Posole

Our daughter has taken a surgery residency at the University of Arizona in Tucson and our job was to take out some of her belongings from her apartment in Winston-Salem. We had not been out West in many years so we were excited about the open highway and some new adventures with Southwest food.

We left on a Wednesday and arrived in San Antonio, Texas that evening. The River Walk there is quite impressive and filled with many shops and restaurants. It was created over 60 years ago to imitate the canals of Venice. This flood control project became a waterside urban park in 1941. It is a job well done and I am sure the people of San Antonio have reaped many benefits from this venture. We ate at Landry’s Seafood, a chain restaurant, and one I would not recommend. The food is so-so and just really too expensive for what we had, but it was a nice location for a meal. We sat outside by San Antonio River that winds through the city watching the never ending parade of people strolling as well as in the boats that passed by constantly. The next morning we saw the Alamo which is a really small building in the middle of the city. But it is free of charge so not a bad deal! This is an interesting part of our American story.

The Alamo originally named Misión San Antonio de Valero, built in 1724.  In the early 1800’s the Spanish military stationed a cavalry unit at the former mission.  The soldiers called the old mission the Alamo (Spanish for cottonwood).  The mission was home to revolutionaries and royalists during Mexico’s ten year struggle for independence.  The military, Spanish, rebel and then Mexican, occupied the Alamo until the Texas Revolution. In December 1835 Texan and Tejano volunteers forced the Mexicans at the Alamo to surrender.  On February 23, 1836 General Antonio López  de Santa Anna arrived and laid siege to the Alamo.  The defenders saw the Alamo as the key to the defense of Texas and were ready to give their lives rather than surrender.  The final assault came before daybreak on March 6, 1836.  By sunrise the battle was over.  The Daughters of the Republic of Texas have operated this shrine to the heroes of the Texas revolution since 1905.  It is a shrine to the near 200 heroes who died there.  Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett are well known but the rest are also listed, with their state or country of origin.  Three Alabamians were killed there: James Buchanan, Galba Fuqua and Isaac White.

From San Antonio we drove on to El Paso. Now when I saw the sign that said 585 miles to El Paso, I knew we were in for a long day. Yes, Texas is BIG! This is where you pray that you do not have car trouble. There are long distances out there in West Texas, with few services, and it would take a while for someone to help you. A big help is that there is little traffic and you can drive 85! We did have a good lunch in Junction, Texas at Cooper’s Barbecue. The brisket was so tasty and it just made you feel like you were in real West Texas barbecue country.  Although it is a long drive across West Texas, the scenery is spectacular.  As soon as you leave San Antonio the green turns to more brown as the desert develops, sometimes flat, sometimes with hills and mountains in the distance; cacti become more prominent.  At one point the huge boulders reminded me of my childhood’s western movies.  As we drove by, no cowboys or Indians appeared among the rocks, however.

We made it through El Paso many hours later and decided to stop in Las Cruces, New Mexico which is just about 40 miles west of El Paso. Las Cruces is now the largest business center in Southern New Mexico, since its crops are irrigated by the Rio Grande. I was ready for some good Mexican food and I thought tonight I should get started. I asked at the hotel for a recommendation and the girl at the desk told me the best place was Andele’s. She proved right and I got to taste my first Mexican stew called posole. Posole is really hominy, cooked with pork or chicken with many spices. I loved it! Traditional posole is made from the pig’s head or parts of its head and usually included an old stewing chicken. Since most people don’t have the pig’s head or a pot that big, most use pork shoulder with lots of oregano to produce their posole. So after looking into the many ways to cook posole, when I got back home I decided to try a vegetarian version, since that was all the ingredients I had at home at the time. I did buy some blue corn hominy and a spice packet while on my trip, but decided to use the spice packet when I got some pork or chicken.

 

Vegetarian Posole Stew

8 oz. dried posole (could buy canned hominy)

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 bay leaf

1 small onion, chopped

4 c. water

2 Tablespoons vegetable broth powder

1 teaspoon oregano and cumin seeds

½ lb. tomatoes, chopped

1 fresh green chili, chopped

1 ½ cup cooked beans

1 ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro (optional)

Rinse and soak posole overnight. Drain. Cook in plain water to cover, and cook two hours until tender. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil, simmer, uncovered, 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Add cilantro and serve.

The best thing about posole is what you can add to it at the table. The restaurant added chopped onions, lime wedges, and radishes. These things really added to the taste.

My husband and I think posole is a ‘keeper.’  It’s a tasty stew and can be what you wish, vegetarian, chicken and or pork, as hot as you like depending on your pepper choices.  But I think the key ingredient is the lime juice added at the table along with the cilantro and chopped onions and radishes.  I didn’t have the cilantro when I did the above stew and substituted basil and parsley---good but not the same as cilantro.