POLLO CON MOLE: HARD LABOUR DOWN MEXICO WAY

A few days ago, I posted one of my all too regular rants on Facebook and Twitter, this time about the fact that too many recipes now seem to be bastardized “quick & easy” takes on the classic.

Almost inevitably, I got responses from people who said “there is nothing wrong with quick & easy recipes, some of us don’t have the time to spend all day cooking”. Of course, if they had taken the time to actually read what I had written, they would have noticed that I never said there that all cooking had to involve slaving over the stove for hours on end. I merely pointed out that there are certain recipes that are meant to involve a lot of effort and that quick fix versions do them a disservice and produce an end result that is a pale reflection of the real thing.

Yesterday, I thought I should put my money where my sizeable mouth is and prove to myself that not only are some dishes not meant to be rushed, but also that the effort involved is more than repaid in amazing flavours.

I had a lot of choices, but for the last few weeks I have been seriously craving Mole, the deep, savoury, smoky sauce from Mexico. Mole is legendary for the amount of effort required in its preparation and for the wide variety of styles in which it can be found. As I discovered when I started to research recipes on line, just about every person will have a different take on the sauce, using different chillies and different methods of preparation.

In the end, I took notes from dozens of different ones and constructed the recipe below before heading out to buy the ingredients from my local Mexican market here in LA.

It took most of the day to prepare and involved more rendering, toasting, grinding, blending, stirring and sieving that any man should ever have to put up with on a pleasant Saturday. But, was the end result worth it? Did it support my theory that some dishes should never be made the “quick & easy” way?

Well, I can say hand very firmly on heart that the end result, my “Pollo Con Mole” easily takes its place in the top ten of dishes I have ever prepared and, as an added bonus, I now have a big tub full of the stuff in the freezer for future use.

It’s not quick and it is definitely not easy. In fact, it is a bit of a pain in the arse to make. But, some dishes are just worth the effort and if you don’t have time or inclination to make them, it is probably God’s way of telling you that you are not meant to eat them.

So there.


INGREDIENTS

Chicken Thighs (2 Per Person)
4 Dried Guajillo Chillies
4 Dried Pasilla Chillies
4 Cups Chicken Stock
2 Cups Boiling Water (for soaking the chillies)
1 12oz Can Tomatoes
6 Tomatillos
8 Cloves Garlic
1 large White Onion
½ Cup Raisins
1 Corn Tortilla
½ Cup Raw Skinned Peanuts
½ Cup Raw Skinned Almonds
½ Cup Sesame Seeds
½ Cup Mexican Drinking Chocolate (or 80% Dark Chocolate)
4 Cloves
4 All Spice Berries
1 Stick Canela (Cinnamon)
4 Black Peppercorns
1 Tbsp Dried Oregano
1 Tbsp Dried Thyme
1 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp White Pepper
¼ Cup Lard (I rendered my own from some pork skin, but you can use shop bought)

METHOD
Split the dried chillies. Remove and retain the seeds.
Place the chillies on a dry frying pan or griddle and toast them on both sides until they colour but do not burn.
Cover the chillies with 2 cups of boiling water and leave to soften for thirty minutes.
Blend the chillies with a little of their soaking liquid until the form a paste.
Pass through a sieve to remove all the skins and leave a smooth paste.

Roast the onions and garlic in the skins. Peel and set aside to cool.

Dice the tomatillo and add to the tomatoes in a saucepan with a little oil.
Add the oregano and thyme.
Add the salt & pepper
Add the raisins.
Cook this until almost all the liquid has evaporated.
Add the peeled onions and garlic.
Blend with a little of the soaking liquid from the chillies and pass through a sieve to make a smooth “tomato” paste.

Toast the Allspice, cinnamon, cloves and peppercorns in a dry frying pan and then grind to a fine powder.
Toast the chilli seeds in a dry frying pan.
Toast the peanuts, sesame seeds and almonds in a dry frying pan.
Toast a torn corn tortilla in a dry frying pan.
Add the toasted chilli seeds and tortilla to the nuts and grind them all to a fine powder.
Add the spice mixture to the nut/seed/tortilla mixture and mix to a fine paste with the remaining soaking liquid from the chillies. You may want to blend this one more time to make a really smooth paste.

Add three tbsp of lard to a large saucepan.
When it begins to smoke, add the tomato mixture.
Reduce to a low heat and cook slowly until it begins to darken in colour. This may take about ten minutes.
Add the nut/seed/spice mixture and combine thoroughly.
Cook on a low heat until you see the spices begin to release their oils on the surface of the liquid.
Add the chilli paste and combine well.
Cook for a further ten minutes until the chilli paste is totally combined.
Add the chicken stock and cook on a low heat for twenty minutes or until the sauce has reduced by at least half.
Pass through a sieve one final time to make sure you have a silky smooth, glossy end result.
Place the sauce back in the pan and add the grated Mexican chocolate.
Cook on a low heat until the chocolate has melted.

While the Mole is cooking, skin the chicken thighs and bake until cooked.

When ready to serve, place two chicken thighs on each plate and cover totally with Mole.

