Adventures in cooking
A few weeks ago, I bought a bottle of mole concentrate at World Harvest Foods, a nifty international food store in Champaign. I put together something with chicken and zucchini that wasn't quite as successful as I'd hoped, but I still had a lot of it left, and I tried another experiment today, drawing inspiration from the fact that Granny Smith apples were on sale at the grocery store last night and that there was some pork that was cheap enough I was willing to buy it. (Thanks to WILL's wasting a huge amount of airtime covering the commodity markets, I'm well aware of the fact that pork prices at the farm level are relatively low now, while beef prices are sky high. So why is it that pork is so doggone expensive in the store?)
Pork Apple Mole Burritos
½ lb. diced raw pork
2 medium sized Granny Smith apples, cored and diced
1½ T* concentrated mole paste
2 T chopped onion
½ t minced garlic
½ t chili powder
salt
oil
water
refried beans
tortillas
Saute pork in a little oil, adding apples, onion, garlic, chili powder, and salt. Once pork is partially cooked, add mole paste, and stir and mash the blob of the stuff until it dissolves, adding water as needed to get it to a reasonable consistency. When the apples and pork seem to be cooked and the lumps are evened out in the mole, place a dollop of refried beans and a scoop of the mixture on a tortilla, roll, and enjoy.
*Note: this and all other measurements are my best guess as to how much that was, not carefully measured amounts I used. View this recipe as a rough guide, not an exact set of instructions.
I pronounce the experiment a moderate success -- not the best thing I ever made, but pretty tasty. I'm pleased.
Pork Apple Mole Burritos
½ lb. diced raw pork
2 medium sized Granny Smith apples, cored and diced
1½ T* concentrated mole paste
2 T chopped onion
½ t minced garlic
½ t chili powder
salt
oil
water
refried beans
tortillas
Saute pork in a little oil, adding apples, onion, garlic, chili powder, and salt. Once pork is partially cooked, add mole paste, and stir and mash the blob of the stuff until it dissolves, adding water as needed to get it to a reasonable consistency. When the apples and pork seem to be cooked and the lumps are evened out in the mole, place a dollop of refried beans and a scoop of the mixture on a tortilla, roll, and enjoy.
*Note: this and all other measurements are my best guess as to how much that was, not carefully measured amounts I used. View this recipe as a rough guide, not an exact set of instructions.
I pronounce the experiment a moderate success -- not the best thing I ever made, but pretty tasty. I'm pleased.