Winnie's Posole





Winnie and Santa.  Need I say more? 
Posole drained and ready to cook below.



During a recent visit to Number One Daughter and Favorite Son-in-Law in Tucson, we went to this cool food co-op (Food Conspiracy:  http://www.foodconspiracy.org/) , and I got some dried hominy and other goodies.  Poor Winnie (their Number Two dog, a chow chow) had to stay outside the store at a bistro table and entertain the Tucsonians.  Fortunately, her mom and dad like posole and might even give her some leftover pork.

First order of business:  how in the heck do you pronounce this stuff?  Po-SO-lay with the main emphasis on the middle syllable.  Just imagine you’re in England, where all the middle sylLAbles get the emPHAsis.





Second order of business:  what the heck is hominy? Hominy is the kernel of the corn with the bran and the germ removed through a process of soaking the kernel in a caustic medium, such as lye.  The kernel is then dried and used whole (for dishes like posole) or ground (for dishes like grits).  It originates from Native American food practices and is an especially good storage product.  If you want to know more, check out this information on Wikipedia.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hominy   Hominy looks like a corn nut and can be very chewy if not cooked thoroughly (which is why I had to serve it the next day when I tried to make the posole!).



The posole simmering away.



So, here’s to Winnie’s Posole!  Made from a Native American grain,  in a dish perfected by the Mexicans, enjoyed by anyone with a taste bud worth a peso, pronounced like a Brit, and endorsed by a Chinese dog.   Oy vez!  What a misbegotten food! (my Jewish/Pennsylvania Dutch sneaking in here). 

This recipe is for about four hungry people or six foodies pretending to be on a diet.  Imagine you just came in from cross country skiing and you are having this with a cerveza and a lime!  Or a nice glass of Cupcake Vineyard sauvignon blanc http://www.cupcakevineyard.com//index.cfm. 

Ingredients

1 ½ C hominy (dried) (if using canned, omit the soaking and long 2-4 hour simmer)  Hint: while it sounds so romantic to use the dried corn, it is a major deal to cook it long enough, so I would not be ashamed to use canned—I will next time!)

1 ½  lb pork butt (shoulder)

4-6 C chicken or beef broth

1 small onion, diced

½ tomato, diced

3 cloves garlic, diced

2 T bacon grease or olive oil

2 bay leaves

½ diced chipotle pepper plus one teaspoon adobo from the can (from canned Embasa brand chipotle pepper in adobe sauce)  This stuff is hot so proceed gradually with caution!

SPICES—crush in a mortar (or use ground)

1 t cumin seeds

½ t anise seeds

1 t coriander seeds (1/2  t if ground)

3 whole cloves (a pinch if ground)

3 whole allspice (a pinch if ground)

1 t Mexican oregano

2 t salt

Garnishes ready for the table.  Garnishes por las mesa.

GARNISHES

4 sliced radishes

3 diced green onions

1 lemon or lime in wedges

1 C shredded green cabbage

1 tomato diced

1 avocado sliced

SERVE WITH

Warm corn tortillas

Directions

The day before: 

Brown pork butt, add salt and pepper and then bake covered in 325 oven for 3-5 hours until it shreds away in tender pieces.  When done, set aside/refrigerate.

Overnight soak the hominy in water to cover.  Drain, then cook for 2-3 hours until chewy. You could do this at the same time your pork butt is cooking.  If you are using canned hominy, skip this step and decrease hominy cook time below to 30 minutes.

To make:

Sauté onions, garlic, tomatoes and chipotle/and sauce in bacon grease.  Add spices and some salt to taste when onions are translucent.  Add more chipotle if you want it  hotter.  Add hominy and coat with fat.  Add chicken broth, bay leaves and bring to simmer for 2-4 hours or until hominy is tender (if you use canned hominy reduce cook time to 20 min).  Don’t rush it!  If not tender, keep cooking and plan for it as the next day meal. This is too good to screw up.  Number One Son actually likes it kind of chewy.

