The only recipe Alison will use a blender for | Home Movies with Alison Roman

Welcome to December! Season of light, season of cheer, season of showing up at other peoples homes (or people showing up at yours!) This episode of Home Movies addresses the age old question – what can I bring to feed the masses that also tastes good and doesn’t take all day or one million pots and pans? The answer: this pork stew! It is easily transportable (catch me on the subway *if you can* with my dutch oven), scalable, and truly body warming. This stew is comprised of pork (yes), a homemade chile paste (made easy with a blender), tomatillos (the darker the better, says I), cabbage (for a little sweetness), and hominy beans (really these are optional but ..yum). The broth makes this stew. It’s fatty, it’s rich, it’s sassy and.. it gets better with age (don’t we all?) Make yourself a repeat guest and bring this pork stew to your next holiday affair. Happy (hominy) holidays, everyone!

Extra special thank you to Away for sponsoring this week’s episode – I haven’t yet tried to fit a dutch oven of pozole in my olive green carry-on, but one day, I just might.

#pork #stew #pozole #hominyholidays #alisonroman

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Recipe URL: http://anewsletter.alisoneroman.com/p/pork-pozole-video

VIDEO CHAPTERS:
00:14 Home Movies with Alison Roman | Pork and Red Chili Pozole with Cabbage
01:41 Thank you, Away
02:48 Toast chilis (and don’t touch your eyes!)
04:37 Season and salt your pork *hunks*
06:15 Dust off the blender
07:27 Prepping tomatillos, cabbage, and garlic
09:21 Put it all together and let it stew (for 2 hours)
10:29 Entering pozole territory
11:48 An hour later: body warming food
13:42 Garnishes and making it your own

CREDITS:
Director: Daniel Hurwitz (@dannyhurwitz)
DP: Sean Ryan
B-Cam: Erron Francis (@viewsfromtheattic)
Audio: Yves Albaret (@yvesarmand)
Editor: Colin Marchon
Food Assist: Rebecca Firkser (@rebeccafirkser)

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– I’m feeling very self-conscious about not having my nails painted, and someone’s gonna ask, and I’m just gonna say that I just didn’t have time. – [Dan] It’s been a busy week at “Home Movies.” – I’ve been busy. Hello, everybody! Welcome to “Home Movies!” It’s December. No, it’s not, it’s still November. – [David] December. – No, it’s November. Hello, everybody, welcome to “Home Movies.” Welcome to December, welcome to the holidays! Today, I’m making one of those things that I tend to make like during the holidays. And this isn’t my holiday meal per se, but it is something that I’m like always making when I’m hosting or I’m going to a function,

And asked to bring something, or I’m entertaining large groups of people. Because it is a sort of one pot delicious dynamic thing that also can be scaled up or down very easily to serve lots of people, and lots of different sort of like tastes and preferences.

I am a fan of anything that you can make in a pot, and then set out like 25 different toppings. I don’t know, it’s like a customizable eating experience, not unlike ham party, (graphics dinging) which this is not. Anytime where you’re like I made the one big thing,

And then many tiny bowls of many tiny things. This is kind of like a version of pozole, which is a traditional Mexican stew soup that includes often pork, often red chilies, and almost always, because it’s what makes it pozole, Pozole, also known as white hominy. Pozole is both the thing and the dish. Pozole the word, white hominy the thing, it’s pozole, you’re making pozole with pozole, you can’t make pozole without pozole. Make this on Wednesday, keep it in your fridge, reheat it, it’ll only get better with time like all stews. So, this is going to (hand tapping)

Take a minute, so I think we should get started. Thank you to Away for sponsoring this week’s episode of “Home Movies.” And I know it seems kind of weird, like Away is a suitcase company, you know them because they’re got like stylish, matching sets, and everybody looks so chic when they’re traveling, and I’m cooking at home in my kitchen,

But the two are very related to me, because A, during the holidays, I am likely to show up at somebody’s house with like a Dutch oven full of something! Or, a tote bag full of 18 different toppings for that thing in the Dutch oven! But it is, to me, synonymous with holiday season.

