MOLE CHICKEN

TASTE & CREATE - OCTOBER 2008



What's Mole?!
Here's my simplified explanation...
MOLE: (pronounced moh-lay)
A spicy sauce of Aztec origin, usually having a base of onion, chilies, nuts or seeds, and unsweetened chocolate and served with meat or poultry.
Aztecs? The Aztecs were an ancient people of central Mexico. :)

For October's Taste & Create challenge, I was paired with the lovely Silvermoon Dragon of Dragon Musings from Australia. After browsing thru all her wonderfully simple recipes-I decided to give Mole another try. You see I had bought a jar of Mole from Trader Joe's once and it just wasn't so good. It made be think I didn't like Mole *period, end of story*. But, Dragon Musings inspired me to give it another chance and make it from scratch using her Chicken Mole recipe.

HOW WAS IT?...
This Mole went way beyond my expectations and I will definitely make it again.
I strongly recommend you trying this recipe sometime. It may seem or look like you won't like it but I think you will.
It's fairly simple to make because your crock-pot does most of the work. I will be making this when I am able to get my act together and have friends over for dinner too because its sooo good but simple so there's not a lot of pressure and stress to get the food out on the table. Just plate-up the chicken and add a couple sides. Eat and have fun- I think crock pot- recipes are good in that sense.

MOLE CHICKEN Recipe
Ingredients
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1 Serrano chile diced
2 medium garlic cloves coarsely chopped
1/2 white onion chopped

1 can (1/2 cup) diced and drained tomatoes
1 tbs brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
1 ounce 100% dark unsweetened baking chocolate-finely chopped
1 tsp semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tbs unsweetened baking chocolate powder
1 can chicken broth
1 tbs white wine vinegar
2-4 Boneless chicken breasts
3/4 cup sultanas (golden raisins)


-Sautee almonds, Serrano chili, garlic, onion, and a dash of salt and pepper in 1 tbs olive oil until onions are golden brown and slightly soft. Take off heat and set aside.
-In a food processor or blender put tomatoes, brown sugar, cumin, salt, cinnamon, all chocolates, vinegar, and your sauteed onion mix.



-Puree mixture until blended well.

-Then add chicken broth and puree some more until a smooth paste (MOLE!)
-Pour Mole into your crock pot and then immerse your chicken breasts in the mole.
-Sprinkle your sultanas into the mix.

-Cook in your crock pot on LOW for 3-6 hours depending on how many chicken breasts you are cooking. (I made two and the chicken was done in 2 hours on low)

I Served the chicken with a little more of the sauce drizzled over the chicken alongside mini carrot Tarte Tatin and jasmine rice with pomegranate seeds. It was all really good and even my husband was surprised because he wasn't sure if he'd like the Mole sauce. The carrot Tarte Tatin may sound fancy and complicated but it really wasn't because I had already had the crust left over from mini Apple Tarte Tatin that I made previously. I will be posting my Tarte Tatin with apples very soon so don't go too far. :)

Mini Carrot Tart Tatin
(makes 2(6 oz. ramekins)
-Make pastry crust in advance if you can
1/2 cup + 2 tbs salted butter, cut into cubes and chilled in freezer
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 1/2 cup flour
3-6 tbs ice water

-Whisk flour, and ginger together in a bowl and place in freezer for 30 minutes along with butter, the bowl and blade to your food-processor, and water (all separate).
A tip from Molly was: the colder everything is, the flakier and more tender the crust will be.
-Pulse butter and dry ingredients until the largest pieces of butter are no bigger than peas.
-Add ice water 1 tbs at a time, processing just until the dough starts to come together(it won't be a nice smooth ball because you don't want to over-process the dough.
-Pat into a ball and quickly roll out the dough to be about 1/4 inch. Take the ramekin you will be using and cut out the round shapes you need. Repeat with dough until you have enough rounds for however many minis you will be making. Cover them in plastic wrap with a layer in between each dough round. Store in fridge until ready to use.

Carrot Filling

8 medium size carrots, med-thin sliced rounds
1 shallot, thinly sliced rings
1/4 cup butter
1 tsp honey
1 tsp finely grated fresh ginger
-Preheat oven to 375
-Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and place ramekins on the foil.
-Sautee all ingredients except the shallots until carrots start to brown, then add shallots and continue cooking until shallots are clear.
-Divide sauteed mixture into ramekins
-Place pastry crust over the carrots
-Bake in oven 20 minutes until crust is golden
-Let cool five minutes, then with oven-mits carefully run a knife around the inside edge of the ramekin, and place ramekin upside down onto a plate.