Once tender, add pork (shred it and dump it in).  Simmer for another 30 minutes or more until all the flavors combine.  Important:  don’t add the pre-cooked pork until your hominy is done.

Serve:

In a large bowl and allow diners to garnish as they like. 





WTF

What The Furikake?

My friend Jean recounted a wonderful dinner party she had with her family and salmon furikake.   It sounded like they had such a good time, and I know Jean to be a down-to-earth eater whose father supplied Alice Waters with mulberries.  What better foodie recommendation could I have to try this Japanese seasoning? 

But, “What in the world is fuikake?”, you ask--as did I.  Furikake is a Japanese rice seasoning.  The usual predominant ingredient is bonito (tuna) flakes, but it also has seaweed and sesame (and some sugar).  Different variations exist.

I went on a shopping bonanza in “town” (Spokane) at one of the 3 Asian markets over Christmas and was ecstatic to see Furikake in the dry goods sections.   I must have been jumping up and down in delight, as Mr. Artifact and Number One Son rounded the aisle wondering if I needed assistance.  I bought Noritamago Furikaki (sesame, wheat, dried yolk powder, sugar, salt, shave bonito, and seaweed) and Katsuo Fumi Furikaki (shaved bonito, sesame seed, sugar, salt, soy sauce, seaweed).

Here is what I have done with them so far:

Katsuo:  sprinkled over grilled fish and served with a pho broth (with noodles, green onions, green chiles,  sautéed garlic, and shredded Daikon and carrot)

Noritamgo: sprinkled on homemade mayonnaise that topped some salmon baked in black bean curd sauce and served with rice

Both were pretty yummy.  I think they would also be great sprinkled on rice—as is their advertised purpose.

This was a tasty new addition to my pantry.

Here’s a cool recipe for Furitaki Chex Mix   that I am really excited to try. What do you think?

Broth Pageant #1

This weekend I made another batch of broth, something I do every 2-3 weeks.  I was out of leftover chicken/turkey carcasses and only had a ham bone from a relic of a spiral sliced ham we had around Christmas. So, I was faced with buying some bones.  My local market regularly has these.  Imagine my surprise to find that they are no longer cheap or free!  After paying $1.90/lb for 4 lbs of bones (most of which appeared to be upper femurs and pelvises from young cows) I trundled home along with the rest of my groceries.

To get the best flavor, you need to roast the bones.  I wacked mine with some olive oil and salt and stuck them in the oven at 350 for about an hour.  They did smell delicious and rendered off a nice bit of fat (that I gave to the chickens). 

Then, they and my old ham bone went into the stock pot with the usual suspects:  onion, garlic (fresh and some leftover roasted garlic), celery, carrots, fennel, star anise, allspice, cinnamon, cloves, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, tarragon, rosemary, bay leaves, a quarter of a lemon, sea salt and pepper corns.  After 4 hours simmering, it was ready to be strained and filtered. Then I gave it another hour to reduce.  It was a pretty brown, but I wanted it darker and sweeter, so I added a tablespoon of Kitchen Bouquet (shhh. . . don’t tell anyone!) and a tablespoon of sugar.  Owing to the all the marrow, the broth was/is really rich.

It yielded 20 cups of shimmery and gelatinous, mahogany broth.  But I forgot to take a picture!

But, have no fear; I have pictures of many other broth adventures.  You know, some people take pictures of sunsets or cats, but I take pictures of broth . . . well, at least some of the time. 

So, here is my first installment of the Broth Pageant!

p.s.  I gave the leftover meat/cartilage bits, carrots, celery and garlic to the dogs.  No wonder they hang around the kitchen! (Sorry, no cooked bones or onions for dogs!—a different post.)



All the goodies at the start of something great!





Looks like lots of carrots in this beef broth.



Love the herbs, star anise, cinnamon and garlic!  Very picturesque.



Yeah, that's a payday!