This is a recipe I've had knocking around for a while, but never got around to uploading so excuse the lateness. After visiting Mexico last year I kicked myself that I hadn't got around to tasting pozole, a Pre-Columbian soup made from hominy maize. Pozole nowadays (as with a large proportion of Mexican food) usually contains pork, however on occasion you can find vegetarian versions.
A word about the hominy maize used for pozole, it's maize that has been nixtamalised, which involves treating it with an alkaline (usually calcium hydroxide), this helps to break down the components and allows the corn to be made into a dough. The calcium hydroxide also reacts with the corn so that niacin (an essential B vitamin) can be digested. Okay, enough with the science. How does it taste? In itself not of a great deal, but slow cooked with delicious ingredients and it becomes a hearty soup ideally suited to cold winter nights. I used the dry hominy maize, however if you can get the canned variety then that would save an awful lot of cooking time. This is not a recipe to make when you're in a hurry!
There are two main types of pozole commonly made, red (rojo) or green (verde) the name coming from the colour of the sauce, the recipe below is for pozole rojo, and its deep dark red owes its colour to the use of ancho chiles. The soup is served with a selection of toppings, allowing the eatee to customise it to their liking. Excuse the rather poor photograph, I was too hungry to make the food look pretty!
Ingredients
1l of vegetable stock
250 g dried hominy (soaked overnight)
1 white onion cut in quarts
2 garlic cloves
1 large onion chopped finely
4 Ancho chiles
Olive oil
1 tbs smoked paprika
2 tbp cumin
1 tbs oregano (Mexican if you can get it)
1 tsp allspice
Salt to taste
Toppings
1 small red onion (sliced)
1 handful of radishes (sliced)
1 red chilli finely sliced
1 handful of pickled jalapenos
1 bunch fresh coriander chopped
1 avocado diced
Black olives chopped (optional, not authentic but nice)
1. Soak the pozole maize overnight (if using dried maize)
2. Toast the ancho chiles in a dry frying pan for a minute or so, and
then soak in around 100 ml of boiling water (just cover with water) for 15 minutes
3. Once softened, take out the seeds and puree with the soaking liquid until smooth. Leave to one side
4. Fry the onions and garlic in olive oil until soft and stir in the herbs and spices
5. Now stir in the soaked and drained pozole and add the vegetable stock
6. Stir in the ancho chile puree
7. Simmer for at least 4 hours, the time it takes for the maize to cook will vary. I ended up simmering it for almost 6 hours. The maize should be tender, but it retains a little bite to it
8. Serve with bowls of the different topping so people can add them for themselves
Winter is coming…
Though I have to say it feels as though it has already
arrived here. Returning home from the heat of Georgia (that's the
Caucasus Georgia and not the Southern
State) I felt in desperate need of something spicy and warming, and after
rummaging through semi-bare cupboards for inspiration I came up with a
can of pinto beans, a can of kidney beans, creamed sweetcorn and quarter
of a kilo of masa harina in addition to an
elderly red sweet pepper that needed to be used up ASAP.
Sounds like everything I need for tamale pie!
As a disclaimer, I have to say I have never eaten tamale pie, nor seen
it with my bare eyes. I do have however considerable experience in
eating tamales and a liking for pies. A quick perusal of the internet
threw up lots of recipes all calling for shop bought
cornbread mix, which I neither have nor could probably find in my local
supermarket, so I decided to stay true to the name and make tamale masa
for the topping.
The pie filling itself was a pretty basic vegetable and bean chilli. I
haven't included the recipe here as it was a 'throw it all in the pan
until it's done' sort of meal. For bulk and extra carbohydrate (It's
winter…) I added the remnants of a pack of Israeli
couscous (bigger than your average couscous) and a handful of bulgar
wheat. Extra beans or lentils probably would have been the more sensible, however as I said, the cupboards were
bare.
For the masa
250g masa harina
100g margarine
500ml stock
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt (can omit depending on the saltiness of the stock)
1. Put the masa harina and spices in a large bowl
2. Melt the margarine
3. Stir into the dry ingredients, it should look like damp sand
4. Now slowly add the stock, the mixture may not need the full 500ml,
the texture you're after is smooth peanut butter on a warm summer's day.
Feel free to whisk your masa thoroughly if you have the energy…
5. Spoon the vegetable chilli into an ovenproof dish, add some grated cheese at this stage if you want
6. Put the masa on top, to ensure a good coverage I spooned it on and
then smoothed it into an even layer using a sheet of cling film
7. Bake in an oven preheated to 220C for 30-40 minutes, the top should be golden brown and sound hollow when you tap it
8. Eat. It may not be haute cuisine or fine dining but it's just what is
needed on a bloody cold night. And because one can never have enough
carbs (Atkins diet? Nah…) I added some rice and frijoles refritos just
to up the stodge level
Ingredients
