Mole Chicken Chili (PCP)

• 3 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons chili powder [of course I added substantially more of the spicier stuff up front and then later]
• 2 tablespoons cocoa [Hmm, simple ingredient.  Apparently only available at convetional supermarkets as a store brand product.]
• 2 teaspoons minced canned chipotle chile in adobo sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
•  2 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 1 cup raisins [Didn't have raisins.  Figured currants would work approximately well.  Now I have neither.]
• 1/4 cup peanut butter [Really?]
• 4 pounds bone-in chicken thighs, skin removed, trimmed
• Salt and pepper
• 1 onion, halved and sliced 1/2 inch thick
• 1 red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro [Cilantro went bad by the time I got around to cooking this.]

Sauce mise en place.

Heat 2 tablespoons of oil over medium heat until shimmering.  Add chili powder, cocoa, garlic, chipotle, cinnamon and cloves and cook until fragrant.

Stir in broth, tomatoes, raisins, and peanut butter, scraping up any fond.  Bring to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes.

Puree in blender until smooth.

Mise en place.

Skinning and trimming the chicken thighs.

Stir in sauce and add chicken to pot.  Bring to high pressure and cook for 25 minutes.  Quick release pressure cooker.

Grease slick.

 

Yeah, it's amazing what you can do with a pressure cooker, but this was kind of the flattest mole I've ever had which all the inauthentic ingredients and shortcuts.  Maybe some day I'll adapt a proper mole recipe to be cooked in a pressure cooker, but we'll see.

It's a fine dish overall if you don't have much experience with the cuisine.

Adobo de Pollo, De Lujo (Red Chile-Braised Chicken)

Most likely my last Rick Bayless entry for a few months since I cooked through all the main course recipes from his iPad app. However, his Authentic Mexican cookbook is lined up for a few months from now.

• 1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
• 1 2 1/2- to 3- pound chicken, cut into quarters [I just used a bunch of chicken thighs. Chickens sold at conventional grocery stores that my parents take me to are twice as heavy. Someday I'll be able to afford real meat.]
• 1 medium white onion, sliced 1/4- inch thick
• 8 unpeeled garlic cloves, roasted in their skins, then peeled
• 4 ounces (about 8 medium) dried ancho chiles, stemmed, seeded, toasted and rehydrated
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried Mexican oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, preferably freshly ground
• 1/8 teaspoon cumin seeds, preferably freshly ground
• Scant 1/4 teaspoon cloves, preferably freshly ground
• 2 2/3 chicken broth, plus a little more if necessary (divided use) [I reserved a full 2-cup Pyrex of chile soaking liquid)
• 1 pound peeled sweet potatoes, boiling potatoes (like the red-skin ones) or chayote, peeled if you wish, pitted and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 4 cup sliced (1/2-inch-wide slices), full-flavored greens (choose chard, beet, or turnip tops, lamb's quarters, collard or the like), well-rinsed (optional) [At least I know now, that a bunch of collards is pretty much 4 cups and I really didn't need that red chard.]
• Salt
  

I got both of these packs of dried ancho chiles for about $4.50. Far less than what it would have cost me for one pack at Whole Foods.
I love my recent discovery of honest-to-god well-stocked bodegas in East Boston. Such places were ever present in my part of Brooklyn, Sunset Park and Bay Ridge. The former is one of the biggest neighborhoods for Mexican in NYC.


Cleaned according to Rick Bayless' direction which make somewhat more sense than those provide for Bittmans' Enchiladas with Mole a few weeks back.


Argh, I'm throwing out all this spicy goodness


The cleaned bodies of the dried chiles.


I toasted the chiles until they lightened in color and became more aromatic. I soaked them in hot water while I prepped everything else.


Unpeeled cloves of garlic.


I dry-toasted them in my cast-iron skillet, and in some areas, the skin and flesh fused together


I gave up at this point, figuring the sauce would be strained at some point anyway.


Spices.


Mise en place.


Browning the chicken.





The remaining fat was still so hot that it continued to sizzle even after I turned the burner off.


Frying the onions. Ten minutes at medium in such an amount of hot oil strikes me as a little excessively hot, but they weren't burnt to a crisp.


Garlic, chiles, oregano, black pepper, cumin, cloves, and 2/3 cup of liquid pureed in a food processor. Though the recipe only called for a medium strainer to press the sauce through my roommate had moved out with that, and at some point I did spend the extra money to get a fine one for purposes like straining sauce.
Which I had never done before and I now realize is totally worth it. Well I guess I always knew it but hadn't gotten around to buying the equipment yet.


