if you've never dined in mexico or the american southwest, you've probably never heard of, much less tasted, pozole (or posole). pozole means both hominy and the dish you see before you. hominy is simply corn kernels that have been soaked in lye and dried (grits are made from ground hominy). in the past, i have said things like "the only food that i've tried that i really don't like is hominy, even though i love grits. it's a texture thing; hominy is just too lumpy." but at that time, i had only tried canned hominy. a fews years back, i was in santa fe and tried the stewed pork & hominy dish pozole, which may well be the state dish of new mexico. it was made from dried hominy, not canned. the difference is night & day; i loved it. and i wanted to make it. but....i never did. canned hominy is all i can find around here, and i never got around to ordering some online. so, when ben offered to bring me chiles from santa fe last month, i asked for dried pozole, instead. and there just so happens to be a recipe for it in TNBR. the book has both a rojo and a verde version, but i wanted the fresh-tasting green version. and, ohhhh, is it fabulous. beyond fabulous. the stewed pork and hominy get a blender-full of a bright, green sauce made from tomatillos, jalepeno, onion, and cilantro, which simmers with the rest for only about 10 minutes before serving, giving the pozole that fresh taste. and those toppings? definitely worth it. a little radish, onion, avocado, jalepeno, lime juice, and shredded romaine lettuce, and served with some hot corn tortillas. the best? better than the best (the book actually has you use canned hominy, even though it says using the hard-to-find dried is much better). ben, i'm bringing you some tomorrow :)
6 comments:
God, yes. And you made the right next choice by going verde instead of rojo.:) Green chile posole pork stew... oh yes.
Leona, of Leona's where I picked the stuff up, is a wonderful lady and I confirmed with her that you can order as much as you want. So no reason ever to go back to the canned stuff, again.
The blue corn posole intrigued me and so I threw that in as well. I'd be curious to know how it works whenevah you might get around to experimenting with it...
pozole azul! hmmm, maybe a vegetarian version? or a fish stew of some kind, you know, veracruz-style or something? although, it's hard not to stew some pork when i have a perfectly good reason like dried pozole lying around :)
i was kinda disappointed that no-one on my team seemed to love this stuff as much as i did.:( actually a few people refused to eat it because it looked so strange to them.
oh well, it meant more deliciousness for me!
delish!
it was delightfully yummy and wonderful. oh, and the international market in Glen Burnie (across the street from the Marley Station mall) has dried hominey, as well as lots of good asian ingredients.
nice to know from the biscuitpusher that there's dried hominy there. that grocery store (less than ten minutes from my apt) is my new favorite place to do grocery shopping - really clean, well kept international store with a strong selection of asian ingredients. Had avoided the place for a while because of bad memories of crappy "international" grocery stores in Austin, glad to be proven wrong - it's actually much nicer than the Giant that was there before.:)
Post a Comment