Pozole Rojo

[daninpd]

I was doing some research for this months challenge... okay, okay, I was just watching TV- but it was a cooking show, and the chef on the show was making Pozole Rojo, a red pork stew.  As I watched the show I realized the stew gets a lot of garnishes and condiments, but basically only has 5 ingredients: Pork, Dried Chiles, Hominy, Onion and Garlic.  Talk about a "Well, Duh!" moment.  So I made it.  I used garlic powder from the spice rack to be able to add one garnish  (red cabbage) and let the white onion do double duty, both in the stew and chopped fine for a garnish.  I used a package of pork necks and roasted them at 400 for an hour in the Joe to get a little color, then put them in a Dutch oven with water to cover and let that go overnight at 250 covered in the Joe to make a rich pork stock.  The next day I strained and refrigerated the stock so I could skim off the hardened fat. The rest of the recipe:

1-1/2 to 2 lbs pork shoulder cut into chunks for stew

4 oz dried Pasilla Peppers

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp Oregano

1 30 oz can White Hominy drained and rinsed

1 large white onion diced medium

 

Destem and deseed the chiles (I included a picture of the seeds from one Pasilla- you don't want the seeds in your sauce) and put them in a bowl and pour in 4 cups of boiling water and let that sit for 30 minutes or so.  Put the chiles and some of the water in a blender and blend, adding water as needed to get a pourable sauce.  Combine all ingredients in the Dutch oven with the defatted pork stock.  Bring to a simmer then cover and cook 4 hours at 250. I left it uncovered a lot of the time to get it to thicken more.  After 4 hours this is a tasty stew.  Typical garnishes are cabbage, avocado, thinly sliced radishes, crema, minced onions, cilantro and fried corn tortillas.