Fire-Eater, No-Flesh Pozole

Aztec party animals got dowwwn. And their parties usually meant one thing—a stew of corn kernels simmered with freshly plucked human flesh.

Word is, this combo came from their totally-high-on-blood belief that their god fashioned humans out of corn meal, and an early ‘snout-to-table’ attitude to not waste the still-beating heart of the lucky dudes they murdered on top of their temples (“Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” style). Then, when their new Spanish god said to stop partying so hard, they just subbed pig meat (weak).

In keeping with the idea that ritual sacrifice makes you stronger, we just gave up four long hours of our life to make this pozole of spiced hominy, fire-roasted peppers, and cool tomatillo crema. While it’s a doozy of a laundry list, there’s no human, or pig, flesh. Instead we squeeze that blood-and-iron taste from some earthy dried chiles, toasted spices, coffee and citrus. After waiting several hours for the dried corn to plump, we started wondering if the stuff really is vegetal, cuz it was acting like dry bones. Humans made out of corn meal, now that’s a religious concept; our next project is to re-dehydrate these flavored kernels to fry up some human corn nuts.

(Serves 10-12)
Corn
3 cups corn kernels (dried hominy style)
3 chipotle peppers (in adobo)
10 cups vegetable stock
1 small bulb ginger, peeled
1 fresh lime

Broth
2 Tbs. grapeseed oil
1 celery stalk
1 white onion
1 carrot
a handful dried red chiles (New Mexico)
2 tsp. cumin seed
2 tsp. coriander
1 tsp. coffee
1 orange bell pepper
1 jalapeno pepper
1 Navel orange
3 cloves garlic
1 whole clove
2 tsp. smoked paprika

Garnish
4 tomatillos
1 avocado
2 Tbs. magic shroom dust
2 Tbs. fresh oregano leaves

1. Several hours before, start preparing the pozole corn. Fill a large pot with corn kernels and make a flavored stock to cook ‘em in: Combine 1 cup vegetable stock with the chipotle peppers and pulse together in a blender, then add 4 more cups stock so you have a chipotle broth. Cover the pozole with the broth and set on high heat. Add half the ginger bulb (whole) and a squeeze of lime.

2. Once you hit a boil, set this pot on simmer and cook for about two hours. The corn should swell and become chewy rather than brittle.

3. When the corn is soft and nearly done, start preparing the rest of the soup. First, place the dried red chiles in a tall bowl and cover with 2 cups hot water to soften. Chop the celery, onion, carrot and remaining ginger for mirepoix and set aside. Toast the cumin and coriander seed briefly in a pan and set aside. Char your bell pepper and jalapeno by sitting on direct heat on your stove, flipping every couple minutes until skin is blackened. Sit these in a tuperware or paper bag for several minutes, then peel charred skin off by hand, remove seeds and chop the bell, mince the jalapeno.

4. Before proceeding, zest the rest of your lime, and the entire navel orange, set the zest and fruit aside.

5. In a second pot, add 1 tablespoon of grapeseed oil followed by the mirepoix. Saute and stir this for several minutes. Then add bell pepper and keep stirring. Take the rehydrated red chiles and pulse in the blender with one whole clove to make a deep red broth (add only as much of the water as needed to move). To this, add the garlic, toasted spices, coffee, smoked paprika and remaining 5 cups of vegetable stock and stir. Add this broth to the soup pot and set on medium-high heat to reach a boil. Once boil is attained, add the juice of the orange. Stir and keep cooking.

6. Finally, strain the now-soft corn kernels and add to the soup pot. Cook together for another 30 minutes to an hour on low heat, stirring every 10 minutes.

7. In the meantime, roast tomatillos for the avocado-salsa garnish. Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees. Cover a tray or cassoulet with aluminum foil sprayed or greased with oil and add tomatillos (skin on), bending the foil to cover them. Roast in the oven for about 20 minutes or until skins start to blacken and the fruit becomes juicy or even pops. Remove from oven.

8. Puree the roasted tomatillos with one tablespoon of grapeseed oil and two-thirds of the avocado. Season to taste and remove. Toss in the minced jalapeno.

9. Serve pozole with fresh picked oregano leaves as garnish, a dollop of avocado cream and sliced avo as well as a healthy sprinkle of magic shroom dust for salty protein vibes.

Beverage: Russian River, Sanctification blonde
Soundtrack: Umberto, “Prophecy of the Black Widow”