Red Pozole, Jalisco Style (Pozole Rojo Estilo Jalisco)

// SUPPLY LIST

// OPERATIONS

1. 1 Decide how you are getting your maize before you do anything else, because the from-scratch route needs an overnight head start. Most Jalisco families now buy maiz pozolero already nixtamalized and descabezado, sold dried or frozen; if that is what you have, use 500 g dried, soak it overnight in plain cold water, and skip straight to the maize simmer four steps down. To do it from scratch, start with whole dried cacahuazintle and follow the next three steps. Canned hominy is the one substitution to refuse, because it has been cooked to collapse, sits in brine and has already given up the starch that bodies the broth, so it will never flower and the pozole stays thin.
2. 2 Nixtamalize the maize: in a 5 litre stainless steel or unglazed clay pot, never aluminium or bare cast iron, which react with the alkali and turn the maize grey and metallic, whisk the 5 g of cal into 2.5 litres of cold water. That dose is 1 percent of the maize weight, which is the standard ratio; more will not speed anything up and will leave a soapy taste you cannot rinse out. Let the grit settle for 2 minutes, pour the milky liquid into the cooking pot and discard the sandy residue in the bottom. Add the rinsed maize, bring to 90 C / 195 F, where the surface trembles and steams but never breaks into a rolling boil, and hold it there for 20 minutes; the water goes deep yellow and smells of wet limestone. Test by lifting one kernel into cold water and rubbing it between thumb and forefinger: the clear outer skin should slip off. Boiling hard here is the classic error, because it cooks the outside to mush before the alkali has reached the germ.
3. 3 Take the pot off the heat, cover it, and leave it at room temperature for 8 to 12 hours, or overnight. Do not shorten this: the long cold steep is what softens the pericarp and loosens the germ, and maize that is rushed through it stays clenched shut in the pot and tastes raw and chalky at the centre no matter how long you simmer it afterwards.
4. 4 Drain the maize and rinse it in a colander under cold running water, rubbing handfuls hard between your palms, through five or six changes of water until the water runs completely clear and the kernels no longer feel slippery; under-rinsed nixtamal tastes soapy and bitter and no amount of chile will hide it. Then descabezar: pinch the pointed dark tip cap, the cabeza or pedicel, off every kernel with a thumbnail. It takes about 30 minutes for 500 g and it is tedious, but it is the entire trick of pozole, because the kernel can only flower open where that cap has been removed.
5. 5 Put the maize in a 12 litre stockpot with 4 litres of cold water and no salt at all, since salt at this stage toughens the kernel skin and physically stops it opening. Use the bigger pot even though it looks absurd now: the maize triples in volume and the whole pork broth joins it later. Bring to a boil, drop to a bare simmer at around 95 C / 203 F with the lid ajar, and cook for 2 1/2 to 3 hours, topping up with boiling water so the maize stays covered by 5 cm. It is ready when at least half the kernels have split and curled back into white flowers and one crushed against the roof of your mouth is tender through with no chalky core.
6. 6 While the maize cooks, put the pork head meat, shoulder and split trotter into a separate 8 litre pot with 4 litres of cold water and bring it slowly to a boil. Skim the grey foam relentlessly for the first 10 minutes until the surface is clear, as this skimming is the only thing standing between you and a muddy, cloudy broth, then add the halved onion, the halved head of garlic and 20 g of the salt. Simmer uncovered at 95 C / 203 F for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, until a fork slides into the shoulder with only slight resistance and the trotter skin has gone translucent and wobbly; if the trotter is still rubbery at the edge of a knife, give it another 30 minutes on its own rather than pulling it early.
7. 7 Lift all the meat out and let it cool for 15 minutes, until you can handle it. Pull the shoulder and head meat into generous 4 to 5 cm pieces, discarding bone and hard gristle; bone the trotter, dice the soft skin small and return it to the meat, because that gelatine is where the broth's body comes from. Strain the broth through a fine sieve, discard the aromatics, and skim the fat, keeping 4 tablespoons of it if you would rather use it than lard.
8. 8 Toast the guajillos and anchos on a dry comal or heavy frying pan over medium heat, about 160 C / 320 F, opened flat and pressed down with a spatula, 15 to 20 seconds a side, until they smell of raisins and tobacco and the skin blisters and lightens a shade. Watch them like a hawk, because a chile that smokes or browns turns the whole pot irreversibly bitter and there is no rescue; throw a burnt one away rather than blend it. Tip the toasted chillies into a bowl, pour over 500 ml of boiling water, weight them down with a small plate so they stay submerged, and leave 20 minutes until completely soft and pliable. Taste the soaking water before you use it: if the chillies were old it will be bitter, in which case use fresh hot water in the blender instead.
9. 9 Blend the drained chillies with 250 ml of the soaking water, the 4 garlic cloves, the cumin seed, the 2 cloves, 1 tsp of the oregano and 1 tsp of the salt on high for a full 3 minutes, until absolutely smooth. Now push the puree through a fine-mesh sieve with the back of a ladle; you should be left with only a couple of tablespoons of dry skin to throw away. Do not skip the sieve, because guajillo skin never breaks down in a blender and leaves the finished broth gritty on the tongue.
10. 10 Heat the lard in a heavy frying pan or cazuela over medium-high until it shimmers, about 180 C / 350 F, then pour in the sieved puree at arm's length because it will spit violently. Fry it, stirring constantly, for 8 to 10 minutes, until it darkens from orange-red to brick, thickens enough that a spoon drawn through leaves a trail of bare pan, and smells sweet and toasty rather than sharp. Frying the puree is not optional; stirred in raw it tastes flat, acrid and dusty.
11. 11 Ladle enough of the starchy maize cooking liquid into a jug to leave room in the pot, then scrape in the fried puree, add the strained pork broth and all the meat, and top back up with the reserved maize liquid until everything is just covered, leaving at least 5 cm of clear pot above the surface so it cannot boil over. Simmer uncovered at a bare 90 C / 195 F for 45 to 60 minutes, so the kernels take up the colour and the broth thickens very slightly from the maize starch. Season now with the remaining salt, roughly 19 g, and expect to want a little more, because pozole needs far more salt than instinct suggests. Taste from a spoon carrying broth, a kernel and a shred of meat together, never broth alone.
12. 12 Turn the heat off and let the pot stand 20 to 30 minutes before serving so the fat rises and the flavour settles; better still, cool it and refrigerate overnight, lift off the cap of set fat in the morning, and bring it back to a bare simmer. Do not boil it hard on reheating or the flowered kernels shred and cloud the broth.
13. 13 Serve in deep bowls: meat first, then a generous ladle of kernels, then broth just to cover. Put the shredded cabbage, radish, chopped onion, the remaining oregano crushed between your palms as it goes on, the ground chile de arbol and the lime wedges on the table and let everyone build their own bowl, adding the cabbage raw at the last second, since it is there for the cold crunch against the hot broth and will wilt to nothing if it goes in early. Serve tostadas alongside, plain or spread with crema, and cold beer or tejuino.

// CLASSIFICATIONS