The comfort of posole

Tonight, instead of the usual Friday night roast, I decided that my body and my soul need posole.

It's one of my favorite foods; pork shoulder simmered with onions and hominy for hours until it's fall-apart tender, served over shredded fresh cabbage with lime juice and cilantro. I can eat it until I'm bursting, and live on a pot of it for a week without becoming tired of it. Best of all, it's more than delicious; it's nutritious, comforting, and cheap.

I started with a 4-lb pork shoulder roast that was already in my freezer, and put it in a large stockpot with water to cover it, and a quart of broth I also had in my freezer. The broth is wholly optional, as this flavorful cut of meat will make its own stock as it simmers. A whole onion, a couple of cloves of garlic, and about 1/2 cup of ground red chilies went into the pot, as well as a couple of tablespoons of marjoram (sometimes sold as Mexican oregano) and a couple of juniper berries. Then the whole thing simmered with the lid on for about six hours, until the meat was falling apart, and I added salt to taste and a couple of cans of white hominy. Honestly, dried posole corn is best, but I would have had to think about it yesterday, then soak it with lime overnight and degerm it by hand... which always leaves my thumbs sore after hours of picking the germ off the posole. Tonight, it was all about the canned hominy, and I am perfectly happy with that!

The posole was red and greasy, almost done and smelling irresistibly good, when I realized I needed to make a store run for sour cream and hominy, as well as a couple of other crucial ingredients; limes and cilantro. I am making gumbo for a party tomorrow night, so I figured it would be a good time to snag the ingredients for that as well. I already have a few things (lima beans, canned tomatoes) so it wasn't a huge shopping trip. From my receipt:

2 cans hominy
Frozen okra
Black eyed peas
Catfish nuggets
Italian sausage (hot)
Raw shrimp
collard greens
Sour cream
Green cabbage
Green onions
Cilantro
2 limes
Cabernet Sauvignon (of the cheapest variety... I'm out of box wine)

My total grocery bill, wine and everything, was $30.12, which is pretty excellent for enough food to keep a family of 5 fed for about four days. The stuff I already had on hand, the pork roast and other gumbo ingredients like rice and tomatoes, came to about $10.

I've got the hominy in there simmering with the rest of the posole for an hour or so to merge the flavors; when it's ready, I'll ladle it over shredded cabbage, with minced cilantro and green onions, a spoonful of sour cream, and a wedge of lime.

Simple red posole:

4-lb pork shoulder roast
8 quarts of water
1 onion, minced
2 tablespoons dried marjoram
6 tablespoons red chili powder (paprika), mild or hot depending on taste
4 cloves of garlic
2 juniper berries (optional)
2 32-oz cans of hominy
Salt to taste

Simmer pork with other ingredients for 4-6 hours, until falling apart.
Using two forks, pull meat into smaller chunks.
Add hominy and simmer another hour.

Serve over:

Green cabbage, chopped finely

Garnish with:

White or green chopped onion
Minced cilantro
Sour cream
Lime wedge
Radish