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Recipe by Jerean and Tom Hutchinson
This recipe appeared in the October/November/December 2019 issue of el Restaurante magazine.
It isn’t often a family-run restaurant can celebrate eight decades in business. But that’s just the milestone the owners, employees and customers at La Posta de Mesilla in Mesilla, New Mexico are celebrating this year!
“Our family is honored and proud to be celebrating 80 years of serving the best Mexican food, steaks and margaritas in the Southwest!” says Jerean Hutchinson, who owns La Posta with her husband Tom “Hutch” Hutchinson. The restaurant is housed in an historic adobe compound that’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places, which says it is “Still Everyone’s Favorite Stop on the Butterfield Stagecoach Line!"
Jerean is the great niece of La Posta’s founder, Katy Griggs Camuñez, “who created her little chile joint on September 16, 1939” when she was just 25 years old, a history of La Posta explains.
What was once a simple spot with just four tables, dirt floors, no running water and her mother and grandmother cooking in the back is now a thriving, 20,000-square-foot establishment that takes up half of a block in Historic Old Mesilla.
What hasn’t changed is the quality of the food: It remains a farm-to-table restaurant (yes, Camuñez was on to that trend decades before it became a mainstream phenomenon!) featuring chile-inspired cuisine.
Among those chile-inspired dishes: the Red Carne Posole made with Chile Colorado (red chile sauce prepared with dried red chile pods), pork and hominy. Jerean kindly agreed to share this La Posta customer favorite with el Restaurante readers.
Red Carne Posole
The Chile Colorado:
12 pods dried red chile
2 c. water
1 t. salt
2 T. pure lard or corn oil
1 T. flour
Tomato juice or water, to taste
Wash chile pods, removing stems and seeds. Bring chile pods and water to boil, reduce heat and allow to steam 10 minutes or longer. Pour into blender and liquefy. Strain sauce through colander or sieve. Add salt to taste. Heat lard (quite hot) in frying pan, then add flour and mix quickly. Pour into chile sauce and stir until thickened. Add tomato juice or more water if needed “soup” consistency.
The Pork:
4 lbs. pork
6 c. water
Cook chopped pork in 6 cups water until well done. Drain fat.
The Posole:
Cook hominy in ½ gallon of water, then add meat and red chile sauce to hominy. Add water and salt to make it as soupy and as tasty as you wish.
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