There's an episode of Friends where Rachel attempts to make a trifle. Unfortunately, in the recipe book she is working from, two pages have got stuck together and so her trifle ends up being half shepherds pie, with alternating layers of beef, peas and gravy and custard and jam. Hilarity obviously ensues. Today I found myself in Waitrose buying ingredients which included cumin, spring onion, peanut butter, garlic, chocolate, banana, lemon and cocoa powder. I thought nothing of it, assuming they would not all be for the same recipe.
Yes, today I was making Mole sauce - not something I was previously accustomed to but which according to my book contained all the aforementioned ingredients. Alongside this there would be a bit of rice and a kind of chicken broth type thing but it was the mole sauce which would be either the hero or the villain of the evening.
The chicken and rice got made without a hitch and I turned my attention to the sauce. You start by liquidizing the spring onions, garlic, chillies, cumin, peanut butter and water. Once blitzed you put it in a frying pan to boil. Instead of boiling, it starts to set in my pan, a bit like an omelette. I'm starting to feel a bit dubious about this mole sauce but add a bit more water and give it another minute or so. It continues to set a bit so I take it out of the pan as instructed and return it to the liquidizer, adding the remaining ingredients. It has a consistency slightly thinner than melted chocolate and a rather offensive smell.
I plate up - for some reason Lolz avoids the mole sauce. Which means it's a fairly boring chicken and rice dish with a bit of veg and a bit (well quite a lot actually) of broth. There's nothing particularly wrong with it (except i'm not that keen on okra which always seem to taste a bit overcooked no matter how long you cook them for) but it's a bit dull. I however try some of the mole sauce. It is rank... just how you'd expect garlicky, oniony, bananary chocolate to taste. Have I accidentally mixed up two recipes or is Jamie having a laugh?
Lolz gave the dish 6/10. Difficulty rating 2/10.
This one scares me too, so I have so far avoided it.
ReplyDelete