Cari's Red Chile Pork Posole

Directions

Clean and prep pork. Combine pork and spare ribs, 6 quarts water and 1 tablespoon salt in a large stockpot. Bring to a boil over high, skimming off and discarding foam for the next 10-15 min. Place onion, garlic, ginger, bay leaves, avocado leaves, and oregano in center of a large piece of cheesecloth; gather edges of cheesecloth together and secure with twine. Add bundle to pot; reduce heat to medium-low, and gently simmer, uncovered for 1 hour and 30 min. Continue to skim as needed.

Remove cheesecloth bundle from pot. Remove onion, garlic, and ginger; set aside. Discard bay leaves and oregano. Add hominy to pot; simmer over medium-low; uncovered, until rib bones can be easily removed from spareribs. Start checking at 1 hr, can take 1 hr 30 min at most.

While pork mixture simmers, split ancho and guajillo chiles; remove and discard stems and seeds. Place half of the chiles in a large, deep skillet over medium. Cook, turning occasionally, until toasted evenly on both sides, about 1 minute. Remove to a plate; repeat with remaining chiles. Return all toasted chiles to skillet, add water just to cover chiles. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium; cook until chiles are soft and rehydrated, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat; cool slightly , about 15 min. Drain chiles, reserving cooking liquid only if it does not taste bitter, if it does taste slightly of raisins, reserve 1/2 cup.

Transfer re hydrated chiles and either the reserved 1/2 cup chile cooking liquid or 1/2 cup water to a blender. Add onion, garlic, ginger and 1 tablespoon salt. Process until smooth, adding splashes of stock from pork mixture in stockpot as needed to achieve consistency of applesauce, about 1 minute. Pour though a fine wire-mesh strainer into a bowl; discard solids.

Heat 2 tbsp oil in a 10 inch skillet over medium high. Carefully pour strained chile mixture into skillet. (mixture will splatter). Cook, stirring often, until reduced by half and darkened in color, about 30 minutes. Partially cover skillet to reduce splatters, if desired.

When pork mixture has finished simmering, remove spare ribs from stockpot, and set aside until cool enough to handle, about 5 minutes. Remove and discard rib bones and tendons from spareribs. Chop meat into bite size pieces and return to stock pot. Stir in reserved chile sauce. Bring to a simmer over medium-low; cook until flavors meld, about 1 hour, skimming fat from surface. Stir in remaining 2 teaspoons salt and to taste.

To serve, place toppings in separate bowls, limes, radish, cheese, tostada shells, avocado, chopped onion, cilantro, lettuce. Ladle soup evenly among 10 large bowls, or for whoever many are eating (Posole tastes best the next day). Allow everyone eating to top their own posole.