Welcome to Mexico! We decided to do Mexico on Cinco de Mayo (because, why not?!) and I am just now getting around to writing about it...only a week later! Mexico is such an interesting country. Growing up in Southern California, it was right in my backyard! In high school, I went on a missions trip to Mexico, and while in college, I went every spring break on missions trips. Let me tell you, it was some of the best times of my life. What a challenge, and what an opportunity! But, that's a story for another time. According to Google, Mexico has a population of 128.65 million people, and the capital is Mexico City. Their national dish is...
Mole!
Handsome Husband frequently gets mole when we go out to Mexican restaurants, but I've never had it. After looking at the ingredients, I didn't think this dish was going to be great. The ingredients didn't make sense to me! To go with the mole, I made Spanish rice, thanks to a recipe from my Super Sister-in-Law's family (thank you!), Mexican street corn, horchata, and churros. It was a busy night! I also had my coworker come over for dinner too, and we just had a great "fiesta"! Here's what I did:
MOLE
1 whole chicken
Water
1 tsp salt
8 cloves garlic, divided
1 onion, quartered
1 C peanuts
2 whole cloves
2 large cinnamon sticks
1 plantain
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 C cocoa powder
3 1/2 oz dark chocolate (I used 80% dark)
3 dried chili guajillo
3 dried ancho chili
1 can chipotles in adobo
1/3 C sugar
1/2 C gluten free breadcrumbs
- Put the whole chicken in a pot with 4 cloves of garlic, the onion, and cover with water.
- Cover and cook until the chicken is tender - about 2 hours.
- Remove the chicken from the broth, strain the broth, and let the chicken cool.
- You should have 1 1/2 gallons of broth - if not, add some more water. (I had to add some water.)
- De-bone the chicken and set the chicken aside.
- Roast the chilies in a deep pan for about 1 minute.
- Add some chicken broth, and cook on low for about 10 minutes, or until they are soft.
- Remove the peppers from the broth, and remove the seeds.
- Pour the chili broth back into the pot of chicken broth.
- Cut the plantain in strips and fry in a pan with a little bit of avocado oil. Set aside.
- Put the cloves, cinnamon sticks, and cooked chilies in a blender with about 2 cups of broth.
- Blend until very well blended.
- Strain the mixture through a sieve into the pot of chicken broth, and press as much liquid out as possible. Discard the remains left in the sieve.
- Blend the peanuts, tomatoes, 4 cloves garlic, fried plantain, cocoa powder, and canned chilies in a blender with 2 C of broth. Blend well and add to the pot with the chicken broth (do not strain this batch).
- Add sugar to the chicken broth, and stir everything well.
- Add the chocolate to the broth, turn up heat to medium high, and stir until boiling.
- Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes.
- Add the breadcrumbs, stir, and let simmer for another 20 minutes.
- Chop or shred the chicken, and add it to the mole. Stir to combine.
- Enjoy!
SPANISH RICE
2 C white rice
Avocado oil
1 onion, diced
1 can tomato sauce
4 C chicken broth
- Fry uncooked rice and onions in avocado oil. Make sure the rice is golden brown before the next step - very important!
- Add the tomato sauce, and stir to combine.
- Add the chicken stock, and stir to combine.
- Let the water come to a boil, turn to low heat, cover, and cook until the rice is done, about 20 minutes.
MEXICAN STREET CORN
8 corn on the cob
Juice of 4 limes
2 tsp salt, divided
1/2 C mayonnaise
1 C queso cotija
1/4 C chili powder
2 bay leaves
6 sprigs fresh thyme
- Add 1 tsp salt, bay leaves, and thyme to a pot of water, and bring to a boil.
- Add the corn, and cook for 30 minutes.
- Remove the corn from the water, and cover the corn with lime juice and leftover salt.
- Cover the corn with mayonnaise and roll each corn on the cob in the queso cotija.
- Sprinkle the corn with chili powder and enjoy!
HORCHATA
1/3 C white rice
4 C water
1/2 cinnamon stick
1 tsp vanilla
14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
12 oz can evaporated milk
- Rinse rice in a strainer until the water is clear.
- Put the rice in a bowl and cover with water overnight.
- Combine the rice (with the water), cinnamon, vanilla, and milks in a blender and blend until completely smooth.
- Strain the liquid into a pitcher, and serve over ice.
CHURROS
6 tbsp butter
2 1/4 C water
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 large cinnamon stick
2 1/4 C gluten free flour
1 egg
1 1/2 C sugar
1 tbsp ground cinnamon,
Oil, for frying
- In a sauce pan over medium-high heat, melt the butter.
- Add the salt, vanilla, cinnamon stick, and water to the butter, and bring to a boil.
- Once at a boil, remove the cinnamon stick, and remove the mixture from heat.
