Hominy-Avocado-Red Onion Salad

Recipe from Connie Howard, candidate for master's in liberal arts at Stanford!

• 1/2 pound dried posole (or 2 cups canned hominy, drained - I buy the can of hominy you can find at Mexican food stores, about 29 ounces. It might also be labeled "Maiz Amarillo".)

• 2 bay leaves (only if you're going to cook the posole)

• 2 ripe avocados

• 1/2 cup paced fresh cilantro leaves, minced [or more -- mrm]

• 2 lemons

• 8 small pickled green chilis, minced [I used one medium-sized serrano or jalapeno pepper, and mince it. You can add more or less chili according to taste. I just don't like the pickled chilis that much. --mrm]

• 1/3 cup red onion, finely minced [slightly more is fine, but not a huge amount more --mrm]

• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt [optional -- I never add salt and it doesn't seem to need it. --mrm]

• 2 tablespoons chili powder (a nice alternate is to use chipotle chili powder for a smokey flavor, or to mix them together. Or use some chipotle chilis.) [I mince two chipolte peppers instead of chili powder or chipotle powder. You can find little cans of chipotle peppers at Mexican food stores. --mrm]

• 2 teaspoons ground cumin [I used 2 tablespoons --mrm]

• cilantro sprigs for garnish

1. If you're starting from scratch: Soak posole for at least 3 hours or overnight. Drain, add fresh water and the bay leaves, and boil in a medium saucepan until soft enough to chew comfortably (some people like it at 30 minutes, some people prefer it at 2 hours) Drain again. Remove and discard bay leaves. (Alternatively, if you're using canned hominy, begin with step 2.)

2. Halve and pit the avocados. An easy way to chop avocados: make the cuts in the avocado while it's still in its skin, and then scoop it out. Make 1/3 inch cubes. Place hominy in large bowl, put avocado on top and squeeze juice of lemon over avocado. Add cilantro and all of the remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly but carefully (try not to mash the avocado). Garnish with the cilantro sprigs.