My 2nd Posole - from scratch

I realized that I had a quick and easy Posole recipe on this blog, and a variation where you serve the pork/posole soup and chili sauce separately but not my original recipe.

Of course, for something I've been making since I was a wee lad, its more complicated than that. My original recipe I got from Stan after eating his Posole at his annual Christmas party (back when we had Christmas parties with people all in the same room). It was a quick crock pot recipe with meat and cans of stuff added together. Someday I might put that in here.

One year, though, (2004) I decided I would replace the cans of stuff with my own recipes for that stuff and this is what I came up with. I'm putting it in as written on the battered 3x5 card with notes about stuff I've learned since then.

What is the posole grain from which this chile based soup gets it name?

Posole is made from fresh corn kernels. This recipe calls for dried posole. You can buy it in any grocery store in New Mexico and can also buy it over the Internet. Just Google "dry posole." Either the white, yellow or blue corn varieties are acceptable. 

Dried posole is made with the nixtamal process from ordinary corn. The shell of the corn is chemically removed in this centuries old process. Then the result is dried and packaged. If they grind the result to a powder, it makes masa, the foundation for tamale dough or corn tortillas.

Look ahead by getting the posole ready. Wash it and start to soak together:

• 1/2 lb dried posole (about 1 1/2 cups)  
• 3-4 cups water

Set that aside to soak for quite a while as the crock pot does its magic.

Start with a crock pot and add:

• 1 lb fresh pork (you can use the pork chops that were underneath that beautiful one on the top of the package, or pork short ribs, or the end off a pork loin though something with a bone in it makes better soup) cut into 1" cubes
• water (to cover the pork just barely) or you can use chicken or vegetable broth

Note: Nowdays, I brown the port in a skillet with a bit of oil or under the oven broiler. That adds a bit of good flavor to the soup.

In a skillet at medium low, saute these until the onion turns translucent:

• 1 Tbsp olive oil (or some oil)
• 2 Tbsp finely chopped onion
• 1 clove garlic. crushed and finely chopped

When the onion has lost its color add these and cook the rawness out of the flour but not to the point of brownness. You will need to stir continuously:

• 1 Tbsp flour
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin (comino)
• 1/8 tsp ground mexican oregano (regular oregano works too)

Once the rawness is out of the flour, add the contents of the skillet to the crock pot along with:

• 1/4 cup New Mexico powdered red chile (its available in mild, medium and hot) but you can use powdered Guajillo or Ancho if you want. Note that some powdered red chile is very hot, particularly if you get it in an Asian grocery. Note: DO NOT use standard "chili powder" as it includes the garlic and cumin and other spices that we want to control the amounts of.
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tst sugar
• 1 8 oz can green chile (or 2 4 oz cans)

Cook on high until the meat is falling to strings. Be sure to add water if it's cooking away so the meat remains covered. This could take quite a while, 5 hours to overnight, and if you can guess when it will be over you can add the posole (as described below about 3 hours before the meat is completely done).

Drain the posole. It should be almost doubled in size from absorbing water while soaking. Then add it to the crock pot. When you add it and as you are cooking it, you may also need to add:

• more water or chicken broth because the posole will absorb more water

Cook on crock pot high for about 3 hours. Your crock pot may be different than mine. You will know it is done when you see the posole kernals have "popped" open mostly on the end. Taste one and it should be easily chewed but with a bit of a bite. Sort of like the texture of perfect al dente pasta but not so creamy. 

The dried posole will expand while cooking to 4 times its original size.