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Posole with roasted pork tenderloin and ground chile pepper

Pork Posole with Roasted Pork Tenderloin & Lila Beans

Course soups/stews
Cuisine Mexican
Keyword beans, pork, tenderloin
Author The Spiced Life

Ingredients

For dried beans and hominy:

  • 1 lb dried Lila beans any smaller dried black or pink bean would work
  • 1 lb dried hominy
  • 1 large onion chopped
  • 6 fat cloves of garlic minced
  • 2 T UNprocessed pork lard
  • 2 t ancho chile pepper powder
  • 2 t New Mexican chile pepper powder
  • 2 t pasilla chile pepper powder
  • 1-1.5 lbs pork neck bones
  • 2 t salt

For soup:

  • 2 T UNprocessed lard
  • 2 large onions chopped
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 8 fat cloves garlic minced
  • 2-3 T cider vinegar as needed and to taste
  • 1 T ground cumin
  • 2 t ancho chile pepper powder
  • 2 t New Mexican chile pepper powder
  • 2 t pasilla chile pepper powder
  • 12 cups chicken stock storebought is fine--I used Minor's low sodium chicken base with water, the pork bones will boost it
  • 1-2 T honey to taste

For pork:

  • 2 pork tenderloins trimmed of silver skin
  • salt and pepper
  • 2 T grapeseed oil

Additional garnishes:

Instructions

  1. Begin early-ish in the day with dried beans and hominy (preferably you will have soaked them overnight). Cover them with cold water in separate pots and bring to a boil.
  2. Divide the chopped onion, garlic, lard, pork neck bones and chile pepper powders equally between the 2 pots. Skim any foam, and cover and reduce to a simmer. When they are barely tender but not mushy, add 1 teaspoon of salt to each pot and take off the heat.
  3. Heat a large soup pot over medium high heat with 2 tablespoons of lard. When it is shimmering, add the chopped onions with a pinch of salt. Cook until beginning to caramelize, about 10 minutes, and add the garlic. Let that cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  4. Then deglaze the pan with 2 tablespoons of cider vinegar. Scrape the bottom clean, and add the dried spices. Remove the pork neck bones from the cooked hominy and beans and add them to the soup pot instead. Stir to roast the neck bones and spices but do not let them burn. Add more cider vinegar if necessary. Then add the stock as well as the cooked hominy and beans with their cooking liquids.
  5. Let this simmer the rest of the day, until dinner time. There is no magic number--the longer it simmers (gently), the better it will taste as goodness is leached out of the bones. Mine simmered 3-4 hours.
  6. When you are about 30-45 minutes from dinner time, prepare the pork tenderloin.
  7. Preheat the oven to 300 F.
  8. Remove the silver skin and rub with salt and pepper. Let it stand for 20 minutes.
  9. Heat 2 tablespoons of grapeseed oil until shimmering in a large pan. Brown the tenderloins on one side, about 5 minutes, on medium high heat. Flip the tenderloins over and place the pan in the oven.
  10. Cook until a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the tenderloin registers 150 F. Remove from the oven and let the tenderloins just stand for at least 10 minutes. When you are close to serving the soup, dice the pork as a garnish.
  11. Before serving the soup, add 1 tablespoon of honey. Then taste for more salt, more vinegar, more honey or even more chile pepper. Keep in mind that posole is all about garnishes, so it will taste a little bland. The hominy will be deliciously fragrant and the broth should be pleasantly porky as well.
  12. Serve with the garnishes, including the roasted pork tenderloin.