Week 6 - Spicy - Pork & Cauliflower “Posole”

This meal was quite elaborate, so please bare with my disdain for formatting recipes.

The pork came from a 7.5lbs bone-in pork shoulder with the skin on.

To make that I scored the skin, rubbed sugar, salt and pepper in and on every possible inch, then baked it in a roasting pan at 250f while covered with tinfoil. Do that for 3 hours! Then bring the temp up to 350, uncover it and cook it for another 3 hours.

The pork was absolutely divine. The skin was even better. But it left us with stupid amounts of pork. I shredded the remainder (1.5lbs?) and made this soup.

My sister and I used to work in a restaurant that did breakfast and lunch. Most of our staff was from Oaxaca, and the owner became very close with all of us. Because our Oaxacan coworkers were homesick for proper food, she learned how to cook their very specific type of Mexican cuisine. Every weekend she would make moles, tamales, tortillas, and a million other things that they loved to eat. At the end of Sunday, which for a brunch place is the busiest of all days, we would gather and have a family style meal. She even visited one of their moms in Oaxaca to learn how to make moles properly. Eventually she expanded into serving Oaxacan cuisine a few nights a week, before she eventually sold the whole operation to her son.

Because of this exposure my sister and I have a penchant for cooking Mexican. Although she’s gotten tamale folding down to an art, I just stick to Sopas.



This recipe was adapted from one she wrote down for me.

4oz Ancho or Guajillo chiles, dried

4-5 large ripe tomatoes

1 onion

5 cloves of garlic

2 boxes of chicken broth

Clean the chiles of their stems and seeds, reserve some seeds depending on how spicy you like your soup. Cut the onions and tomatoes in to wedges. Put the garlic, onion, tomatoes and chiles (and some seeds) in a pot and cover with water. Simmer until everything is soft.

Strain the ingredients, reserving some of the water. Blend until smooth, using the leftover water to thin it out if needed, but still keep it relatively thick. Cook your chile-tomato-onion paste in a frying pan until it’s even more thick. Put back into a stock pot, and thin with the chicken broth until it’s the consistency you want.

Now Posole is traditionally made with hominy, and shredded chicken. For this recipe I used the shredded pork shoulder and roasted cauliflower. So roast a head of cauliflower, probably while you make the broth, and toss the meat and veg into the broth and bring everything up to a nice hot simmer.

Serve with

Chopped onions

Sliced Radishes

Cilantro

Queso Blanco or Queso Fresco

Lime Wedges

Warm corn tortillas

Guacamole (a thinner kind that’s not made with dairy)

Serve them on the side so you can add them to the soup as you please.

Make sure you check out my sister’s blog!