Serve with rice and lots of hot corn tortillas.

MOLE LA TIA: I WAS FED IN EAST L.A.

One of the great tastes of the EAT MY GLOBE tour came towards the end of my time in Mexico City. My good friend and Mexican food expert, Cristina Potter (check out her superb blog MEXICO COOKS) had suggested I visit a restaurant, called Azul Y Oro housed on the campus of Mexico City’s university. The chef there was one Ricardo Muniz, also the author of a breeze-block of a book called “The Dictionary of Mexican Gastronomy”.

It was an unassuming place, more canteen than restaurant like in appearance, but the food was astonishing. Particularly splendid was a small portion of chicken covered in a deliciously rich, dark Mole Poblano, that classic sauce from Puebla. So good in fact was it that I literally licked the plate clean and could still feel the lingering remnants of the incredible smokey tastes on my tongue hours later. I have been craving a repeat experience ever since.

When my L.A. based chum Aaron Tell invited me to join him for lunch last week, I was delighted when he suggested I join him at Mole La Tia a restaurant in East Los Angeles who specialise in dishes from the Oaxaca region and particularly in a wide range of different mole.

I knew little about East L.A, other than as the subject of a fun little song parody by uber-1970’s pot heads Cheech & Chong, but the restaurant was easy enough to find and after pulling up into the small parking lot, I entered to find a small, comfortable dining room with terracotta painted walls decorated with Mexican art.

The cooking of owner/chef, Rocio Camacho has become well known enough in the city to attract considerable praise. However, it was obviously a quiet afternoon and only a handful of tables were occupied. I took a seat with and began to work my way through the extensive menu, until Aaron arrived a few minutes later. A large basket of warm tortilla chips were placed in front of us along with a red-hot salsa, zingy with fresh lime juice. We attacked them in rapid fashion as we decided what dishes we wanted to share for lunch.

While we decided, we were presented with a small bowl of Chayote and Potato soup to whet our appetites. It was creamy, smooth and had a depth of taste from the use of a great stock. It augured well for the rest of the meal.

Some pre-lunch research had told me that their Botana Mestiza was a good way to begin. This consisted of three Oaxacan style quesadillas stuffed with calabacitas (a Mexican squash) and quesillo, a Oaxacan cheese. They came served with guacamole and drizzled with crema. For anyone who has been unfortunate enough to experience London apologetic and polite attempts at Mexican food, these quesadillas would be a revelation. They outer casings were light, crunchy and perfectly examples of grease free frying. The insides oozed their light, tangy cheese and squash filling onto the plates and the crema added a delicious extra touch.

Aaron is no fan of guacamole, which left it all for me. No bad thing as the small ice cream scoop sized portion was as creamy and delicious a version as you are every likely to experience and I scooped it from plate to mouth with the last of the tortilla chips.

The menu offered a wide variety of moles made with everything from coffee to passion fruit. It also offered the chance to create a tasting plate allowing you to choose four different main ingredients along with four different moles and our selection was brought to the table soon after our starter plates were cleared.

I was slightly disappointed by the cooking of the protein element of our meal. A duck breast was tough and on the dry side, like wise a chicken leg & thigh portion was over cooked and greasy. Amends were made by a juicy portion of quail and by two moist and delicate frogs legs. We portioned them out and began to create various combinations with the four bowls of mole sauces that accompanied them.

My own favourites were a deliciously hot, sour, sweet tamarind mole and the traditional Oaxacan mole, black, smoky and redolent of the one I had loved so much at Azul Y Oro. Aaron particularly liked a brick red mole thickened with pistachio nuts, while the least favourite was a “Mole De Finas Hierbas” which came over as little more than an insipid pesto. As utensils, we used a basket or two of soft and warm handmade corn tortilla, as good as any I tasted and thankfully in plentiful supply as we began to clean out the bowls of our favourite sauces.

Added to a mound of rice, so many carbs left us too full to consider desserts. I sipped on a mint tea while we waited for our bill, which came to $60 including a decent tip for helpful and incredibly friendly service.

Mole La Tia is certainly a few notches above a joint, but still offers up this cuisine in a way that is accessible both in approach and pricing. In that, it reminded me of its Peruvian equivalent in South L.A, Mo-Chica. As a newcomer to the L.A. dining scene, it is this aspect of the ethnic dining which strikes me as the most exciting. I am sure I shall be returning to Mole La Tia soon to check out more of the menu.

HERMANO SEGUNDO BACK IN LA: CASABLANCA AND KOREAN CRAB STEW

I had actually been very well behaved so far that day.

I had done an hour’s workout. Well, if truth be told, I had looked on in bemusement at the TV while playing a DVD of something called “Tae Bo” which seemed to comprise lithe young Americans whooping and squealing “GOOD JOB” a lot while I tried, with little success, to follow along to their rhythmic bending and stretching.

I had been on my best behaviour when it came to lunch too, turning down the opportunities of decent hamburgers in favour of a bowl of noodle soup and a turkey sandwich.

