Rosa is my neighbor. All the pictures in this post are of Rosa! She’s a sweet, wonderful young woman (she’s more than 20 years younger than me, so young enough to be my daughter!), with five children! And, she’s a great cook. A generous person, Rosa, brings us gifts of food all the time and one of my favorite dishes that she makes is Rosa’s Pork Posole. So, I asked her if she would teach me to make it and this delicious recipe is the third addition to our “Teach Me to Cook” series!
I will say that making Rosa’s Pork Posole is a time-commitment. Plus, it takes a lot of BIG pots! But, the end result is worth the time! So, if you have a few hours on a weekend day (or during the week if you don’t work outside the home), make a large pot of this savory, delicious soup to enjoy for several days!
Here’s what you do:
- Pork roast.
- Cut a pork roast into chunks. Trim the fat.
- Place cut pork in large stock pot and fill with water, enough to cover.
- Add onion and spices and bring to a boil. Once it boils, reduce heat to medium and continue to simmer for about an hour and a half. While pork simmers, skim foam from the top of the simmering meat with a spoon and discard. Do this several times throughout the cooking process.
- In the meantime, open a large can of hominy and drain it in a colander. Rinse the hominy and place in another large stockpot and fill with fresh water to cover (about a gallon).
- Add onions and spices and bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium and simmer with lid slightly ajar (to keep it from over flowing!) for about an hour.
- Cooked pork.
- When hominy is done, drain hominy in a colander and discard water, bay leaves and onions. When pork is done, drain pork in colander or strainer reserving stock. Discard onion and bay leaves. Return pork stock to stock pot. Using a knife, carefully trim any excess fat and gristle from cooked pork and return to stock pot. Add drained hominy (hominy and pork are now combined with pork stock).
In the meantime, make the Chili Sauce for Rosa’s Pork Posole.
- Use California dried chilis (Chile California Entero).
- Add a couple of tablespoons of canola oil to a small frying pan.
- Add two cloves of peeled garlic and sauté, stirring constantly for a few minutes to flavor the oil.
- Remove the cloves of garlic from the pan and discard.
- Holding the dried chili by its stem, warm the dried chili pods in the flavored oil, one at a time, to soften. Use back of spoon to hold chili in oil.
- Place all fried chilies in 2 quart saucepan and cover with water. Bring to boil and simmer 30 to 40 minutes.
- Once done, drain chilies, remove stems and transfer to blender. Add water and spices and blend on high until ground.
- Blended chili sauce.
- Chili sauce.
- Strain chili sauce into pork and hominy stockpot using a fine mesh strainer.
- Straining chili sauce.
- Use a spoon to help chili sauce through strainer. Simmer soup for another 15 minutes.
- Discard pulp and seeds left in strainer.
In the meantime, prepare your condiments.
- Clean and chop radishes.
- Clean and shred cabbage.
- Shredded cabbage.
- Cut limes into wedges.
- Use Ensalada de Nopales (Cactus Salad) as a garnish, too! Yummy!
- My bowl of Rosa’s Pork Posole!
This recipe makes about 12 two-cup servings, so it’s enough for a crowd! We had Rosa’s family over to help eat it, but I love it so much that I would have eaten all of it over the next several days if there was any left! As it was, there was enough leftover that Charlie and I had it for dinner the next night.
If I were making an educated guess, I would say that this recipe is very diet-friendly! I’m not counting calories on my diet (I’m “Minding Your P’s and Q’s: Portions and Quality), so I have no idea of the calorie count of each serving. But, it’s made with lean pork, hominy, the chili sauce and fresh vegetables (radishes, cabbage and Ensalada de Nopales – Cactus Salad), plus freshly squeezed lime! So, nutritious for sure!
Rosa’s youngest daughter, Princess J.O., helped me with the food styling for the photo shoot! You’ll meet Princess J.O. in a future post, so stay tuned! Can you see the soup steaming in the photo above? That’s real steam, folks!
These are little bowls – probably 10 to 12 ounces. Good for food photography!
Look how pretty this is – all set up to eat! And so delicious: the chili sauce is mild but flavorful, the pork is tender and the hominy is still slightly crunchy. With the crunch of the radishes and cabbage, plus the “must have” squeeze of lime, the flavors blend together to make a delicious, satisfyingly hearty soup!
