The Heart of Darkness

I love mole. I mean I REALLY love mole. I love all kinds of mole - red, yellow, black, sweet, savory, spicy whatever. I would consider bathing in mole if possible. I bet it would be great for the skin, if you didn't mind being slightly orange I mean.

As with most things in my life, I prefer not to settle when it comes to my mole. I'll give most restaurant's "mole" a try once, sure. But I'm not going back for seconds if it doesn't pass muster. When it came down to what to have for my birthday dinner I knew it was going to be mole, and I knew I was going to have to make it myself.



I have made mole only once before and it required a small army of assistants and an ENTIRE day. It has taken almost 5 years to take it on again, not necessarily because I was intimidated, but because if a sauce, not even a whole dish but a sauce, takes that much effort you need a pretty good reason to make it. I think my own birthday is reason enough, and this time I am older, I am wiser, and I have a lot more practice. With Chef Rick Bayless behind me I decided I was ready, and this time I was going to be going it alone.

I am not going to lie, this is by no means a "simple" recipe. This isn't even the REALLY involved Oaxacan black mole (some with upwards of 28-30 ingredients), it is only a mole rojo - a comparatively "easy" variety with only 18-20 ingredients. It is not, however, a very difficult recipe. Time consuming, maybe, but not difficult. I promise if you read it through, break it down, and take it slow, it can be done.

And it will be worth it.



Mole Rojo Clasico
Classic Red Mole
Adapted from Rick Bayless' Mexico One Plate at a Time

10 ounces (5 medium or 3 large) tomatillos, husked and rinsed
1 1/3 cup (about 6 1/2 ounces) sesame seeds
1 cup rich-tasting pork lard or vegetable oil, plus a little more if necessary
6 ounces dried mulato chiles, stemmed, seeded and torn into large flat pieces
8 ounces dried pasilla-ancho chiles, stemmed, seeded and torn into large flat pieces
8 garlic cloves, peeled
1 1/4 cup (about 5 ounces) whole almonds, with skin
1 cup (about 4 ounces) raisins
1 teaspoon Mexican canela, or regular cinnamon, ground
1/2 teaspoon black pepper, ground
1/2 teaspoon anise seed
1/4 teaspoon cloves, ground
1 bolillo or firm white roll, darkly toasted and broken into several pieces
2 ounces (about 2/3 of a 3.3-ounce tablet) Mexican chocolate
3 quarts chicken or vegetable broth (I only used 2, but good to have the full amount)
Salt
1/3 to 1/2 cup brown sugar

Prep the Ingredients
1) Measure out and prepare all your ingredients. I cannot stress this enough.

2) Stem and deseed the chiles and tear into large pieces if not already complete.

3) On a rimmed baking sheet or small baking pan lined with foil, roast the tomatillos 4 inches below a very hot broiler until splotchy black and thoroughly soft, about 5-10 minutes per side depending on size and broiler temp. Scrape into a large bowl.

4) In a dry skillet over medium heat, toast the sesame seeds, stirringly continuously, until golden, about 5 minutes. Scrape half of them in with the tomatillos. Reserve the remainder for sprinkling on the chicken.

Brown and Soak the chiles
Turn on an exhaust fan or open a kitchen door or window for this part.

5) Fill a kettle with water to its highest level and put on to heat.

6) In a very large soup pot (I used a 7-quart enamel cast iron pot), heat your fat over medium.

7) When the oil is hot, fry the chiles, three or four pieces at a time, flipping them nearly constantly with tongs until their interior side has changed to a lighter color, about 20 or 30 seconds total frying time. Don’t toast so darkly that they begin to smoke—that would make the mole bitter.

8) As they’re done, remove them to a large bowl (not the tomatillo bowl), being careful to drain as much fat as possible back into the pot. Cover the toasted chiles with hot water from the kettle and let rehydrate 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to insure even soaking.

Brown the Other Ingredients
9) Remove any stray chile seeds left in the fat. With the pot still over medium heat, fry the garlic and almonds, stirring regularly, until browned (the garlic should be soft), about 5 minutes. With a slotted spoon, remove to the tomatillo bowl, draining as much fat as possible back into the pot.

10) Add the raisins to the hot pot. Stir for 20 or 30 seconds, until they’ve puffed and browned slightly. Scoop them out, draining as much of the fat as possible back into the pot, and add to the tomatillos.

-Set the pan aside off the heat.

11) To the tomatillo mixture, add the cinnamon, black pepper, anise, cloves, bread and chocolate. Add 2 cups water and stir to combine.

Blend, strain, cook
12) Into a large measuring cup, small stockpot, or pitcher, tip off the chiles’ soaking liquid. Taste the liquid: if it’s not bitter, reserve about 6 cups of the liquid. (if you’re short, add water to make up the shortfall). If bitter, pour it out and measure 6 cups water.

13) Scoop half of the chiles into a blender jar, pour in half of the soaking liquid (or water) and blend to a smooth puree. Press through a medium-mesh strainer into a large bowl; discard the bits of skin and seeds that don’t pass through the strainer. Repeat with the remaining chiles.

14) Return the pot to medium heat. When hot again, pour in the chile puree—it should sizzle sharply and, if the pan is sufficiently hot, the mixture should never stop boiling. Stir every couple of minutes until the chile puree has darkened and reduced to the consistency of tomato paste, about a half hour.

15) In two batches, blend the tomatillo mixture as smoothly as possible (you may need an extra 1/2 cup water to keep everything moving through the blades), then strain it in to the large bowl that contained the pureed chiles.

16) When the chile paste has reduced, add the tomatillo mixture to the pot and cook, stirring every few minutes until darker and thicker, 15 to 20 minutes.