It’s cooking, and it’s traveling. And kind of like how I outfit my kitchen with like the one pot I need, and I have the same knife that I’ve had for 10 years. I have had my Away suitcases for I think almost five years now. I have a a big white one

And a tiny white one ’cause I like that they match. And when I was thinking about getting which color, everyone was like, “Don’t get the white, they’re gonna get so dirty!” And I was like, “I like that. I like the patina.” I like, it’s kind of like the white sneaker energy

Where it’s like if they’re too white and clean it’s like where have you been? Nowhere. And I’ve been places, and my suitcases tell that story. Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming. The first step I’m gonna do is toast these chilies. (bowl clinking) Okay, so I have (chilies shuffling) about four ounces, you could use four to six ounces. And if you know me, I almost never, ever, ever break out my blender. This is one of the few reasons I own one,

Is to make this chili paste. It’s kind of a multipurpose condiment. I don’t know why I don’t make it more often, probably ’cause I hate using my blender. To me, as cheesy as it sounds, it does say holiday. I will sort of hold back like half the seeds because I want a lot of chili flavor, But I don’t always want all the heat that comes with it. And also, the stems just kind of like never really break down, so I’ll always remove the stems entirely. I’m gonna sort of air on the side of less spicy, because after I make the chili paste,

I can always add these seeds into the stew. I can always make it spicier. It’s very hard to make things less spicy. Just don’t touch your eyes or anything else on your body after this until you wash your hands. The other day, I did something not good. Mm, it smells so good. And I’m just gonna lightly toast these to kind of like bloom the spice. So, these chilies are gonna toast for like two to three minutes, and I’m just gonna toss them with some tongs (tongs clinking softly) to keep them moving. They’re not gonna change in color that much,

So you wanna really (tongs clinking softly) rely on like your olfactory senses, your smell, mostly your smell. (chuckling) You’ll notice them start to like toast, and sort of smell like almost chocolatey, fruity, chili-y But air on the side of toasting, less not more, just because if you’re like, oh they’re not changing color,

Like they’re very thin-skinned and can burn easily. So, I’m gonna do that, I’m gonna cover it (chilies simmering) with some water, bring it to a simmer, and that is going to soften the chilies completely, so that I can blend it into a paste. I cut up one sort of (knife thudding softly) largest yellow onion And four cloves of garlic. And I just kinda (garlic crunching) roughly chopped them and added them (pot clinking) to the pot with the chilies and the salt, and the water. I’m gonna bring that to a simmer, I’m gonna let the soften, the onions and the garlic will also sorta soften in the water,

And then I’m going to blend that into my paste. All right, so now, while that happens, it’s time to season and sear our pork. For any time that I am making a beautiful gorgeous pork stew, no matter what the flavor profile, I like to keep my pork in pretty large chunks

Because then when it braises, you get like larger, succulent like hunks of meat rather than like if you start with a tiny piece of pork, and braise that, it’s gonna kinda like be more shreddy, and tiny in your soup or stew. – [David] The shreds are too small,

Rather than being big- – Yeah! I like big hunks- – [David] Chunky shreds. – Oh my god, I can see the graphics now. So, I’m working with about four pounds of pork. (pack shuffling) I think four pounds, four to five pounds is a great number, it will serve anywhere from 8 to 12 people. The nice thing about pozole also is that if you only have two pounds of pork, you can still make this dish,

And it would be like delicious with even more cabbage and even more tomatillos. Not every bowl has to be like so porky. Even with four pounds of pork, I could like comfortably serve like 16 people, frankly. But I think we should all be eating a lost meat. Says the woman making a bunch of videos to eat meat with. It’s a special occasion. So, I’m gonna start (graphics clicking) by cutting like about inch, inch and a half pieces. Anytime you’re cooking with (knife thudding softly) like a large cut of fatty meat, I know that as that cooks, a lot of that fat is gonna render and shrink the meat.

I don’t feel feel the need to like Pre-marinade the pork or anything, but you do wanna season it with salt and pepper. And this could be done a day ahead if you wanted. I’m gonna add (graphics clicking) a thin layer of oil just to get things browning, but I don’t need to add Any extra fat at all here because all that fat is gonna come (graphics clicking) from the pork. So, our chilies and our onions and garlic, And salt have been simmering for like five-ish minutes. The chili itself is completely softened, the onions are tender, the garlic is soft. So, I’m gonna blend it in the blender, and that’s gonna be our chili paste. And you’ll see that I’m gonna sort of hold back some of the liquid at first,

Because you can make it (graphics clicking) as thick or thin as you want, but that chili water is also gonna be used like later on. So if you’re making this chili paste as like a condiment, I tend to keep things on the thicker side. But if you’re like,

