Introduction: Menudo
From the flu to a hangover, this sometimes scary soup is what we would eat on New Year’s Day for as long as I can remember. The ingredients are not what you would call appetizing, but the end result is AMAZING! This is an all day process and it WILL stink up your house. Try it if you dare.
Step 1: Ingredients
1 ½ lbs of pansa (cow stomach lining)
3 onions
6 cloves of garlic crushed
A ton of salt
2 16 oz cans of hominy (corn kernels soaked in lye, I said it was a scary soup!)
2 1/2 cups of homemade red chile sauce or Las Palmas Enchilada sauce (hot).
Garnish (optional)
oregano
lemon/lime
shredded cabbage
chopped onion
Step 2: Clean, Cut, Boil, Wait
Take your pansa out of it’s packaging and inspect. Get your collander and turn on the cold water. You need to rinse and clean the “meat.” You are looking for stray hairs and other foreign items in the lining of the stomach. It will be easy to find against the white of the stomach. Rinse clean and drain. Again, the pansa I bought from Walmart was very clean, but I still gave it a little rinse.
Chop your onions into quarters and make sure your garlic is slightly crushed. Get a very sharp knife and cut your pansa into 1 inch cubes. Fill a large pot with water and add your onion and garlic. Add 2 palmfuls of salt, stir until dissolved. Add your pansa and let it cook for 2 1/2 hours on medium. Check periodically to skim the top of the soup. This frothy spuma needs no place in your soup, discard.
Step 3: While You Wait....
At first I was going to just use canned enchilada sauce for this soup; which there is no shame in because that's how my Gramma would make her menudo - but I had plenty of time and all the ingredients to make the sauce so I did.
Step 4: Almost Done!!
So after you have aired out your house and burned all of your incense...check the tenderness of the pansa. It should be chewy. Open the two cans of hominy and drain, add to your soup. Let the hominy simmer in the soup for half an hour. Add your enchilada sauce and stir until the soup is a beautiful deep orange. Let this simmer for another hour or so...the smell will improve. After an hour, taste.
Step 5: Garnish With Love...
Menudo is traditionally served in a large bowl and may be topped with the following:
- oregano
- lemon/lime
- diced white onion
- shredded cabbage
Serve this cure all with hot corn tortillas and you’re ready to eat!! This is the soup I grew up with and sometimes there were yummy cow hooves in the soup but I figured one scary ingredient was enough. For leftovers, let the soup come to room temperature and put in an old tupperware (it will stain it orange) with a lid. It will congeal (kind of like an aspic) in the refrigerator. To reheat, add the soup to a pot and let it cook on medium low until it looks like a soup again...maybe 10 - 15 minutes or zap it in a microwave for 2 -5 minutes (depending on your microwave). Buen Provecho!
Finalist in the
Homemade Soup Contest
26 Comments
5 years ago
How many servings/bowls does this make?
7 years ago
My favorite soup!
7 years ago
Menudo hear it does works but don't eat it because preparing it sound likes someone plunging a toilet for four hours. LOL
Reply 7 years ago
Whoa what happened to the be nice policy?
11 years ago on Introduction
In one word: AmAzInG!
I honestly feel a little sorry for anyone who's never tasted homemade Menudo... It's the soup of the Gods.
Hangover or flu NOT necessary! ;-D
11 years ago on Step 5
Yumm- I actually like the smell - I would wake up on a Saturday morning and I knew my mom was cooking some good stuff!
12 years ago on Introduction
I miss the ingredients I could find in every grocery store in Albuquerque. In the Pacific NW, I can't find frozen posole, (better than canned hominy - trust me) or frozen red chile. It's true that processing my own dried red results in the same thing, and garlic is everywhere, so I drown my sorrows. By the way, in most of NM, limes or lemons are served with the cooked menudo, along with fresh flour tortillas and lots of oregano.
Mzungu - I'll bet someone mis-read the recipe. Including a couple of pig's *feet* adds that lovely gelatin, but the bones are a bit of a pain. By the way, OP - I think it's lime rather than lye. One is edible and the other is soap.
=)
Salud!
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
I was raised using canned hominy in our menudo so I'll take your word for it. It's tough, even in Oklahoma to get decent materials but the further you away you are from the border; it becomes scarce I imagine.
The hominy is prepared by soaking hulled corn kernels that have no germ or bran, in a weak lye bath....according to various sources on the internets.
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
Hi Zurichko! I live in Phoenix no problem getting material here and I grew up in San Diego again no problem there, but my parents lived in Oklahoma and I found a company that is based out of San Diego that carry almost anything anybody would want to make great Mexican food. Check it out http://www.mexgrocer.com/ you've may already have heard of it. Your Menudo looks great! I think I'll make some. Thank you
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
Amazing!! Nope, I haven't heard of it before, thank you so much!! I moved from Phoenix two years ago to OK and have had a tough time getting my goods. I wish I had found this earlier, we may be moving back to Phoenix in about 2 months or so but in the meantime, this will come in handy! Thanks again!
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
The posole is actually processed with LYE. the use of this base allows humans the access to all the amino acids in the corn. this is also why a bit of lime (as in the chemical , not the citrus) is added to massa harina (corn flour) in making tortillas. in the hominy it is soaked in a lye solution till the kernel is swollen and the exterior skin has split.
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
yep, that's called nixtamal, and the process is called nixtamalizacion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hominy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixtamalization
12 years ago on Introduction
I love menudo, but in my area it's white instead of red, also i only eat the corn (not a big fan of panza) and as cifer said menudo goes great with some bolillos
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
Yup, I've had both but still prefer the red over the white menudo...bolillos are so yummy...especially sliced lengthwise and toasted with butter. I use them for tortas and philly cheesesteaks.
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
mmm i love philly cheesesteaks definitely i'm trying that
12 years ago on Introduction
Menudo?
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
I was waiting for someone to post this...I can't believe it took 2 days. "Subete A Mi Moto!"
12 years ago on Introduction
Mi Abuela "Grandma" used to sell menudo for a living back in the 60s, and sometimes she would take some leftover panza form the menudo pot and gave it a light fry and ad some guajillo chile (she only made white menudo) and use it as stuffing for tacos, Give it a try is delicisus as an apetizer.
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
Mmmm...que rico! I love tacos de buche too...have you had that? It's the cow's jowls...very yummy. I have some leftover, I'll try it!
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
Ohhh claro the only difference is that here in mexico buche is made from pork and you can get it when you have carnitas..
Saludos desde Tijuana Mexico