Mole! Chocolate in Mexican Food

Only because of a Dora the Explorer episode did I know that chocolate was used in Mexican cooking. I love the way chocolate sounds in spanish: chaw-co-la-tay! Mmmmm...sounds even yummier!

I have an enormous amount of cocoa powder leftover from a Sam's shopping trip I made when I'd had the intentions of baking cookies for my whole family and closest friends. This was around the time I started getting serious about cooking, but still hadn't realized how much work it is to make 15 dozen cookies (and not eat them all).

My favorite recipes site is All Recipes because, among many reasons, you can search by ingredient(s). I searched "cocoa powder" in the main dish section, and came up with Mole sauce. Now another great thing about this site is that people rate and review recipes and always have some tips to offer to make the recipe even better. I always read these because 99 times out of 100, people rate the recipe based on what they did, and not what the recipe called for.

Mole sauce sounded fabulous! Chocolate on meat! I've died and gone to heaven! I changed the recipe according to the comments and because I am starting to better understand cooking in general, I added my own twist. ;-)




Mole Sauce:
Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
6 garlic cloves, minced
About 1 cup tomato sauce
1 10oz (maybe 10.75?) can of green chiles and diced tomatoes
2 heaping tablespoons cocoa powder
2 tablespoons cinnamon (sounds like a lot, but it's perfect!)
2 teaspoons cumin

Directions
Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat, and cook the onion until tender, add garlic and cook for a minute or two, but don't let it brown. Mix in cocoa powder, cinnamon, and cumin. Stir in the tomato sauce and green chiles and tomatoes. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 10 minutes. Transfer to a gravy boat or pour directly over food to serve.

I've been loving to cook chicken in a way I saw on the Barefoot Contessa, so I layered half the mole sauce on the bottom of a baking dish and placed boned chicken thighs (you can use boned breasts too) and cooked them at 400 degrees until the thermometer read the proper temperature. After the chicken was done, I served it with mole on top! BIG HIT in my house! Let me know if you tried it!

Cocoa pods...I wonder if these can grow in Florida!

xo
jbnewcomb<3

Chocolate is My Therapy of Choice

Ok, so I know it's not wise to use food as therapy, but it sure works wonders for me!

There's this precious lil angel in my house that just won't stop crying from 8pm 'til about 10:30pm (and sporadically throughout the day). She's my seven week old daughter, Elena. Most of the time, she makes me happier than chocolate. It's the side of her that screams out loud that makes me scream inside, and Chocolate helps to keep me from screaming (too much) on the outside.

So, tonight, the 53rd night of torture, was about to break me. Ok, it did break me, and I told my darling hubby that I needed "some chocolate therapy NOW". Knowing the Mommy Monster was rearing her ugly head, he promptly asked, "what kind?" to make sure he'd administer the right kind of therapy. ;-) "Chocolate on chocolate," I requested with a clearly desperate growl.

He bought me a box of Publix chocolate chip cookies and two bars of Ghirardelli chocolate, one this new flavor that is basically what heaven would taste like if it had a flavor....Sea Salt Soiree...the words melt off the tongue as well as the dark chocolate with sea salt and roasted almonds do...Mmmmm...Mommy is all better now.

When she's happy, she's better than chocolate. ;-)
xo
jbnewcomb<3