I had even done some work, sending over a dozen e-mails to food producers all over the UK in preparation for my EATING FOR BRITAIN project. Best of all, and no snickering here please, we are all adults. I had even found a supplier of Welsh faggots.

Then the phone rang.

“Hey brother, what’re you doing?”

It was my new L.A chum, Brent with whom I had bonded over his unlikely love of English football. His day’s work had been curtailed and he was looking for a willing companion to go for an afternoon bar hop. It was too good an offer to refuse and my work and good intentions were soon forgotten as I climbed into his air-conditioned car as he pointed it towards Santa Monica.

First port of call, Casablanca, which despite its North African name, Brent told me, had one of the best selection of Tequila in the city and some decent Mexican food to boot. He was not wrong and along with our first shot of reposado, I was soon tucking into a plate of soft and hard shell tacos stuffed with steak and chicken.

Blinking in the strong sunlight as we emerged from the dark restaurant with a pleasing buzz, we headed over to The Huntley Hotel and the Penthouse Bar, We added to our score with some badly made drinks which at least allowed us the opportunity to watch the Sun set to stunning effect over the Pacific before we headed to our last port of call, a sports bar called Q’s in West L.A where I sipped on a chilled beer while watching sports that were as bemusing to me as the Tae Bo had been in the morning.

When Brent dropped me off back at Sybil’s flat, she was already home. We had a supper planed. This time with another couple of her wide circle of friends, Brent’s wife, Felicia and her friend, Amanda. We were headed out for Korean food and this time, a if to confirm the bewildering variety of Asian food on offer in L.A, we were in search of a Korean speciality of spicy crab stew.

On Dal II, apparently there are three of them, was filled with the most incredible smells as we took a large table in the corner and were presented with bibs to protect our clothes from the delicious mess to come. There was no need to look at the menu and soon the table was filled with Banchan, the traditional side dishes that accompany every Korean meal. Kimchi, obviously, but also seaweed, light egg cakes and fried courgettes. To this was added a plate of raw crab dressed in chilli and a oily grilled pike.

All delicious, but we were warned not to fill up on them and understood why when we were presented with four large crabs cooking in pot of fiercely bubbling chilli broth. Our server took great care cutting up the shellfish for us and pointed out little nuggets of “sea squirts” which we were instructed to chew until they popped to release their contents and then spit out the shell.

The broth was spicy enough to make even my hardened companions break out in a glow and I was soon dripping like a leaking tap. But, we soon polished off most of the crab meat and our server returned to clean the pot and use some of the remaining soup to flavour a final dish of rice flavoured with more chilli sauce. We did our very best, but by now the combination of all of these dishes including my extra Mexican lunch had me turning an interesting shade of green. I was pleased when Sybil asked for the bill and even more pleased when I saw that our feast had cost a mere $22 including tip.

As I lay in bed that evening suffering the inevitable consequences of such a varied day of carousing, I promised myself another work out in the morning to make up for it. Billy Blanks, creator of Tae Bo might not approve, but in my own small way, I had definitely done a “GOOD JOB”

HERMANO SEGUNDO BACK IN LA: DOWN MEXICO WAY

One of the favourite stops on my round the world trip was Mexico. The sheer variety of Mexican food caught by surprise a person who had previously considered it a way to use up left over bits of cheese and meat at the back of the fridge. The quality of the food and the generosity of spirit with which it was served stays with me as a very happy memory over a year later.

I have been craving those spicy, savoury and fresh tastes ever since, but London’s offerings never seem to come close no matter how many bloody burrito shops people decide to open.

I hoped that L.A would offer up more opportunity to come closer to the real thing, but Sybil, whose opinion is not to be taken lightly, dismissed the city’s Mexican food as “crap” and would not be budged no matter how many times I whined “por favor”

Fortunately, she is stubborn but not cruel, so on New Year’s Day she organised a trip down South to Chula Vista, past San Diego and a handful of miles from the Mexican border to a place that she and a couple of friends thought might fit the bill.

Mariscos Godoy is the real deal, with branches across in Tijuana and Mexacali, it was filled with Mexican ex-pat families and tinny mariachi music was blaring from the old music system. The menu too looked the part with a slightly confusing array of dishes announced on the day-glo menu.

With the help of the waitress, we navigated our way through the bewildering variety of options and while we waited, Sybil sipped on Mexican Horcharta, spiced rice milk, and fought with me for the best bits of a free plate of ceviche, which we spooned into our mouths with warm chips.

The portions were vast and starters of a powerfully spicy shrimp ceviche and crunchy bites of battered pogy (Shad) would have been plenty, particularly when wrapped in an almost endless supply of warm tortilla. But, we staggered on to two more huge servings of tacos stuffed with fiery chilli marlin and simple grilled shrimp, before finally pushing ourselves away from the table in defeat.

As I recall from my short time in Mexico, the food is rarely very pretty, but taste, as it should takes precedence over appearance and every bite we had here was a fresh, zingy reminder of why the cuisine of this currently troubled country remains so happily implanted in my memory. Add to that a price tag of $25 a head including tip and our four hour round trip seemed even more worthwhile

Next stop, Thai Town