Simmer
17) When the chile/tomatillo mixture has reduced, add the broth to the pot until it is the thickness of “cream soup.” Briskly simmer the mixture over medium to medium-low heat for about 2 hours for all the flavors to come together and mellow.

-If the mole thickens beyond the consistency of soup, add in more broth. If more liquid is needed to retain consistency, add water.

18) Taste and season the mole with salt (usually about 4 teaspoons) and the sugar.

Serve
Pour over cooked chicken or turkey (I used shredded chicken to make it more party friendly/taco ready) or you can cool, cover and refrigerate until you're ready to use. When you're ready to use the mole, rewarm over medium-medium-low heat.

*This recipe can easily be adapted to be vegan/vegetarian by using vegetable oil/vegetable broth. Serve over Tofu, seitan, or your protein of choice.

**Rick suggests using a splatter screen to prevent some of the clean-up. I don’t have one, but I can heartily agree with his suggestion – I am still finding errant splatters of chile more than a week later.

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It's My Party and I'll Die if I Want To

Mi casa es su casa on Sunday, May 16th, for a low-key and informal celebration of my 25th birthday. There will be food. There will be music. There will be drinks. There will be board games. There may even be cake.

Please bring yourself, your empty stomach, and something to share.

Yes, that is correct, I recently had a little birthday and Sunday was my party. There was food, games, laughter, and a minimum of bloodshed (more about that next time). It was an intimate gathering of friends and exactly what I wanted. A BIG thank you to all my friends who were there and there in spirit.



















It was a great fiesta and I got to do two of my favorite things - cook, and feed people. Look for the slaw and mole recipes later this week.

*All photos of people courtesy of J. Buchleitner (because I forgot to take pics after we ate). Opening picture is a found image - I cannot seem find this image again or its owner. If this is your image please let me know if you would like me to take it down, if it is okay to leave up please let me know how to credit you!

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Restorative

This last week or so I seem to be doing not much else but working and sleeping. The sleeping being necessary because I am pretty sure I had some form of Venusian death plague starting last weekend that I refused to acknowledge other than to sleep for nearly 36 hours straight. I got over this just in time to have one of my busiest weeks all year, personally and professionally, and then enjoy the weekend full as it was of a 6 hour class, an admissions meeting for school (hopefully to start in August), and moving furniture.



After weeks like this, simple is better. I ended Sunday night with an impromptu family dinner of turkey burgers with friends. A few weeks ago I made this chicken, and I think this would have worked out nicely as well.

Roasted Chicken, with Lemon and Mint
Serves 2-3

1/2 of a 5lb whole chicken, cut down the breast and backbones
1 medium or 2 small lemons
handful of mint leaves
2 medium cloves of garlic
salt
pepper
olive oil

1) Prepare your whole chicken by cutting it in half up the back bones and breast bones. Reserve the other half for dinner another night (should hold in fridge for up to 2-3 days depending on how fresh it was to begin with, or you can freeze in a large freezer bag).

2) Slice half of the lemon(s) into whole thin slices, should be a complete cross-section of the fruit. Crush the garlic cloves with a fork. Rinse and shake off the mint, it is not necessary for it to be completely dry.

3) Run your fingers under the skin of the chicken to create several deep pockets for stuffing. Place lemon slices, garlic, and mint liberally inside these cavities.

4) Salt and pepper the skin of the chicken. Place skin side down over medium-high heat in a HOT cast iron pan with 2 generous tablespoons of olive oil. Brown well, 7-10 minutes - including a few minutes with the ribs down and skin up.

5) Turn chicken skin side up, squeeze remaining half of the lemon, cut into wedges over the top. Throw the wedges in the pan with the chicken and place the whole pan in a 400 degree oven and roast until the chicken is done, 40-50 minutes. The internal temp will be 165 in the thickest part of the breast and the juices will run clear.

Enjoy with some crusty bread, a quick greens salad, a glass of wine, and your feet up.

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The Sophmore Slump

Nearly a week without cooking anything of consequence. How is a girl supposed to keep her blogging up if there isn't anything to blog about? Well, to be fair my parents were in town and we went out to eat quite a bit. I was hoping to regale you all with visually stunning photos of what I ate, but 1) I forgot to take pictures of most of it, and 2) I think the best thing I had all weekend was a martini at Scoma's in Sausalito. Gin. Extra dry. With an olive. Mmmm... nothing like raw oysters and a big fat Martini to make everything right with the world.

So instead of showing you, I will tell you about the one thing I did make (which I also conveniently failed to take a picture of), Jamie Oliver's Chicken in Milk. It was so good. Go make it. Go. Right now. No, seriously. You need to have made this for yourself yesterday because it really is that good. It is also incredibly simple.

I pretty much never follow a recipe explicitly unless I am unfamiliar with the end product or cooking technique, or if I am baking. This recipe is so simple, straightforward, and practically perfect that the only thing that could be adjusted is one of the cooking instructions. The recipe calls for the lid of your cooking vessel to be off the entire bake time, but another blogger made the accidental discovery that its even better if you leave the lid on for the first hour and then take it off to finish for the last 20-30 minutes. Leaving the lid on for the majority of the cooking time prevents the delicious sauce from evaporating and turning into charcoal at the bottom of the pot, and makes the chicken that much more moist and juicy.

So that is all I have to show for the last week. I'll come up with something better next time, I promise.

P.S. Jamie Oliver just won the 2010 TED Prize to pursue his desire to help revolutionize the way we teach children about food and eating. His work goes hand in hand with Michelle Obama's new Let's Move campaign to fight childhood obesity. There are so many things I could say but I think that these inspiring people and their projects can speak for themselves. Please click on the links to these sites to learn more about these projects, and, if you would like to become more involved, find out ways that you can offer your support.

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