Stirring the SMOOTH sauce into the onions. Cook down until thickened and noticeably darker.


Stir in broth and vinegar and simmer for 15 minutes.


Adding in the sweet potatoes and chicken and cooking for 15 minutes on medium-low.
I had to add a lot more broth that suggested to reach what I thought a normal height for braising.


Add in greens and chicken breasts (if I was using them) and cook for 20 more minutes.


Set aside the chicken.


And boil down the vegetables and remaining liquid to a medium consistency.


A good dish though still not quite what I had back in Chicago.

Sweet Potato Enchiladas with Red Mole (HCEV)

• 12 to 15 mild to medium dried chiles, like New Mexico, mulatto, pasilla, guajillo, or ancho (or a combination), toasted, soaked, and cleaned [Pretty sure I picked up some damn expensive New Mexican's at Whole Foods. Now that I've discovered this wonderful bodega in East Boston, I'm never spending that much on dried chiles again.]
• 2 cups assorted nuts, like peanuts, almonds, pecans, walnut, pine nuts, and hazelnuts [Used the remainder of the unshelled peanuts I used for Peanut Soup, Senegalese Style. Plus I topped it off with a cup of sunflower seeds.]
• 1/4 cup tahini or sesame seeds [Used sesame seeds I had on hand rather than buying tahini]
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder or chopped unsweetened chocolate [I used cocoa powder here. I thought it odd that Bittman didn't suggest buying Mexican chocolate. Trying to make it easy for the plebs?]
• 1 large onion, roughly chopped
• 1 head garlic, peeled
• 4 plum tomatoes, cored (canned are fine)
• 2 thick slices white bread (stale is fine)
• 1 quarter vegetable stock or water, plus more as needed [Hmm, again I de-vegetarianised the dish with boxed chicken stock.]
• 1/4 cup neutral oil, like grapeseed or corn, plus more for frying
• 3 or 4 bay leaves
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 tablespoons ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon ground allspice
• 2 teaspoons anise seeds [I swear that I have a distinct memory of buying this at Harvest in Central Square, but it certainly wasn't on my overstocked spice shelf or logged in the list I keep in my planner.]
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Brown sugar as needed (optional)
• 24 small corn tortillas, plus more if any break
• 4 cups sweet potatoes, cooked, mashed, and seasoned
• 1/2 cup crumbed queso fresco for garnish
• 1/2 cup chopped red onion or scallion for garnish [I used radishes instead since they are my favorite with Mexican food and already had some on hand.]
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro for garnish
• Lime wedges for garnish [Didn't use the last two ingredients.]

Toasting the dried peppers.


A couple of them blew up like a balloon.


Covered the peppers with hot water. I put a plate on top to keep them submerged and let them soften until I was ready to deal with them.


I would've have saved me some prep I realize if I had used shelled nuts, but these were around.


First batch in the blender: nuts, onion, garlic, and bread.


The debris after peeling a whole head of garlic.


First batch blended.


Peppers, tomatoes, and cocoa powder. Why bother washing out the blender container when it's all going in the same place?


Second batch blended.


Cook over largely low heat for 20 minutes until deeply browned and softened.


Add the broth. I probably should've kept the pepper soaking liquid and used that.


An hour of simmering.


Boil sweet potatoes until tender.


Mashed with my brand new potato masher (No food mill yet).


Frying the tortillas in oil until softened and pliable.


On a pile of paper towels. Maybe I should've layered them a bit more, but I patted the tortillas dry as I worked.


Filling the enchiladas with 2 tablespoons of the sweet potatoes.


Ran out of sweet potatoes and used straight up scrambled eggs after. Bittman includes eggs as a variation but only as an addition to the cheese.
Unsurprisingly I was happier with the sweet potato enchiladas than the egg ones.


Covering the bottom with a thin layer of mole.


Enchiladas filled and rolled with half the casserole covered with sauce.


The remaining sauce. After nearly finishing the enchiladas by the time I write this entry, I'm contemplating thinning the sauce out a bit and braising chicken tenders in it.


Already sprinkled some of the queso fresco on before I remembered to take a photo.


Queso fresco and radishes.


Smothered in some of the extra mole.
I thought the mole was really bitching until I gradually worked my was through the leftovers. Nearly worth the enormous amount of prep that went into it.