Experiences like mountain biking — a little thrill, a little danger, outside in nature, with people — is exactly what they need. Especially during puberty when their brains are so plastic, and are rewiring for adulthood. (Remember “demo day” on Inside Out 2? 🤣) Highly recommend this book! Soon YOU TOO can have your children falling off of bridges in the name of experience! At pick up, Truman’s coach makes a beeline for me and says, with a serious look on his face, “Ma’am, are you Truman’s mom?” Yes, I said. “Well, today, he fell off—” Truman comes racing up, huge smile on his face, bounding around like a puppy, tail practically wagging— “Mom, I fell off a BRIDGE!” 😳 I’m sorry, WHAT now??? I was in a bit of a daze but I couldn’t see any signs of a concussion, and Truman certainly didn’t seem upset. Quite the opposite actually, so we went on our merry way. gaahhhh!! I am getting exactly what I wanted, though, honestly. I’m obsessed with the Anxious Generation book that you’ve hopefully heard about by now, by Jonathon Haidt, all about how the rising generation is overly anxious, because they lack experience. (Instead they are on screens all day.) Facebook | Pinterest | Instagram Pozole is a simple soup, at it’s heart, but it’s just so different than the soups I’m used to (thanks mostly to the hominy, more on that later.) It’s a labor of love, for sure. This is a special occasion soup, Mexicans often make it at Christmas time, kind of like how Americans only make turkey once a year. That’s why Laura didn’t try to make this a “cheater” recipe or take any shortcuts. It’s meant to be slowly, lovingly simmered, and hopefully made when family is around, so you can share the labor of deseeding the dried chilies, or slicing the veggies for the toppings. There are SO many regional variations of pozole, but the basis for every pozole is hominy.
pork shoulder simmered low and slow to get the most tender bites soft and chewy, and definitely NOT soggy hominy super rich, flavorful red chile flavored pork broth ALLLLLLL the toppings: squeezed lime, thinly sliced cabbage and radish, cilantro, sour cream.
Pozole has really deep roots going all the way back to Pre-Hispanic Mexico. A version of this soup has been made since the time of the Aztecs, isn’t that so cool?! So much tradition. Most historians say this was initially a special soup made at times of rituals and important events. And it still is! Many Mexicans and Mexican Americans make Pozole for certain festivals or holidays like Christmas, New Years, and Mexican Independence Day.
For the Soup
Chile sauce
Toppings
The simplest solution is to buy a 3-4 pound bone-in pork butt. IF YOU CAN, haul it right over to the butcher at the store and ask them to debone it for you and chop the meat into 2-inch chunks. But if you can’t find a butcher to do it, it’s really not that hard. And I want to emphasize, it’s doesn’t have to be perfect. We are not cutting up uniform steaks; it’s all being thrown into a soup.
Here we go:
Here’s the bone that we need to get out.
Place the knife on top of this flat side of the bone, and cut all the way through to release this top flap of meat.
Now move to this curvy part. Use a smaller knife for this part, my chef’s knife was cumbersomely wide.
Maneuver the meat around however it’s comfortable. It’s coming along:
Once you have the bone completely out, cut off any large caps of fat.
Cut the meat into 2 inch cubes.
And save that bone, of course. Now it’s time to get cooking!
Sear the pieces of pork with lots of space in between, so they can brown instead of steaming each other.
Sear the bone, too, if there is a lot of meat on it. When you’re done, add all the meat and bone back into the pot.
Add in the onion, garlic, bay leaves, chicken bouillon base, cumin. Then add 10 cups of water too, and bring to a boil.
As the pork broth boils, these protein bits (called scum, ew) will float to the top. Every 30 minutes or so as the soup simmers, come back and remove as much of this as you can. I like to line a bowl with heavy foil and scoop it into that (then I chill it and discard it later).
Pozole is meant to have a “clear broth,” meaning it’s just liquid, no floating onions or scum or anything. It’s an annoying process to strain a hot soup, so I like to use this spooning-off-the-top method to remove as much as I can, then call it good. If you had a particularly fatty cut of pork, it can release an unappetizing amount of scum, so follow the instructions in the notes for straining the broth if you want.
While the broth simmers, you’ve got lots of time to make the chili sauce. This is the fun part!
Use a knife to chop the dried chile in half, and remove all the seeds with your hands. These black ones are ancho chilies. They are not the MOST traditional chile to use in pozole, but I’m obsessed with the flavor.
This red one is a guajillo, a classic chile used in pozole. I’m showing here how I pulled an inner vein out of the chile, we don’t need that.
Place all the chile flesh in a pan with some oil and toast it a bit:
Add in the onion and garlic. Then cover with water and simmer 20 minutes, until the water is reduced.
Pour the whole thing into a blender and puree it up.
Use a strainer to add it back into the pan on the stove. Then cook the chili sauce on the stove for another 10 minutes or so, so it gets nice and toasty.
Once your broth is as clear as you want it (see recipe notes for straining instructions if the scum is killing you), add the chili sauce to the soup, and a little cap of vinegar too, for the perfect acidic bite. And next up is the hominy, look at these gorgeous corny guys:
After the hominy has been added, the soup cooks for another hour or two, until the pork is fall-apart tender, the hominy is tender-but-not-mushy, and your kitchen smells like heaven.
Don’t forget to add in all the veggie toppings! They totally MAKE this soup!!
Don’t be afraid to play around with it and find the version you like best! You can totally change up which dried chiles you use, the amount of meat, broth, or hominy you like, and how spicy you like it. Here are some general tips that can help you in your search for your best pozole!
Use extra bones to make a more flavorful broth. The shoulder bone from your bone-in pork shoulder, pork neck bones, pig feet, etc. I prefer canned Juanita’s Mexican Style hominy. It doesn’t get as soggy or mushy as other brands. You can vary the liquid amount to your liking. Some people like it more like a stew, others like it better as a brothy soup. If you’re not sure, set aside some of the broth in the final cooking stage. You can add it back in to your liking! The most “traditional” chile used in pozole is guajillo. You can choose to use only guajillo if you want to be ultra traditional. I prefer the flavor from a mix of chiles. I use guajillo for that famous red color, ancho for added depth and richness of flavor, and chile de arbol for a hint of spice! If you want as little spice as possible, don’t use any chile de arbol at all. I use 3, which gives just a little punch of spicy. Are you a spicy foods lover? Add in at least 6-10 dried chile de arbol, and you can even add 1-2 sliced jalapenos to the broth while you’re cooking to really amp it up. If it’s not where you like it after cooking, add red pepper flakes or fresh jalapeno slices to your bowl to your heart’s content.
To reheat a large amount of soup, transfer it to a pot and warm over a burner set to medium until it’s heated to your liking. I like to reheat individual bowls in the microwave for 2-3 minutes. Use a microwave cover so it doesn’t splatter, and stir every minute. Take out any leftover toppings, or prepare more, and serve! To use frozen pozole, put the bag in a bowl and leave it to thaw overnight in the refrigerator. Add it in a large pot on the stove over medium heat. Or, add the completely frozen block of soup into a slow cooker, put it on low, and let it heat over several hours. It should take about 15-20 minutes to heat on the stove, and 3-4 hours on high or 4-6 hours on low in the crockpot. While the pozole warms, prepare your toppings. Once the soup is hot, ladle it into bowls and serve with fresh toppings!
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