Mesoamerica · Volume 05, Agave, Birria and the Manila Galleon Coast
Pozole rojo
Jalisco and the Bajío, Mexico
Illustration
- Researched
- Researched from 65 sources in the brief
As tradition built it
Pozole rojo
Serves eight
Ingredients
The tradition's method, with the ingredients named. Quantities follow as we verify them.
- 500g pre-cooked cacahuazintle corn (the wide-kernelled variety specific to this dish)
- 1kg pork, backbone or leg cuts
- 3 chiles guajillo
- 3 chiles ancho
- garlic
- onion
- to taste oregano
- to taste salt
To serve
- to taste radish
- to taste shredded lettuce
- to taste onion
- to taste oregano
- to taste lime
- to taste tostadas
Method
- Boil the corn until the kernels burst open, “flower.”
- Cook the pork separately, with the garlic and salt, until tender.
- Soak and deseed the guajillo and ancho chiles, then blend them straight into the broth for colour and body.
- Simmer everything together for a final 30 minutes to marry it all.
- Serve with radish, shredded lettuce, onion, oregano, lime and tostadas, a garnish set characteristically Jalisco rather than Guerrero's or a plain white pozole.
What a modern chef changes
Sous Vide Pork, Clarified Consommé
Method
- Cook the pork shoulder sous vide, separately from the broth, to a precise, still-moist doneness.
- Reduce the pork's own cooking liquid and the chile-broth base together through a chinois into a properly clarified consommé.
- Dehydrate a portion of the toasted guajillo and ancho into a fine dust in the spice grinder, dusted over the finished bowl at the table for a concentrated last note of the same chiles already in the broth.
- Toast and grind the cumin and oregano fresh rather than using pre-ground, a small change that noticeably sharpens the broth's own aromatic base.