on the agenda.

@cyalexaThat's exactly what.. got me going.  Finally my tomatillo's are setting.  Early season just got the husk's

 

btw  1hr  puffs them nicely but a bit chew is still .  I finished mine in the soup for another 15 or so

 

Cheers