Pre-Cinco de Mayo meal
Cinco de Mayo (May 5th) is a celebration of Mexican heritage and pride, NOT Mexican Independence Day, as I used to believe. Local Mexican restaurants are planning a fiesta for that day. Cheap drinks, loud music and lots of good food ... sounds a lot like St. Patrick's Day but with a different menu and alcohol choices, doesn't it?
I'm fortunate to be able to make my own Mexican inspired dishes any time of year, as there's a pretty good Mexican grocery store nearby, unlike my blog-friend Alison, who lives in northern-Ontario on a fly-in reservation (all supplies are flow in and the variety on offer is quite limited) and has to make do with whatever she can get her hands on. Substitutions and adaptations seem to be the order of the day. In any case, her enchiladas had me craving something other than Taco Bell and after a quick trip to pick up several varieties of dried chile peppers, I took myself out to lunch and finally tried Chile Rellenos. If you've never had this dish, it's a charred and peeled Poblano or Anaheim pepper that has been seeded, stuffed with cheese, meat and cheese or beans and cheese, floured, dipped into an egg batter and fried, and then served with a sauce (sometimes tomato but other versions are common).
One day, I'm going to make the dish as it seems pretty straight forward and was quite tasty (a stuffed pepper with Mexican flavours) ... mine had shredded chicken thigh meat inside so it's also pretty economical.
CHILE RELLENO with refried beans and Mexican rice as served in the restaurant.
I had no intentions of making a Mexican dish this weekend. In fact, my meal was going to feature bbq'd chicken breasts and pork ribs and a side dish of sautéed mushrooms and spinach. Unfortunately, after a sunny and warm Saturday, I woke up Sunday morning to rain which continued through the late afternoon when it turned cold and overcast. No bbq'ing for me.
Chicken in a Mulato Chile sauce with Arroz con Azafran (rice with Mexican saffron) and sauteed mushrooms and spinach
ETA: The step to drain off the excess fat after sautéing the chicken breasts was left out of the original recipe so it was corrected in bold.
Chicken With Mulato Chile Sauce - serves 4
2 large bone-in chicken breasts, cut in half
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 large dried mulato or ancho chiles
1 medium onion peeled and roughly chopped
2 large garlic cloves, roughly chopped (or 1 tbsp roasted garlic)
1 1/2 cups ground tomatoes
1-2 cups soaking liquid from the ancho chiles
1 tsp dried Mexican oregano, stems picked out
1-2 tsp sugar, as needed
1 small jalapeno pepper, seeded and stemmed and coarsely chopped (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
Seed and stem the mulato chiles, roughly break up and place into a bowl and then cover with enough boiling hot water to cover. Let
soak for 30 min. Transfer the soaked chiles to a blender. Pour the soaking liquid through a strainer, leaving behind any grit from the
bottom of the bowl. Reserve liquid to add to blender.
Add onion, garlic, ground tomatoes, oregano, jalapeno pepper, 1 tsp sugar and about 1 cup of the soaking liquid to the blender and
puree until smooth.
Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Pour the vegetable oil into a medium sized saute pan and over medium high heat,
sear the breasts for about 5 minutes on each side. Transfer the chicken to a plate, drain off all the fat except for about 1 tbsp and
add about half of the mulato puree to the saute pan. Bring the puree to a simmer and taste. If it's bitter, add another 1/2 tsp of sugar,
add the chicken pieces and any liquid that may have exuded back to the pan, cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes until the center is done.
Remove the chicken and cook down the sauce .
Serve chicken with rice and some of the chile sauce.
If you've never seen mulato chiles, they're quite similar to ancho chiles taste wise as they're quite mild and smell sweet like raisins, though they're darker in colour and more triangular in shape.
Ancho (left) and 3 mulato (right) chile peppers
Dessert was shortbread cookies from one of Alison's earlier posts.
The grape hyacinths at the top of page ... well they keep coming out each spring in my back garden from the bulbs my parents planted years ago.