New Year’s Tradition Pozole…repost

Every New Year’s Eve while I was growing up my Grandma would make pozole and every Christmas she would make tamales. I figured that I would continue this tradition and make some pozole for my family. I have yet to attempt to make tamales even though my Grandma mailed me her recipe months ago.  Here is the recipe that I use. It’s not exactly like my Grandma’s but it works for us.

Pozole 

1 lb. pork tenderloin, cut into 1/2″ pieces

2 c. chopped onion

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 1/2 TBS. chili powder

1 (14oz) can chicken broth, or more for more broth

1 (15.5oz) can hominy, drained

3/4 tsp ground cumin

1/8 tsp salt

Garnish

onion, diced

fresh cilantro

lemon wedges

cabbage, sliced thinly

Directions:

In a large pot over medium-high heat, put some oil in and add pork to pot cooking for 4-5 min and brown on both sides. Remove and set aside.

In same pot, over medium-high heat add a little oil saute onions for 2-3 minutes add garlic, chili powder and cook for 15 seconds. Add pork back to the pot and chicken broth stir and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes. Add drained hominy, cumin and salt(if needed). Simmer uncovered for another 20 minutes. Serve in a bowl with a squirt of lemon, cabbage, raw onion, an cilantro; or any variation of the garnishes. Enjoy on a cold day or just cause you have a hankering for a good soup.

 

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Pozole

I know I’m nuts…the weather here is not soup weather but sometimes you just get a hankering for a good soup. I love pozole! It has been a tradition in my family that on Christmas we make tamales and on New Years my grandma makes Pozole. So in keeping with the tradition I have carried it over to my little family. I don’t have my Grandmas original “recipe” she just adds a little of this and a little of that and a lot of love. So I have come up with my own. We like it, but when I go home for the holidays I request my Grandma’s. I also needed an excuse to use my new fancy pot that my sister sent me for my “Mother’s Day/Early Birthday” gift. It’s a Princess Heritage Tri-Ply Stainless Steel 6 OT. stir pan with lid. Head over to her blog, she loves cooking and sell Princess House items. So far so good I love this pan. When I added my pork to the pan, which heats up so nice and evenly, my pork browned perfectly. It cleans well too. Can’t wait to use it again. Not enough cupboard space in this house but that’s okay because it sits nicely on my stove top, kind of like kitchen jewelry like my Sister would say. And it truly is a pretty pot. Anyway back to the recipe, Pozole is a soup kind of tastes like menudo without using the tripe. Instead you use pork or pork loin. Don’t get me wrong I like menudo but I will leave the preparations for that to the professionals. It seems complicated….maybe not but I just don’t want to touch the raw tripe 🙂

Pozole 

1 lb. pork tenderloin, cut into 1/2″ pieces

2 c. chopped onion

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 1/2 TBS. chili powder

1 (14oz) can chicken broth, or more for more broth

1 (15.5oz) can hominy, drained

3/4 tsp ground cumin

1/8 tsp salt

Garnish

onion, diced

fresh cilantro

lemon wedges

cabbage, sliced thinly

Directions:

In a large pot over medium-high heat, put some oil in and add pork to pot cooking for 4-5 min and brown on both sides. Remove and set aside.

In same pot, over medium-high heat add a little oil saute onions for 2-3 minutes add garlic, chili powder and cook for 15 seconds. Add pork back to the pot and chicken broth stir and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes. Add drained hominy, cumin and salt(if needed). Simmer uncovered for another 20 minutes. Serve in a bowl with a squirt of lemon, cabbage, raw onion, an cilantro; or any variation of the garnishes. Enjoy on a cold day or just cause you have a hankering for a good soup.

Easter Goodies

Hope that everybody enjoyed their Easter Sunday. My little family and I enjoyed a day of relaxation and good food. We also made some cute crafts this weekend. First up food, for Easter dinner we had bacon wrapped pork tenderloin, fried spinach and crash hot potatoes.

