Pozole Blanco

Pozole is a celebratory and hearty Mexican stew I came across while doing some recipe development. Learning about it gave me the confidence to order it off a menu at a Mexican restaurant called Manana in Montreal across from Carre St-Louis. It was exactly what the doctor ordered as I was tired, and my stomach was a bit iffy from all the junk I had been eating on set. This soup is a satisfying lunch or dinner, and I am always a sucker for a dish that you can customize with accompaniments.

There seems to be 4 varieties of pozole: pozole verde (green pozole), pozole rojo (red pozole), pozole with beans (de frijol), and white pozole (pozole blanco). Green pozole is made with tomatillos and green chilies, red pozole is made with tomatoes and red chillies, pozole with beans is self explanatory, and white pozole is made with pork or chicken and is clear rather than white. Pozole is most often made with whole hominy kernels, and usually includes meat such as pork or chicken, but vegetarian versions do exist. Pozole is often accompanied by such garnishes as julienned radishes, cabbage, lettuce, chilies such as jalapeno, grated cheese, lemon or lime wedges, avocado slices, Mexican oregano, fried tortillas, and onion slices.

There is some confusion, for me anyways, as to what pozole actually means. I have seen it referred to as a type of corn that is hard to come by which is why hominy is often used in pozole instead. On the can of hominy I purchased pozole was also writtten. Here is an explanation of the origin word:

Pozole, word of Nahuatl origin meaning froth, is a soup prepared with grains of a special corn called cacahuazintle, pre-cooked in a water solution with calcium oxide for a couple of hours, making the corn grains lose their fibrous outer layer so that they open like flowers when boiled, giving them the appearance of froth.
Source: www.expolrandomexico.com

Rick Bayless refers to an unsweet field corn that is put through a chemical process (porbably a similar process to what is described above), that renders it tender and puffy at which point it is referred to as pozole-the Mexican word for what we call hominy.

Pozole blanco at Manana (picture taken at night on terrace)

Pozole Blanco
serves 6-8

• 12 cups / 3 l chicken or vegetable stock
• 4 pork shanks
• 3 garlic cloves, smashed
  
• 1 bay leaf
  
• 1 medium white onion, diced
  
• 1 branch Mexican oregano*
• 4 cups canned hominy**, drained
• salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon cilantro, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon Mexican oregano, finely chopped
  

accompaniments:

• 6 radishes, julienned
• 8 romaine leaves, julienned
• 1 white onion, thinly sliced
• 1 cup pitted green olives, thinly sliced
• 8 lime wedges
• 2 avocados, sliced
• 2 jalapenos, finely chopped
• 8 tostados***, toasted in oven

To a large pot add 3 litres (12 cups) of stock, the pork, garlic, bay leaf, onion, Mexican oregano and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer partially covered until meat is tender (about 90 minutes), adding the hominy for the last 30 minutes. Remove the shanks from the pot and while you wait for them to be cool enough to handle skim the scum from soup. Break up the shank meat, discarding all else, into bite size pieces and return them to the pot. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add the chopped oregano and the cilantro. Serve with accompaniments on a separate plate and let people garnish there own.

*Use Italian oregano if Mexican cannot be found.
**I found my hominy at Sabor Latino (a Mexican grocers and restaurant in Montreal).
***Toast in the oven or deep fry flour or corn tortillas if tostados cannot be found.

Just for fun here is a rather disturbing account of pozole' origins:

Since corn was a sacred plant for the Aztecs and other inhabitants of Mesoamerica, pozole was made to be consumed on special occasions. The conjunction of corn (usually whole hominy kernels) and meat in a single dish is of particular interest to scholars because the ancient Mexicans believed the gods made humans out of cornmeal dough. According to research by the National Institute of Anthropology and History and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, on these special occasions, the meat used in the pozole was human.^[4] After the prisoners were killed by having their hearts torn out in a ritual sacrifice, the rest of the body was chopped and cooked with corn. The meal was shared among the whole community as an act of religious communion. After the conquest, when cannibalism was banned, pork became the staple meat as it "tasted very similar", according to a Spanish priest.^[4]
Wikipedia