This is my bowl! It holds at least 16 ounces! No mini-portion for me! I’ve added some green salsa (Salsa Verde) to my bowl!
Here’s the recipe:
Rosa’s Pork Posole from Scratch with a Twist of Lime
Rosa’s Pork Posole is satisfyingly delicious! The savory soup base made from California dried chilies, the tender pork and hominy combined with crunchy fresh vegetables and a squeeze of lime makes for a delicious lunch or dinner meal.
- Prep Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 2 hours
- Total Time: 3 hours
- Yield: 12 1x
- Category: Soup
- Cuisine: Mexican
Ingredients
- 3 pounds lean pork roast, trimmed of fat and cubed into 1” chunks
- 1 onion, peeled and quartered
- 4 cloves of garlic, peeled
- 8 bay leaves
- 1 tablespoon salt, divided
- 2 gallons (or more) of water
- 1 – 6 pound, 12 ounce can of white hominy
- 2 tablespoons canola oil
- 12 dried California chili pods (Chile California Entero)
- 5 whole allspice
- ¼ teaspoon ground oregano
- ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
- 4 whole cloves
- ½ head of cabbage, finely shredded
- 8 to 10 radishes, cleaned, trimmed and julienned
- 6 limes, cut into wedges
- Optional: Ensalada de Nopales (for garnish)
Instructions
- Put cubed pork into a large stockpot and add at least 1 gallon of water to cover. Add ½ of the onion (2 quarters), 2 cloves of peeled garlic, 4 bay leaves and ½ tablespoon of salt.
- Bring to a boil on high; reduce heat to medium and simmer for 1 and ½ hours.
- During 1 and ½ hour cooking time, remove accumulated foam from simmering meat with a spoon and discard; you may have to do this 2 to 3 times.
- In the meantime, open can of hominy and drain juices (in other words, pour hominy into a colander to drain).
- Rinse hominy with fresh water and add to a separate large stockpot.
- Cover hominy with one gallon or more of water.
- Add ½ of the onion (2 quarters), 2 cloves of peeled garlic, 4 bay leaves and ½ tablespoon of salt.
- Bring to a boil on high; reduce heat to medium and simmer 1 hour.
- In the meantime, add 2 tablespoons canola hour to a small skillet.
- Add 2 cloves of peeled garlic and heat to medium-high for a few minutes, stirring garlic around the pan until oil is garlic-flavored.
- Remove garlic cloves from skillet and discard.
- Holding dried California chili pod by its stem, place in hot oil in the skillet.
- Using back of spoon, press and hold chili pod in the hot oil for a few seconds to soften and rehydrate.
- Turn chili over and do other side.
- Place softened chili into 2 quart sauce pan.
- Repeat chili-softening procedure on all 12 chilies.
- Cover chilies with more water, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 30 to 40 minutes.
- When chilies are finished cooking in the saucepan, drain them in a colander.
- Remove the stems and add the chilies to a blender.
- Add 1½ cups of water to blender along with 5 whole allspice, ¼ teaspoon ground oregano, ¼ teaspoon ground cumin and 4 whole cloves.
- Blend on high until well mixed.
- In the meantime, drain cooked hominy in a colander and discard cooking liquid, onion and bay leaves.
- Also, drain cooked pork in a colander reserving pork stock, but discarding onion and bay leaves.
- Return pork stock back to one of the large stockpots.
- Carefully inspect cooked pork cubes and trim any additional fat with sharp knife.
- Return pork cubes to pork stock in stockpot.
- Add drained hominy to pork and port stock.
- Using a fine mesh sieve, carefully strain chili sauce into pork and hominy stockpot, using wooden spoon to help strain juices; discard seeds and pulp that remains in the fine mesh sieve.
- Bring soup to a boil and simmer an additional 15 minutes.
- While soup is simmering, slice limes, shred cabbage and julienne radishes.
- Ladle finished soup into bowls, garnish with cabbage and radishes and serve with squeezed lime juice.
- Note: Ensalada de Nopales makes an excellent garnish to this soup, as does salsa verde.
- Makes 24 cups or 12 – 2 cup servings.
Hope you enjoy this delicious soup as much as I do!
Tootles,
Related Posts:
(other Mexican recipes)
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