Posole, Biscuits and a little venting

March 9 - Dinner with the in-laws for March Birthdays

March 10 - Posole & Cream Biscuits

March 11 - Greek Chicken with Lemony Potatoes - a must make after Carole posted it last month

I've been on such a roll cooking over the past few weeks, not just dinners but baking and all kinds of other things for my other blog.  I kinda feel like I've been chained to the kitchen.  I'm thinking a fabulous meal out is in order in the next few days.  Lucky for me I get to post Saturday and Sunday this weekend!  Do you note the sarcasm?  Now don't get me wrong I love sharing with everyone recipes I've come up with and how things are going with the challenge, but right I have to be honest I'd love to be taken out for dinner every night for the next week.  Not even just have the Boy cook, because I don't want to do the dishes.  I'm done!  At least for a few days.  Except I'm not, because you'll hear from me tomorrow all about what's on the menu for tonight's dinner.  But I won't get into that.


And now, with my venting done, we return to our regularly scheduled programming. A year an a half ago, when I was driving cross-country from LA to Toronto, my best friend and I stopped in Santa Fe, NM.  After a few margarita's on a patio, with the puppy, we did a little shopping.  Now we never realized that Santa Fe is at a higher elevation and that booze at higher elevations is like a 2 to 1 ratio or something like that.  Once we had 2 margaritas we figured it out, but it took 2 to get us there. Needless to say we had quite the buzz going on as we wandered around the shops.  In one cute gift shop I came across a cookbook called Simply Simpatico which was put out by the Junior League of Albuquerque, NM.  I snapped it up instantly.  First because I remembered using recipes from my mother's Junior League cookbook back when I was younger but also because the great thing about these types of cookbooks is that they really show what the real people in the area cook.  Are all the recipes winners, no but it's still exactly the type of souvenir I wanted from the city.

Though I've thumbed through the cookbook quite a few times I have yet to make one of the recipes.  I really like the first chapter titled Comida Simpatica and is meant to introduce the newcomer and novice cook to traditional New Mexican cuisine.  I had remembered seeing a recipe for Posole in this chapter and is sounded like a pork soup or stew.  Since we had picked up some naturally-raised pork stew meat at the Brickworks Farmer's Market a few weeks ago it seemed like just the right time to try this recipe out.

Posole
adapted from Simply Simpatico: The Home of Authentic New Mexican Cuisine
serves 4-6

1 lb pork stew meat or pork roast cubed
1 pork shank or foot
8 cups water or chicken or veg stock
1/2 Tbsp salt
1 can hominy or posole
1 tsp Mexican oregano
1 clove garlic - smashed and peeled
1 small onion - chopped
1 chipotle chili - seeded and sliced into long strips
1 tsp chili powder

1.  Place meat and shank/foot in a pot and add water or stock to cover meat (may use more or less than the recipe calls for, should just cover the meat).  Add salt and bring to a low boil over medium heat.
2.  Simmer over medium low heat for 1 1/2 hours.  Skim grease off the top, remove and discard pigs feet, and set aside.
3.  Strain the liquid from can of hominy and rinse the hominy thoroughly.   Add to soup pot along with oregano, garlic, onion, sliced chipotle and chili powder. Simmer for 30 minutes.
4.  Serve with a red chili sauce for added spice.  I didn't make a traditional chili sauce, but used the Red Enchilada sauce from Simply Recipes.

I should have paid more attention to how fatty the stew meat was that I used, it was actually quite lean and as a result became pretty dry while cooking. Next time I'll absolutely buy a pork shoulder and cube it as I think that fatty meat holds up better to the longer cook time.  I chose to remove the pig's feet, though the recipe didn't say to do that.  Maybe in traditional New Mexican cuisine you eat them?  They just looked so grey after the cooking, that I appreciated the flavor they brought to the soup but couldn't eat them as is.

I also made these delicious sounding cream biscuits that I found over at Orangette.  Molly promised that they were virtually failproof which is what I need for biscuits since mine are usually hockey pucks.  Luckily she was right.  If you've ever had trouble with biscuits before this will absolutely be the cure.  Much like Molly I also used too little cream and very likely overworked the dough and yet they still worked!

What do you do when you're sick of cooking dinner?  Sick of cleaning the kitchen?  Vent like me?  Throw a tantrum?  Or just forget it all and go out?