This year, La Voz is sharing traditional holiday recipes from now until Christmas. To kick off our first week’s recipe we have one of Mexico’s most traditional holiday foods, pozole. Pozole is said to have originated sometime in the early 14th century by the Aztecs.

A dish made for royalty and others from the upper echelons, pozole has quite an interesting past and has developed many different ways to prepare it over its six century reign. We love pozole, because of its versitility and because it’s some of the best comfort food, ever. And who doesn’t need comfort food in a year like 2020? We know there are a plethora of ways to prepare pozole, and because of its versitility, is there really a wrong way to make it? Either way, here’s our take:

Ingredients

2 - 2 1/2 pounds of pork shoulder cut into medium cubes (about 1’ thick)

6 guajillo chiles washed and drained

1 can of pre-cooked pozole corn

6 cloves of garlic

1 tomato

Salt and pepper to taste

1/4 white onion

1 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon ground cumin

2 bay leaves

Condiments

chopped radishes

lemon

chopped lettuce

tostadas

chopped cilantro

chopped onion

Instructions

Cook the meat in plenty of water with garlic cloves, onion, salt and pepper to taste. Once the meat is cooked, add the precooked corn and boil for 15 minutes.

In a blender, grind the garlic, chili peppers, tomato, onion, cumin, salt, pepper and 1/2 cup of precooked corn to thicken a little so that the broth is not so liquid. Once ground, strain the mixture and pour it into the boiling broth. season with oregano and rectify the salt. Boil for 15 more minutes.

Serve hot with chopped lettuce, chopped onion, chopped radishes and a few drops of lemon juice and tostadas. Enjoy.