Today we cooked:
Chicken Mole, Food Network Magazine March 2010
Mexican Rice, Food Network Magazine March 2010
and some kale sauteed/steamed with a bit of red wine vinegar
I'm not entirely sure what mole is supposed to taste like. I have had it before, but not recently. I do have the impression that it's supposed to be extremely complicated and require something like 40 spices. This recipe does take a while and dirties many dishes, but it's simple and easy compared to my impression. It started with a whole chicken (just a 4-pounder... this is actually quite small), which you chop into 6 pieces (I took that to mean two breasts, wings, and legs/thighs) and boil. Meanwhile, you toast sesame seeds, then anise, cloves, cinnamon, and coriander, then fry up ten(!) dried peppers, let the peppers soak (after frying?), and then blend it all together with some of the liquid that the peppers soaked in. That liquid was super dark-- when I put my hands in to pull out the peppers, I couldn't see my fingers. So there was a lot of flavor in those dried peppers. That gets blended, AKA sprayed everywhere, and then simmered for a looong time with the chicken broth, even though cooking has already taken about 30-45 min by this point. After that the Abuelita chocolate is added and the meat goes back in to heat through (because by this time it is cold).
G made the rice. It had a lot of things in it-- tomatoes, garlic, onion, and jalapeno-- but wasn't too flavorful. Maybe that was good to balance the mole.
We are saving the recipe. It's certainly not an everyday recipe, but it is good for a special treat!
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