Soup Night by Maggie Stuckey Read Free Book Online

pieces
3 pounds boneless pork, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, smashed
4 cups chicken broth
10 whole dried guajillo chiles
5 (15-ounce) cans hominy, drained
1 tablespoon fresh oregano, chopped, or 1 teaspoon dried
Garnishes
Lime wedges
Shredded cabbage
Thinly sliced radishes
Tortilla chips
Sliced jalapeños
    Note: Ann adds, “These garnishes are traditional with pozole. It’s also good all on its own.”
Instructions
1. Heat the oil in a soup pot over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and sauté until browned; remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.
2. In the same pot, brown the pork in batches. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside with the chicken.
3. Add the onion to the soup pot and sauté over medium heat until softened, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the garlic and sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute.
4. Pour in the chicken broth and return the chicken and pork to the pan.
5. Leave the chiles whole but remove the seeds and membranes, to reduce the heat. The easiest way to do this is to slide the tip of a paring knife in at the stem end and slit all the way down one edge, then tease the chile open the same way you would open a book. Add the chiles to the pot and simmer, covered, for about 1 hour.
6. Remove the chiles and discard. Add the hominy and oregano and continue to simmer for 1 hour longer. Serve hot with your choice of garnishes.
    Make ahead? You can make this soup in a slow cooker: Brown the chicken and pork, put them in the slow cooker, and then add the other ingredients. Simmer in the pot with the heat set on high for about 5 hours.
    Alternatively, complete steps 1 and 2 and store the cooked meat in the refrigerator for as long as 24 hours. Or, if you have room in the refrigerator, make the whole thing the day ahead; like all stews, this is even better the second day.
    For large crowds: Hominy is not expensive; neither are the chiles. If cost is a concern, you might increase the meats by half values and the other ingredients by full measure. Don’t cut back on the chiles; the flavor they add is crucial.
    Pozole
    Pozole (pronounced puh- soh -lee and also spelled posole ) is the name of both the dish and its main ingredient. Pozole is another name for hominy, a food item unfamiliar to many of us (unless we grew up in the South — hominy is what grits are made from). Hominy is corn kernels that have been treated with an alkali, such as lye, which keeps them from sprouting while stored and makes the kernels expand in size. It is sold in dried form in Latino markets, or canned in most large supermarkets. Take my advice, and used the canned version; much easier.
    Pozole the dish is an incredibly rich and flavorful stew that is very popular in the American Southwest. Often churches there host a pozole night, where volunteers prepare huge cauldrons and sell take-home containers as a fund-raiser for the church.
    Profile
Civano Soup Supper
    Tucson, Arizona
    In the southeastern corner of Tucson you will find an extraordinary neighborhood. It was conceived as a village, a place where old-fashioned neighborliness would thrive, facilitated by the design of the houses and the layout of the streets. Front porches abound, garages are hidden in back, sidewalk strolling is easy and safe, and outdoor benches placed here and there invite folks to sit a spell and visit. Today this “solar village” comprises about 650 homes, a school, a community center, a plant nursery, and other retail businesses. Best of all, that sense of community that the designers envisioned back in 1996 has taken root and grown with a vigor and richness that surpass all hopes.
    People in Civano have wildly different backgrounds, but the Soup Suppers pull us together and put us on equal ground. Hostility disappears when people sit down next to each other to eat together.
    “The dream of the men who built Civano,” longtime resident Judyth Willis says, “was to create what we all had as children. That sense that you know all