Jasmine Rice in Chicken broth
(serves two)
-Boil 1 cup chicken broth and 1 tbs butter
-Stir in rice and let boil again, constantly stirring, then lower heat to simmer
-Simmer 9 minutes
-Take off heat and fluff with a fork
-Let sit 5-7 minutes half-uncovered to "dry out"

THE END!

A Tribute to Lemon
Limoncello leads to Lemon Curd and lemon curd leads to Lemon cheesecake(naturally)




I finally decided that I would only join one food blog challenge"club" and that would be Taste & Create. July is my first month and my partner was La Recette Du Jour, which means, "Recipe of the Day". In case you don't know any french. :)

Anyway, Veronica's blog, La Recette Du Jour is one of my new favorite blogs that I will be visiting frequently. When searching for the perfect recipe to try, I came across Limoncello. The minute I saw it, I knew it was the one. My husband and I love lemoncello! I needed to make something to go with the limoncello though. The limoncello recipe called for a whole bunch of lemon zest, so it was suggested to make lemon curd with the the juice from the extra lemons. I found a simple lemon curd recipe from another really great blog, Cookworm so that I could use it in this other perfect recipe I found on my partner's blog, lemon cheesecake. It was fate-A light and airy lemon cheesecake with lemoncello-a simply delightful summer evening dessert.

Here's the 1/2 recipe for Limoncello that I ended up doing
4 lemons, zested
2 cups blueberry vodka, instead of grappa vodka(the blueberry was on sale and I thought it would be an interesting touch)

-Leave lemon zest and vodka together in a well-sealed jar for 8 days(July 15 to July 22) :)

-Then make the syrup by heating together
2 cups water
3 cups & 1 tbs. sugar
Juice of 1 large lemon

Stir until sugar dissolves, let come to a boil, then set aside to cool.
Strain alcohol mixture, combine with the strained syrup, and bottle.
Chill in freezer and serve.


***While letting the lemoncello sit for eight days, I made the lemon curd
Here's the recipe:
Juice of 4 lemons (3/4 cup)
1 large strip lemon peel
3 eggs and 1 yolk whisked
1/2 cup sugar
5 tbs. butter cut into little pieces

Mix all ingredients in a saucepan and cook on medium-low heat until mixture thickens and starts to bubble a little(5 mins), mixing occasionally. Remove saucepan from heat immediately and press through a sieve. Stir and then store in a container. Chill at least 1-2 hours before serving. I stored mine in the fridge until I was ready to use. I got a few tastes in though-it was really good. I was thinking it would be cool to put the chilled lemon curd in the ice cream maker and see what's happens.

The Lemon Cheesecake:
The bottom crust:


1 1/4 cup shortbread biscuits
1/2 cup butter

The Filling:
1 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1 1/2 cup cream cheese
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon, plus the juice of half of it
3/4 cup lemon curd

-Preheat the oven to 350F. Have a large spring-form pan ready

-Put the biscuits in a plastic bag and crush with a meat tenderizer or roll with a rolling pin. Don't reduce them to powder leave some biggish lumps, otherwise the base will be too stodgy. Melt the butter, mix with the biscuits, then spread the mixture over the base of the tin, patting it down firmly,
-bake for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 280 F.

-Meanwhile, put all the cheese in a bowl and beat with an electric whisk for 30 seconds to make it smooth and light. Beat in the sugar, then the eggs, one by one, followed by the lemon zest and juice.


-Swirl in half the lemon curd

Pour into the tin and bake for about an hour. The filling should be only just set and still a little bit wobbly in the middle. Turn off the oven and leave the cheesecake in it to cool.
-When it's completely cold, unmould it and put it on a plate.
-Spread the rest of the lemon curd over it and decorate
-I drizzled a blueberry coulis over the cake to decorate
Veronica's says: despite all my precautions, the first time I made this the top collapsed into huge crevasses as it cooled. I had some mascarpone in the fridge, so I whisked it to loosen it up and spread a very thin layer over the top of the cake before covering with lemon curd. This worked perfectly as camouflage, even after an hour's journey in the car.

Blueberry Coulis Sauce recipe: Made up by me, Ivy:
3/4 cup blueberries
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tsp. cornstarch
1 rounded tbs. powdered sugar
-In food processor blend blueberries
-Then whisk the blended blueberries in a small pot with the rest of the ingredients and boil 3-5 mins.
Take of the heat and whisk in 2 tbs. water
-Put mixture through a sieve
-Whisk in 1 tsp honey if needs sweetener like mine did.

The cheesecake was really good but a little soft in the middle. I have friends over for cheesecake and limoncello and they all loved them both so-it's a keeper. :)

I am glad I made the 1/2 recipe of the lemoncello, I still have a lot left over. I think I may keep the extra and add a shot or two to a glass of a little to a seltzer on ice. Mmmmm!

Merci Veronica of Recette Du Jour, It's been a pleasure!

THE END!