Green Vegan Pozole

I went grocery shopping early to buy stuff to make pancakes, and then I saw some green chiles and suddenly craved pozole. I've been watching a lot of cooking shows, and I've been thinking a lot about fusing techniques and ingredients, so I thought about making a sort of pozole that incorporates a few things from my life experiences. For one, I always like to make vegan pozoles, I wanted to use tofu like I used to in Japan and incorporate vinegar somehow, I wanted to involve curry somehow, and I of course was craving some fresh green poblanos. It may not look like your traditional "pozole" because of its thickness, but it is equally as delicious. Please note that this recipe is just suggestive, and I've tried my best to record the times in minutes, but that will inevitably vary depending on what kind of heat source you have. Like most of my recipes, you'll notice that time and sequential order of things is super important. I can't stress this enough. It's taken me years to figure out when the right time to add an ingredient is based on smell, but I know what I like, and have a keen sense of smell (and taste, like the time I told my roommate all the ingredients that were in a homemade salsa just by tasting a bit of it, and she was shocked I was spot on). If you don't pay attention to your smell and develop that keen sense (along with taste and sight), then your food will always lack that extra "something" you can't figure out. For me it's been the difference between having a good meal at someone's place just because, and having a meal that creates fond memories for the rest of your life. I'm all about creating memories with smells and food, just ask those I've fed ha ha. Anyway, I jotted down this quick recipe, and as you might be able to tell, I used ingredients I had laying around. Feel free to use whatever you want, it's more the idea of being adventurous and being successful in your flavors that counts. Cooking for me is a journey, a meditation, and a form of self expression in a lot of ways, and I hope you find what cooking means to you as well.



Makes 10-15 servings

Ingredients:

Olive oil

1 or 2 large shallots, diced

3 ripe vine tomatoes, chopped into chunks

10 serrano chile peppers, diced (leave seeds in for spice)

2 large poblano peppers, chopped into chunks (seeds removed)

3 to 4 cups vegetable broth (low sodium)

1 tablespoon each: ground cumin, smoked paprika, turmeric, cinnamon

2, 4 oz. small cans diced green chiles (hot), not drained

2, 25 oz. cans hominy, drained

1/2 cup GOOD dark red wine (like cabernet sauvignon)

1 block firm tofu, diced

Dried tarragon leaves, 1 tablespoon

Dried parsley, 1 tablespoon

3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 and 1/2 tablespoon sea salt

In a large soup pot, fry the diced shallots in olive oil (3 tablespoons or so) until they are nice and fragrant and semi-translucent.

Then add the cut up tomatoes, diced serrano peppers, and chopped poblano peppers to the pot.

Continue to fry everything for a few minutes until the chiles start to sweat out a bit, but before they become fully cooked and change color.

Add enough vegetable broth to barely cover everything in the pot, about 3 to 4 cups. Bring to a low boil, and simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes.

Turn off heat, and allow pot to rest for about an hour. Go ahead and watch 2 or 3 episodes of the Golden Girls while waiting.

After the hour, put all the contents in a blender and blend until everything is liquified. You don't want any chunks (or maybe you do). Let sit in blender or separate container.

In the same big pot, add about 4 to 5 tablespoons of olive oil, and allow it to get hot (but NOT burnt) on low-medium heat. Working very rapidly, add all of the ground spices, and stir with a wooden spoon constantly. Once the spices smell like they've blended and are nicely meshed (anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes depending on heat), then add the diced canned green chiles. Continue to mix with a wooden spoon and cook the mixture. Allow for the chiles to cook in the spices for a good few minutes, and you'll notice the smell will begin to change.

Then add the hominy and continue to mix. You might want to turn up the heat, but be careful not to burn the spices. You want to get a good cook going on, like if you're trying to cook the hominy, but not exactly. Continue to stir with the wooden spoon frequently so nothing burns.

Once everything in the pot seems really hot and cooked a bit, then add the dark red wine. Again, allow this to cook on low heat for about 10 to 15 minutes. It's good to go once the bitter red wine smell goes away (I do love the bitter smell though).

Add the contents of the blender to the pot now, and mix with the wooden spoon. Add the diced tofu and the dried parsley and tarragon. Mix softly with a wooden spoon, and allow everything to come to a boil on very low heat.

Simmer the mixture for about 10 minutes, then add the balsamic vinegar. This will give it a bit of acidic taste to balance out the spice from the chiles. Mix gently.

Add the salt, and continue to cook for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, and until the hominy has become softer (not mush, just softer).

Turn off heat, and let pot sit for about an hour. When ready to serve, reheat in pot, and serve.

These types of soups tend to be better the next day, so you might want to make this batch, cool it off, then refrigerate it until the next day or day after. I always like to taste a bit when it's first made, then save the rest for the following days. Just eat it within a week, as the tofu will not taste the same anymore, and it may begin to taste weird after a week, and change the flavor of the soup.

Enjoy!