Roast Pork Loin with Bacon and Brown Sugar Glaze:

Source: The Comfort of Cooking

Serves 3

Ingredients

1 boneless pork loin, 1 1/2 to 2 pounds

2 slices bacon

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

1/4 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Glaze:

1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed

1 tablespoons flour

1 tablespoons cider vinegar

1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
Directions:

Heat oven to 350° F. Place pork loin in a roasting pan or deep casserole dish lined with aluminum foil. Combine the rub ingredients in a small bowl and rub over the pork. Cut each strip of bacon in half and lay strips over the pork loin. Roast for about 40 minutes.
Combine the brown sugar, flour, cider vinegar, and dry mustard in a saucepan. Simmer for 1 minute. Spoon over the pork and return to the oven. Roast for about 15 minutes longer, or until pork registers 160°. Let sit for 2 minutes after removing from oven. Slice and serve.

Pan Fried Spinach:

Source: the Pioneer Woman Cooks, Food from my frontier

3 Tablespoons olive oil

5-6 cloves garlic, minced

1 lrg bunch of spinach, cleaned and stems removed

salt and black pepper to taste

Directions: Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and quickly stir it around to avoid burning. Throw in Spinach, using tongs to move it around the skillet. Sprinkle with plenty of salt and pepper. Continue to cook just until wilted. Plate and enjoy

Crash Hot Potatoes:

Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks, Food from my frontier

Ingredients:

12 whole new potatoes (or other small round potatoes)

Kosher salt, to taste

3 TBS olive oil

black pepper to taste

Minced Rosemary (or other herb of your choice)

Directions:

In Pot over medium high heat, boil the potatoes in lightly salted water until fork tender, about 20 minutes. Preheat oven to 450° F. Place the potatoes o a baking sheet. Using a potato masher, gently press down to mash each one. Rotate the masher 90 degrees, then mash again. Drizzle the tops of the potatoes with olive oil. Sprinkle generously with salt, pepper and rosemary. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown and crisp.

And for a sweet treat we had Italian Easter Bread. So yummy.

 

Italian Easter Bread:

Source: The Italian Dish

makes 6 breads

Ingredients:

• 1 package Rapid Rise (instant) yeast, about 2-1/4 teaspoons
• 1.25 cups milk
• pinch of salt
• 1/3 cup butter
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup sugar

• 3.5 cups flour (approximate)
• 1 egg, beaten with 1 teaspoon of water
• 6 dyed Easter eggs *
• sprinkles or pearl sugar

Instructions:

* tip:  the Easter eggs do not need to be hard boiled.  They cook when the bread bakes.  I usually just dye the eggs uncooked, without hardboiling them.  Saves time.  Just be careful they don’t crack!

In a small saucepan, warm the milk and butter together, just till butter melts.    In a large mixer bowl, combine yeast, salt, eggs and sugar.  Add the warm (not hot – it will kill the yeast) milk and butter. Add about half the flour and beat until smooth with dough hook.   Slowly add the remaining flour to form a stiff dough.  Don’t worry about how much flour it ends up being, just keep adding until the dough is not sticky anymore.  Knead until smooth with either dough hook attachment or turn out on floured board and knead.  Place in a greased bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about an hour.

Punch dough down, divide into 12 pieces.  Roll each piece to form a 1 inch thick rope about 14 inches long and, taking two pieces, twist to form a “braid”, pinching the ends,  and loop into a circle.

Place on two baking sheets lined with parchment paper or Silpats.  Cover and let rise until double, about an hour again.  Brush each  bread with beaten egg wash.  Put on the sprinkles or sugar.   In the middle of each bread ring, gently place an Easter egg, making an indentation with the egg.

Bake at 350 degrees until golden – about 20 minutes.  Cool on rack.

And super easy spring crafts made by the kids. Super easy, super fun, super fast and super cute.

Coffee filter flowers and Foam bunnies and a chick in disguise.

See how my boys had to make these cute little guys more boyish. The duck and brown bunnies are football players with black under their eyes and a carrot football. They had fun making these. Have a good week and I am going to try to post again this week. Thanks for reading and happy Spring!