Posole

So I'm crusing around the isles at Surfas, picking up stuff I don't need but must have when I come across a bag of dried posole. Memories surfaced of how I tried to cook posole a number of years ago but with not so good results. Why not give it another try?

Knowing I had the ingredients at home to put this together, I bought the bag. I don't even remember how much it was. Something like $3.70 for a pound I think. Heck, I don't even know how much a can of hominy would cost in the grocery store.

The label says this has already been skinned so I'm thankful I don't have to do that limestone thing with it. (Wouldn't have bought it if that was the case.)

I found a couple of recipes in the vast number of cookbooks I have. Using these recipes as a base, I went for what I thought was basic. I pulled some already cooked smoked pork butt and brisket from the freezer, along with a turkey carcus left from some holiday meal. I cut up a couple of medium sized onions and roughly chopped about 4-5 garlic cloves (did I ever mention that I love garlic?).

After washing/rinsing the dried posole, I added it to a pot of water with about a quarter of the onion and one close of garlic. I brought the water to a boil and then lowered the heat to a simmer. I found this would be a 2-3 hour process to get the dried posole (hominy)to plump up and soften (soaking overnight may have saved some time).

Meanwhile, I put together the soup base. I added the remainder of the onion, the garlic, three cut up and seeds removed cayenne peppers, three sliced medium anaheim chiles, 1 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp ground black pepper, 1 tsp dried oregano, 1 tsp cumin, 1 can stewed tomatoes and the pork butt (1/2 lb), brisket 1/2 lb) and a turkey carcus to a dutch oven. This was to simmer for about an hour.


Once the posole was softened, I drained the water and added it to the soup base. This was cooked another 30 minutes. The seasonings were corrected with a little more salt to taste.

Sylvie's Posole was served.