L U N A T A L K with Eva Moon

Soup Weather

October 8, 2008 on 7:52 am | In Food, General Musing |

I rarely blog about recipes, but this is a request. I’ve been making pozole for ahem-ty years and before I start off another recipe firestorm, I’ll say right out that I know it’s not the way your old abuelita made it. It’s just the way it’s evolved for us over the years so get over it because I’m not going to change it.

Start with a pork wad.

I used to make it with a shoulder, which tastes the best but it extends the cooking process by about a day because you have to chill it and then scrape off a foot of fat. Now I use a pork tri-tip. Not as richly flavorful as the shoulder, but we’re watching our girlish figures over here at Eva Moon HQ. They come three wads to a pack at Costco and have so little fat you could cook it for a week and you’d still need an arc lamp to find the fat dot.

Chunk the pork and toss it in a pot of water with: garlic (go ahead and use a whole head), a handful of those little dried red chilies, some whole black peppercorns, a couple of bay leaves, oregano, cumin and salt. Boil until the meat is tender. When you can find the fat dot without the aid of a scanning electron microscope, it’s ready for the next step.

Dice and dunk: a large onion and about four anaheim chilies (the long green not-too-spicy ones). Dump in two cans of diced tomatoes and two large or four small cans of white hominy, rinsed. I also like to add a can or two of red and or black beans (so sue me).

Note: If you haven’t worked with chilies before (even the not-too-spicy ones) have a care which of your personal mucous membranes you finger afterwards. I’m just saying.

When the onion and chilies are pretty much cooked, adjust the seasonings and toss in a few sliced zucchini. Simmer another 10 minutes and serve with chopped fresh cilantro and lime slices. You may want to discard the dried red chilies. They never really get tender enough and they’ve given their all to the soup, so don’t think you’re proving your manhood or anything by eating them.

Bring on the fall. And bring on the soup recipes.

Photo by Eva Moon. Really.

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