I don’t like Mexican food. There’s melted cheese all over everything. Burritos are so big, it takes me three days to eat, and besides, they’re not very good. Tacos break and stuff spills down the front of my shirt. I just avoided Mexican food. Yuk.

Then I bought Rick Bayless‘ book, Mexico: One Plate at a Time. I made a few dishes and they were good, but complicated, and often using ingredients that are hard to find.

Then Andy Griffin of Mariquita Farm wrote about cooking and eating with his Mexican farmhands, and his wife, Julia Wiley published simple recipes in their newsletter. Those were good and simple.

Then I discovered Rancho Gordo, a seller of dried beans at the Farmers Market. I love beans. Their website has many recipes, some of which are Mexican, or at least Southwestern. Those that I’ve made I really liked.

So I modified my dislike. I don’t like American Chain Restaurant Mexican food.

So what about those titular words? Hominy Posole Pozole Dried Corn

I was confronted with these words on the Rancho Gordo website and became confused.

I know from hominy. I ate canned hominy as a kid. I liked it fine; white, solid puffs that were kind of rubbery and chewy and had a mild corn taste. I think my mother used it as a side dish, like canned corn or peas. It’s not something you love or hate and you rarely see it on a restaurant menu. When I moved out and married, hominy dropped out of my life, but not entirely. We’ve had a can of hominy in the pantry for a few years. I never felt inclined to open it.

Rancho Gordo, my go-to place for dried beans, had this intriguing package labeled CORN HOMINY POSOLE, White CORN. The kernels are white and flat and look like what my Grandpa called Field Corn. He grew Field Corn to feed the hogs, hard and flat and yellow, the kernels were relatively large, not for human consumption. For us, he grew Sweet Corn. But I digress. Continue reading →