My Go-To
I love coming home to a house that smells like home-cooking. What’s more, I love my crock pot! However, you will never see me using a recipe that calls for a can of “cream of” anything! In fact, one of the few canned items I use is hominy. While I plan to channel the spirit of Edna Lewis sometime this year, by making my own hominy, I have not yet learned how to make it from scratch. What better than hominy to go with pork, than peppers? My crock pot “go-to” recipe for Pozole Verde has all three components. The key to tasty crock pot dishes is to layer the flavors. This may take a little more hands-on approach, than just throwing everything into the pot and serving 6 hours later. The last time I made Pozole Verde was for Pank’s company holiday potluck party. If I had to make one more batch of cookies, I thought I would scream. Besides, if you had the choice between a piping, hot bowl of pork or a tired old red dye no.9 sugar cookie which would you choose? One of my favorite retail places to buy meat is Porter Road Butcher. Here is their link: http://bit.ly/XSCznx All of their meat is naturally-raised and from local farms. The PRB team is always so helpful! So, naturally I bought my pork from them. I had it all planned out that December morning. I would clean the house, wrap presents and get a little work done. All the while, I would work on my crock pot masterpiece. Well, I got a little behind. No time to cut up all that pork! Then I remembered PRB had me covered. They had pre-cut that 3lb beauty into bite sized pieces . When I pulled the package out of the fridge, with bold letters it read “BUTT.” I just laughed a little to myself. Those folks have a sense of humor! They sure did save my BUTT! The Pozole Verde was finished just in the nick of time. We had just enough left over for breakfast the next morning!
| Pozole VerdeAdapted from Food and Wine’s Slow Cooker Mexican Pork and Tomatillo Stew
1 large onion, diced 1 poblano pepper, charred and chopped 1 jalapeno pepper, charred and diced 3 cloves of garlic finely chopped 1lb tomatillo roughly cut into 1-inch pieces 3lbs pork butt roughly cut into 1-inch pieces 2 15.5 oz. cans of hominy drained ½ cup white wine 1-2 tbsp. vegetable oil 1tsp cumin Salt and Pepper to taste Sliced limes, chopped cilantro, freshly sliced jalapeno and chopped red onion for garnish
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Generously season the pork with salt and pepper. Sprinkle the pork with 1tsp of cumin. Pre-heat a large frying pan (preferably cast-iron) with 1 tbsp. of vegetable oil adding the extra oil as needed. The pan should be screaming hot so as to sear the pork without cooking through. Make sure to work in small batches, so that you do not steam the pork. You will be looking for a caramelized edge to the pieces of pork as you brown it. It is helpful to have your crock pot sitting close by the frying pan, because you will transfer the pork directly into the pot. After all the pork is browned and transferred, turn the heat down and deglaze with ½ cup of white wine. Pour this mixture over the pork. Add to the crock pot the onion, garlic, peppers and finally tomatillos. It is important to add these ingredients in the order that is listed. As the pozole cooks, the tomatillos will blend as a sauce with the peppers, garlic and onions. Cover and cook on high for 3.5 hours. Then stir in the hominy for a final ½ hour of cooking. Turn your crock pot to its lowest setting to give the pozole time to rest before serving. Finish with lime, jalapeño, cilantro and red onion. (serves approximately 6 people) |
