Project Food Blog 2: Posole Rojo with Sugar and Spiced Pork Tenderloin

Project food blog challenge 2 calls for creating an authentic, culture-specific dish that is out of my comfort zone.  Ha, they are all out of my comfort zone.  The entire process of cooking is out of my comfort zone.  As I sat thinking of what to do, I glanced up and saw an article, the first one written about the Chef and his cooking.  It has been framed and hanging above my head in the office for almost 5 years now.  And I haven?t read the entire thing.  Something about hominy and tripe.  The Chef used to always eat menudo, I only remember the name because of the music group, and I refused to try it.  Blech!  But now, I?m forced to branch out.   



In the end, my decision was based purely on a small tribute.  To my husband.  His love for food has been so strong, that it seeped over into my heart.  We share a passion now, and for someone who works so hard, I wanted to show that I respect that.  As well as his heritage.  *tear*

What exactly is posole?  The hell if I know.  I asked the chef, but since I think he pretends to know stuff, I decided to look it up.  (he was right, by the way).  Posole is DEEP Mexico.  We're not talking about Tex-Mex.  It is a soup or stew that uses posole, or pozole.  And since corn, is considered sacred, it was used in rituals and eaten on special occasions.  Advancing to the second round of Project Food Blog is special enough for me.  Let's do it.

The first "event" of the day, was at the farmers market.  I had to find out where exactly I can find tripe in this city (I haven't lived here long).  But, now I am standing in front of the Mexican girl at the farmers market, and I have to ask for tripas.  In my head, I completely panicked.  Holy S%^* (excuse me), I have to roll my r's.  I can't roll my r's until well into a bottle of wine. But I did it.  "oh, si, tripas.....South Boulevard."

The recipe called for tripe stock.  Boring.  I want to make my own tripe stock.  (plus, I couldn't find any).  So, 2 gallons of water, a few carrots, celery stalks, and an onion later.  You have this.  

 What is tripe?  *smiles, a smug smile, like I am so much smarter, but didn't have a clue either*  It is the stomach lining of livestock.  Cow to be particular.  It feels like pool shoes.  Wet and squishy.  Be sure to wash it, since it may still contain particles of the cow's last meal.  

At this point, I need to move onto the sugar and spiced pork tenderloin.  I heat up the grill, the frog jumps on me.  The exact same frog, jumps on me every time.  I think it may be my prince mad that I chose my "sexy-mexi" instead.  And yes, I call the chef my sexy-mexi and he loves it!  

Last part, onions, cumin, coriander, lime juice, chili paste, chile powder (I used cayenne pepper, since I was out.  Little tip:  cayenne pepper cannot replace chile powder tsp-to-tsp unless you can handle some serious heat).  Simmer to deliciousness.  When the Chef came home, I was stirring over my gigantic stock pot.  I was so proud of myself.  In the kitchen ALL day (apart from the time I spent refreshing foodbuzz's page for 5 minutes, while they relentlessly teased everyone with the results).  My huge "grandma" pot.  I felt like a real Mexican grandma.  Not to mention, the Mexican market, further educated my kids on the differences in food and culture and how to embrace them and their heritage. 

The end result was fabulous.  It was spicy, and delicious.  The tripe was tender, the pork was caramelized, and the flavor had some definite depth.