- Add the flour, and stir until a smooth dough is formed (I put my mixture in the Kitchen Aid with the paddle, and it worked great!)
- Let the dough cool for about 10 minutes, add the egg, and stir very fast to incorporate (or turn your kitchen aid on to full blast and let it do the work...)
- Transfer the dough to a piping bag with a closed star tip, and set aside.
- In a shallow bowl or plate, combine the sugar and ground cinnamon.
- Heat the oil to 400 degrees.
- Pipe 4-6 inch long churros into the oil and fry until golden brown, about 4 minutes.
- Drain on paper towels, briefly, and then cover with cinnamon and sugar.
- Repeat until the dough is used up.
- Enjoy!
The verdict? What an interesting country to make food for! Let's start with the mole. I read several sources that said mole was better the second day, so I made it ahead of time, and then reheated it. I did taste it both days, and I have to agree: it was better the second day. I felt that it didn't have enough chicken for the amount of sauce. It made A LOT of sauce! I had about a gallon and a half of sauce leftover! I would recommend putting two chickens in the mole if you're going to follow this recipe, or cut it in half. I will say, the mole made wonderful enchiladas the next day...
The Spanish rice was fantastic. It always is. It wasn't as good as when Super Sister-in Law makes it, but it was good - I still have to learn from her! I was surprised by the Mexican street corn. I don't like mayonnaise at all. Growing up we called it "monkey puss" and I've always thought it was gross. I really couldn't tell it was mayonnaise on the corn! And it tasted really good! The cheese kept falling off the corn, but if you picked some up and ate it with the corn, it was quite tasty! I had my doubts about the horchata, as I am not a fan of super sweet things. But it was good! It actually went perfectly with the mole - the sweetness complemented the savory/spicy very nicely.
The churros were quite the adventure! Using gluten free dough isn't always the funnest, as it doesn't behave quite as well as regular dough. In this case, the dough was very thick. We got a couple of the churros to come out of the star tip, but then the tip came popping right out of the bag! So, we made churros that were just round with no grooves. Turns out, the grooves help prevent the oil from splattering everywhere, because they help get out the air bubbles! So we had popping oil all over the kitchen while trying to cook the churros. We never knew when it would pop! My stove was a DISASTER MESS by the end of the cooking! The first few churros were good, but the recipe made a lot, and we ended up tossing the last few batches.
ME
Taste of Mole (1 is terrible, 10 is amazing): 7
Spicy (hot) (1 is not at all spicy, 10 is uneatable): 4
Flavor (1 is no flavor, 10 is packed with flavor): 7
HANDSOME HUSBAND
Taste of Mole (1 is terrible, 10 is amazing):7
Spicy (hot) (1 is not at all spicy, 10 is uneatable): 3
Flavor (1 is no flavor, 10 is packed with flavor):7
ME
Taste of Spanish Rice (1 is terrible, 10 is amazing): 9
Spicy (hot) (1 is not at all spicy, 10 is uneatable): 0
Flavor (1 is no flavor, 10 is packed with flavor): 8
HANDSOME HUSBAND
Taste of Spanish Rice (1 is terrible, 10 is amazing):8
Spicy (hot) (1 is not at all spicy, 10 is uneatable): 0
Flavor (1 is no flavor, 10 is packed with flavor):7
ME
Taste of Mexican Street Corn (1 is terrible, 10 is amazing): 7
Spicy (hot) (1 is not at all spicy, 10 is uneatable): 1
Flavor (1 is no flavor, 10 is packed with flavor): 7
HANDSOME HUSBAND
Taste of Mexican Street Corn (1 is terrible, 10 is amazing): 6
Spicy (hot) (1 is not at all spicy, 10 is uneatable):1
Flavor (1 is no flavor, 10 is packed with flavor): 5
ME
Taste of Horchata (1 is terrible, 10 is amazing): 6
Spicy (hot) (1 is not at all spicy, 10 is uneatable): 0
Flavor (1 is no flavor, 10 is packed with flavor): 7
HANDSOME HUSBAND
Taste of Horchata (1 is terrible, 10 is amazing):7
Spicy (hot) (1 is not at all spicy, 10 is uneatable): 0
Flavor (1 is no flavor, 10 is packed with flavor):6
ME
Taste of Churros (1 is terrible, 10 is amazing): 6
Spicy (hot) (1 is not at all spicy, 10 is uneatable): 0
Flavor (1 is no flavor, 10 is packed with flavor): 6
HANDSOME HUSBAND
Taste of Churros (1 is terrible, 10 is amazing):7
Spicy (hot) (1 is not at all spicy, 10 is uneatable): 0
Flavor (1 is no flavor, 10 is packed with flavor): 5
Another country in the books! Join us next time in Japan!
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