I know I’m using it all (blender buzzing) for this pozole, just blend everything. But to me, it’s always easier to get something in a blender to be super smooth, and like super uniform, the less liquid there is. – [Dan] Did we spill? – Yeah. – [Rebecca] Oh no. (graphics clicking) – Everywhere. That’s really delicious, I would eat that on a chip. Most of the seeds (laddle tapping) did not make it into the blender, most of the seeds are sort of Lurking towards the bottom. There’s like a hunk of garlic and like a lot of seeds left. I’ll throw that in and blend it again. I hate machines. All right, night night blender. Okay, our pork is porking. (chuckling) I’m just flipping the pork to kinda evenly brown on all sides, and once that batch is done, I’ll add the rest of the pork, brown that in the pot, and then everything goes in the pot together. Tomatillos have a little husk. (bowl clinking) I think it’s cute. They’re wearing a little jacket! I’m using about (graphics clicking) one and a half pounds of tomatillos here. (tomatillo clicking) Much like a tomato, (graphics clicking) tomatillo has a lot of water. (tomatillo ripping) So, while they do provide a lot of body, they’ll cook down and sort of reduce as they thicken. Any tips for picking out fresh tomatillos? Well, I’m glad you asked. I tend to think the darker the better. So, something like this, but honestly, I’ve never read that, and I don’t have any science to back me up. So, I’m taking this cabbage, (cabbage ripping)

And I’m just going to tear it into large pieces. Cabbage also (graphics clicking) adds a lot of sweetness. I’m gonna finally shred a hunk of this cabbage. About three quarters of that cabbage is going into the stew, And then I’m saving another kind of quarter of it (knife thudding softly) to just decor on top. I’m gonna use rest that had a garlic, half of which is in the chili paste, just to thinly slice and add with my rest of the ingredients. I keep using soup (knife thudding softly) and stew interchangeably. Kind of because, (knife clinking) what is a soup? What is a stew? You know?

This could be (graphics swishing) more soupy, this could be also more stewy. – [David] For what it’s worth, on Google, when you search pozole, It says soup or stew. (graphics swishing) – Wow, thanks Google! And that’s all the information we need. So, I’m gonna take out all this meat just to drain the fat. Pork is extremely fatty. And when you brown it, that fat renders, that’s part of why we brown it. So, when it brazes, that fat is going to further render, further release, further incorporate itself into the broth. I’m gonna drain this fat. I’m draining about as much as I would (graphics clicking)

If I were like starting from a blank slate, and adding like an olive oil or canola oil, just to give this garlic and the chili paste (food sizzling) something to brown into. Just giving the garlic (laddle shuffling) a little toast. Cheers! So, that’s like already bubbling, (bowl thudding softly) it’s not much liquid, it’s mostly just the chili paste. So, I’m gonna go ahead and add all the rest of our ingredients. I’m gonna add our pork, our tomatillos, our cabbage, and some water. Also, the leftover chili water that we have.

If you don’t have any leftover chili water, just use regular water. So, I’m gonna bring that to a simmer, I’m gonna season it with more salt, more pepper maybe. Let it simmer uncovered for like two, two and a half hours, this is a long haul cook process. If that feels (graphics clicking) daunting to you,

Just know that, again, this can be made ahead of time, so it’s not like you’re in a race against time. You’ll see it start to change, the tomatillos will burst, they’ll kinda dissolve completely into the stew. The cabbage is gonna get really nice and tender, and wilty.

The pork will go from like big hunks to sort of more like (rock music) shreddy bits throughout. Once we add that hominy, it’s gonna become even thicker, even richer. So, it’s gonna go through a lot of changes between now and then. This is a really good like, visual cue dish of like the joy of cooking? We’re back in! It’s been about two hours, and our pork stew is tasting so delicious, so meaty, so tangy. Even if you didn’t proceed or add any hominy or chickpea, or bean, or rice to this soup, or stew, soup stew, it would be perfect right now. Like, I truly, I do and have,

And would serve this as is, like without the addition of a like a corner grain or bean. But this is sort of what takes it more into pozole territory versus just like a pork stew. You could scale this up or down very easily. You could do two cans of hominy (graphics swishing)

And two pounds of pork. You can do five pounds of pork and no hominy, like you can kind of figure out your perfect ratio, but this is just one sort of standard, (graphics clicking) what is it? 29-ounce can. And I’ve drained it, and I’ve rinsed the hominy. I’m gonna add one of the cans to start, just ’cause my pot is admittedly a little small. – [Dan] Now, it’s a party in there. – [Alison] I’ll say. Who invited you, (disco music) white hominy? (graphics whooshing softly) I did. So, even though that hominy is fully cooked, we do wanna give it like another, at least an hour in there to continue reducing the liquid in that stew, and it’s gonna absorb a lot of that flavor from the broth. So, we’ll see you in like another hour. Okay, our stew has been simmering for an additional hour, so that’s about three hours total. It could go another half hour. Heck, go another full hour. If it’s not the texture you want it right now, continue cooking, add a little more water. Like, add another can of hominy, like whatever it is

That you need to get the stew of your dreams, I support you. Gorgeous, gorgeous stew. This is like what I would call, like body-warming food. Like you eat this, and you’re like, “Oh, I’m like full and satisfied, and happy, and like sated in this really specific way.” It’s also interesting. It’s a sassy stew. You know, you’ll never catch me making beef stew.

