Wednesday, December 3, 2008

'Green' contestant wins posole cook-off

First-time contestant concocts winning mix

Nat Holland El Defensor Chieftain Reporter

Four teams battled Saturday, Nov. 29, to decide who was the best posole chef in the City of Socorro's Posole Cook-off.

Judges Edmund "Ted" Kase and Ruben Savedra chose Chartwells Susan Robinson as having the best posole in the traditional category, which uses pork.

Julie and Steve Green took second place and the Posole Brothers — a father and son duo consisting of Clifton Brothers and the younger Curtis Brothers — took third.

The Greens won top honors in the non-traditional category with their green chile chicken posole, and Joe Gonzales Jr. and his wife, Miranda, took second place with a red chile chicken posole.

Community members were invited to taste the posole after the Electric Light parade, and votes went in Susan's favor, which earned her the People's Choice.

"Susan is one of our top contest winners," said Shawn Weed, an employee of Chartwells, who noted Susan's wins in salsa and carne adovada contests.

Susan is a veteran chef with 23 years of experience cooking for New Mexico Tech at Chartwells, but this is her first foray into a posole cooking competition.

What's her secret?

"Make it with love ... all your love," she said. "Make it like you would make it for your family."

Ironically, Robinson admitted she has a hard time cooking at home because she is used to making everything in large portions. Saturday's posole batch was one of her smaller ones, enough to feed an estimated 300 people.

"I cook for like 600 kids at Tech — I don't know how to cook little batches," said Susan. "Habits are hard to break."

Robinson had a team of workers, including cooks Weed, Michael Herrera and Curtis Ortiz, the director of Dining Services at Tech.

Susan will cook 25 gallons of posole for lunch at Tech and still run out due to the high demand.

"Susan has a following for her posole. The administrators upstairs (in the Fidel Center) call us to find out when she's making it and take quarts of it home," Shawn said.

Like many veteran chefs, Susan cooks not by recipe, but through experience that gives her a feel for what is needed.

"I can't (use a recipe). I tried to use a recipe and it doesn't work for me,' Susan said.

The Greens also made their debut in the annual event. Steve and Julie are regulars at the dish, though, since they are vendors who serve posole and green chile stew at regular seasonal events like Socorro Fest.

"It's very much the tradition to cook it for the holidays," Steve said. "It's the kind of thing you would smell cooking at grandma's house all day long."

Universal among the cooks is the agreement that you can't rush a good posole.

"Like a stew, it's got to simmer and bubble and get its texture right," said Steve.

If you undercook it, the kernels are tough. If you overcook it, everything turns mushy.

Although relatively new to posole, The Posole Brothers have already found the right mix. The father-son duo took third place in the traditional posole competition.

Clifton said his son learned to make posole from his girlfriends over the years, and they just added their own twist to it.

"I just went ahead and tried different recipes until I found what works for me," said Curtis, who prefers using lean pork in his posole. He said a good posole "starts with the oil. From there it's the seasonings and all that, but if you cook in plain oil it's going to come out kind of plain."

nholland@dchieftain.com

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