Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Mole Verde de Abuelita Leonor ( Leonor's Green Mole Sauce)

This is a healthy, simple, dish. The sauce is a blend of pumpkin seeds, fresh greens, tangy tomatillos, fresh pasilla and serrano peppers.

Ingredients for chicken stock:
-Whole Chicken (skin removed, washed rinsing then rubbing with limes to clean better, cut into sections)
-Water (enough to bring in a large pot to a boil)
-½ large onion
-3 cloves garlic
-2 teaspoon Chicken Bouillon
-4 teaspoons salt or to taste
-1 teaspoon ground cumin
-½ teaspoon dried oregano crumbled finely with hand


Directions for stock:
-Bring water to a boil, add everything. Boil for 40 minutes. Then turn off heat. You will end up with more stock than you need but save it you can make a good vegetable soup from it the next day or use it for other dishes. You can even freeze it in ice cube trays for when you need to use chicken stock in other recipes.

For the sauce:

-1 cup untoasted, unsalted hulled pumpkin seeds
-10 medium tomatillos
-3 Serrano Chilies (remove the tops)
-Fresh "Pasilla" chile core removed or leave it if you like more spicy (remove tops)
-5 big romain lettuce leaves cleaned
-3-4 whole scallions remove the bottom hairy part of it
-3 garlic cloves peeled
-2 large sprigs of Cilantro
-1 bunch of the leaves of a radish
-1 big pinch ground cumin (or use whole spices and grind in a coffee grinder)
-1 big pinch ground pepper (or use whole spices and grind in a coffee grinder)
-2 whole cloves or a pinch of ground cloves
-Cooking oil (I used extra-virgin olive oil for this healthful dish)
-Salt to taste

Directions:
-Blend all vegetables in small batches in a blender or food processor adding ONLY ENOUGH broth to liquefy DO NOT USE TOOO MUCH BROTH OR THE SAUCE WILL BE TOOOO LOOSE!
-Grind spices in grinder and add to the blended veggies

-Toast pumpkin seeds until you hear a pop then grind to a POWDER in the coffee grinder and set aside.


-Heat oil in a sauce pan then pour in all the blended sauce, stir in pumpkin seed powder stir while bringing to a boil on medium heat. The sauce is suppose to be smooth and thick. If not you need to blend again in small batches and possibly strained through a strainer if necessary (I try not to because it gets rid of some of the vegetable goodness.
-Add meat and let simmer for 5 minutes. Your done!

Note:
Serve with rice mmmm.... if your don't care about carbs the best way to eat this is with a small pile of rice to saok up some of the sauce and some corn tortillas to mop around the plate and scoop.


Also, here's a good tip for people that are lazy or in a hurry. You don't have to make the stock and boil the chicken from scratch. Just use hot water instead when blending along with some "chicken bouillon"powder or pre-made chicken stock. Afterwards, saute some chicken breasts or any piece of chicken meat seasoned with salt and pepper, allow these pieces of chicken to finish cooking in the Mole pieces.

If you want a thicker sauce, you can blend one of the following into sauce when preparing: cold day old corn tortillas, toasted or fried bread slices, or 1- 1/2 cups fresh masa blended with water, and strained into the sauce while stirring constantly. However, the tomatillos, and pumpkin seeds should be enough to thicken.

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