You’ll also never catch me making like American chili. – [Crew Member] Really good. – This looks so delicious. Did you get like a big closeup of this? – [Crew Member] Get a big closeup. – Well, I just want, here, okay, sorry. What I wanna, why I said big closeup is because I do want you to see the texture of the broth, and like just from the pork fat and the body of the tomatillos, like look how rich it looks.

It looks like expensive. It looks unctuous, it looks riche! So, I’m just kind of breaking up any larger pieces, but I’m not like taking a fork to it or anything, I’m just kind of smushing it because, let’s see if we can get a nice hunk. Talk about hunk counter. If you look at it, Easily shredded, Beautiful fat, shredding of, beats of meat? (chuckling) Bits of meat. Mm, yum- – [David] What a hunk! That’s (beep) Brad Pitt! – That’s 12 Rob Thomases. That is so delicious. Simmering that white hominy, that pozole in the broth for that extra hour adds so much flavor to like the liquid part of this operation. It really does. And you can even taste it in the pork. Mm. Mm, mm, mm! Kind of doesn’t matter like where my stew is coming from, what part of the world, I’m always garnishing it with herbs, with radish, (graphics clicking) With like a crunchy either lettuce or a raw cabbage. And some raw onions. We already have our raw cabbage from earlier. This is fresh oregano. It’s pretty traditional to use dried oregano in something like this. I don’t have any. So, I’m not gonna, you put it up! Take what you like, make it your own based on what you have.

We got onion, (saucer clinking) we have cabbage, we have oregano, we have limes, We have radish! (knife thudding softly) If I were like really doing this as a party, I would Have larger bowls of things. But you have to understand, this is a YouTube show, and I’m not actually (laughing) having people, (mumbling) actually I am, I just found out having people wrap this, but we’re going to eat the other thing. – [David] Wow, real sort of internal monologue vibes right now! (both laughing) Just every thought- – Someone got me a black iced coffee moments ago! And frankly, it shows! – [David] Every thought coming through the mouth. – I know, yeah. – [David] Thank you for sharing. – Hey, you know what?

That’s what the edit button’s for. – [David] A button? (chuckling) You think it’s a button? You think you’re a. (emotional music) – Shall we? The moment we all I’m waiting for? – [David] Yeah, let’s try (knife clinking) this pozole! – Let’s try this pozole! This is decidedly a stew. I’ve called it, the thickness from the tomatillo and the richness from the pork fat. Creating a sauce (crew member talks distantly) that could only be described as luscious and stew-like. Mm. This is so delicious. You know what it tastes like? (chuckling) It tastes fully like just an enchilada. – [David] Interesting- – [Crew Member] Wow. – [Crew Member] Yeah. (graphics clicking) – This is like the exact thing that I make every year. It feels like special occasion,

I mean, I’m breaking out a blender for cryin’ out loud. And it also feels like the exact kind of thing that like changes and builds with time, and the flavor develops, and it gets like richer and deeper. It feels like special occasion enough to like serve for a dinner party.

Or, when people are arriving to your house after eight, and you’re like, well, we don’t wanna like sit down to dinner, and a whole thing, and you put a pot of this out, and people can take a bowl and feed themselves.

I also went through a phase where I was doing a lot of like, I’ll come to your house but I’m cooking. I would put this in the fridge overnight, and then I would take that pot and bring it on the subway. Like me and the Q train, (graphics beeping) and this giant pot of like pork stew. I could also see this being like a real hit on New Year’s Day, which I’ve also brought like a pot to the, like, I don’t know, I’m always bringing a pot to somebody’s house.

That’s probably why I only have two pots right now. Ugh, there’s chili paste everywhere. This is why people wear aprons. I mean, I know why people wear aprons. – [Crew Member] Yeah! – I just would rather not. – [David] Do you want to try? – No. – [David] Oh, (food sizzling distantly) I thought it was a peacock. (chuckling) – No, it reminds me of “The Little Mermaid.” – [Crew Member] Oh- – [Crew Member] Yeah! – [Crew Member] I thought it was (crew member’s voice drowns) – Where the sisters are doing their things, and there’s one

That has big leaves, and she wakes in a bra, and then does some stuff. Anyway. (graphics clicking) A bra, and then (character singing) does some stuff, anyway.