A link to help on the language (it's got lots of errors in the actual preparation and ingredients!) http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Classic-Locro-Hominy-Stew
- 1 KG broken hominy (dried white corn seeds)
- 1/2 KG white beans (some call it butter beans, or white lima beans: the bigger the better)
- 1/4 KG bacon (raw bacon, NOT smoked bacon)
- Pork meat: 4 pig trotters, 1/4 KG pig skin
- Cow meat: 1 kg of some boneless/stewing meat cut that is ok to be boiled for several hours
- 1 sweet squash (cabbage. Has to be sweet!)
- 2 leaves of cabbage
- 1 big White Onion
- 1 big Sweet Pepper
(Optional)
- 1 chorizo colorado or cantimpalo (red spanish chorizo/spicy pork sausage with paprika)
- Sweet potatoes
- Sunflower or Corn Oil
- Sweet paprika
- Green onions (scallions)
- (teaspoon of Crushed red pepper flakes or pepper: optional)
A) THE PORK MEAT
- In a separate pot, boil the pork meat in water until the trotters and pig skin are tender and edible. (Might take 2 or 3 hours).
B) THE WHITE BEANS & THE WHITE CORN SEEDS (HOMINY)
- If necessary rinse the beans in cool water to clean them up.
- Soak the beans and the corn/hominy in a medium/large pot with enough water to cover the whole thing. You'll use it to cook the whole thing the next day! Let them stay overnight and go to sleep
- In a separate pot, boil the sweet squash. Once it's cooked, prepare smashed squash and reserve.
- Also boil the potatoes! (optional), don't smash them, just cut them in little pieces.
- Heat the pot with the corn/hominy and the beans. Add two leaves of cabbage, a finely chopped white onion and big sweet pepper (also finely chopped). Add extra water and 2 big spoons of salt. Every now and then, stir with a wooden spoon.
- About 1 hour into cooking, add the meat cow to the main pot with the beans/corn (it's not a tender cut in general, so it needs to cook for a while) in a single piece. Also add the bacon.
- After one more hour, get the piece of cow meat take it off and slice it to small pieces, same with bacon if you didn't, cut in small pieces (half a finger size, more or less: depends on your fingers!). Put everything back inside the pot!
- Add the mashed squash to the whole mix. Let it mix in. Stir constantly! It may stick to the bottom of the pot.
- Debone the trotters, cut the pig skin in (finger sized! :D) small pieces and add it all to the main pot.
- Stir constantly and taste to correct the salt as necessary. You might add a very moderate quantity of pepper (a teaspoon or less). Some add cumin, but, hey it's very invasive: up to you.
- Deed is done! We can't really say how much it will really take you to get to the end, depends on the corn you use, etc. The target is that the corn should be "fully open" and tender. According to my mom, this food should be consumed with just a big spoon, no knife is necessary :) Some will introduce changes.. But this is the basic thing... Though...
- OPTIONALS: Oh the potatoes yeah. Again, it's up to you. And the "chorizo".. Well it's not any chorizo, must be that spanish chorizo made with paprika.. a good quality one, so you may leave it out (we DO leave it out sometimes). If you do find it and include it, you should boil it briefly (couple of minutes, so fat renders), peel it off probably and put it in slices at the end of the cooking. But it may be invasive: caution.
- The most important thing (ha! kidding, but it's adorable) is the sauce
- Just boil some corn or sunflower oil in a frying pan add the sweet paprika and then add sliced scallions/green onions, just the green leaves, cut into very little pieces. Don't let it burn! The scallions will taste bad if you do. You can add some crushed red pepper if you want (as hot as you like it! :D) or you can put it directly in the plate.
Serve hot, of course, with a spoonful or two of the sauce on top of the locro. IF YOU MADE IT THIS FAR, YOU'RE A HERO. Even if you end up eating a pizza ;) the important thing is to compete! (not even my mother got this right at the first attempt!)