How to make Vegetarian Posole Soup

Brian Streeter: This is a Mexican inspired recipe that go with Rubaiyat, so our vegetable soup or stew, it’s very colorful. Julianne Laks: Lovely. Brian Streeter: Yes. Julianne Laks: The aromas are incredible. Brian Streeter: With the vegetable stew and then you get sort of like the salad sitting on top of it, so very refreshing. Julianne Laks: Beautiful presentation. Brian Streeter: I made a mistake of saying it’s like a vegetarian posole in front of two ladies that I work with in the kitchen that are from Mexico and I was quickly corrected. Brenda just looked at me like “What?” There is no such thing. Dried hominy, soak overnight then boil gently for two hours. After two hours, they will look like this. Six dried guajillo chiles, one dried pasilla chile. As you feel, it’s very soft and supple like that but all of these have some heat to it. The guajillo’s aren’t really like smoking hot. They’ve got sort of a red fruit-like quality to them. They do have a sort of brightness to them. The pasilla’s maybe has a little bit darker, complex flavor to them. We’re using different chiles, it’s almost like our wine maker has different components to make it more complex. Three cloves garlic, unpeeled. Half medium onion; cut in thick wedges. We’re going to heat up a skillet and I’m just going to toast them lightly, then it will give them a little bit more flavor. A lot of Mexican cuisine, they’ll char things in a dry skillet like this. There would actually be no oil. It’s not tossed like sautéing but it’s just giving a little bit more flavor and there is no added fat either, so it’s actually a pretty healthy cuisine. Sauces can have a lot of flavor to them without relying upon fat. I’m just going to press them against the skillet, just a little bit to make them crack a little bit, not so much to color them. If you do burn them, they’ll actually make the chiles bitter but the onions are starting to char a little bit and it’s sort of bringing the sugars out, giving them a little bit of flavor and the garlic is still going to be raw when we’re finished with it but you are getting a little bit of the almost roasted-like quality like the beginning phases of doing roasted garlic. You can see that this has blackened a little bit which probably in most applications, you would consider that burnt but that’s actually what we’re shooting for. I’m just going to pour a hot water over these and let them soak for 20 minutes until they’re nice and soft. Put your onions in the blender jar, your garlic when it’s cool enough to peel and our chiles which are sufficiently soft at this point. Let me squeeze most of the liquid out of them. It’s not important to get rid of all of it. We’re going to throw a little bit of tomato in. If it’s the middle of summer and you got a nice variant, ripe tomatoes, by all means, use those. The rest of the year, good quality canned, peeled tomatoes are probably your best bet. One cup peeled tomatoes. Add pinch of Mexican oregano plus pinch of cumin. Blend until very smooth. Pour into chicken broth or vegetable broth. Add three cups hominy and simmer 15 minutes. I’m going to simmer this altogether in the chile broth for about 15 minutes. While the Hominy’s cooking in the chile broth, we can prep all the vegetables. The chayote which is a type of squash, not as common I think for a lot of us. I know some parts of the United States like in the south; they use it a little bit more often. It’s got a nice, firm texture to it and it goes well in a soup like this. There is a seed cavity in the center here. It’s not a very hard seed and so, you can trim that out. [Demonstration] Simmer chayote and peppers five minutes, then add squash and simmer for another five minutes. [Demonstration] You could put this on the table and people could garnish their soup to their own liking or if you want, you can portion up everybody’s soup and put this out on top for them. We’ll taste it for seasoning and give it a good dose of lime. Julianne Laks: Thank you. This looks wonderful. I like the imposing flavors, the sweetness of the vegetables, the peppers and also, the spiciness also goes well with Rubaiyat. Rubaiyat’s a very creative blend. I think this is so creative but it changes from vintage to vintage depending on what’s available and what the vintage brings to us. I look at it as a lighter red wine, mainly it’s Pinot Noir based but then I also add a little bit of Syrah and Zinfandels. Syrah, to give it a little bit of tannic structure and Zinfandel, a little bit more spice and depth. Brian Streeter: I know we don’t make that much of it and we just sell it at the winery. I got this following of people that just really love this wine and people that don’t necessarily drink a lot of red wine or maybe new to drinking red wine, you can chill it a little bit. Julianne Laks: Exactly. Brian Streeter: It goes with a wide range of foods and it’s sort of like the dish; casual meant to be enjoyed, fun and not taken too seriously. Julianne Laks: Exactly.