Alrighty then. I'm home for a week and had a lovely lunch today with a delightful very close friend of my mom's who has known me since kindergarden. She's got very discriminating taste and a son that is a foodie and home cook too. She said that he came home and made this recipe that called for chilies that he could not find anywhere but here. (very..very far west Texas)
Mole..once you see the recipe...you start to cringe at the labor intensiveness of it.
I had a couple of cousins and a friend that tried it once.
That was it for them.
Once.
I started to interject...most people that I know that have attempted mole in the end said..".yeah...the jar with a little doctoring up is about the same as scratch."
My grandma used the jar...I use the jar...it's great.
She said (and this is a Swiss chocoholic born VERY well traveled lady)
It was the BEST dish she has ever had.
I was surprised to see it was Rick Bayless. I have his books...probably looked at it and thought..."well...why do this when I can pick up a jar?"
Anyway they froze the sauce and used it several times.
These are the notes. Props go to her son for notes:
"so, this is the sauce that rick bayless won the top chef masters with. I made it today (couldn't find the right chiles, just used 2 dried red chiles instead, and didn't get spanish peanuts but just used pecans and almonds. and. oh.my.
It took like 3 hours or so. But it's fairly unbelievably good. Like, I'm going to purchase his book of recipes. (didn't do any of the other stuff, and instead of chicken am planning to put it on some pulled pork). But do make sure you blend the stuff in the order he says, and then after it's done again. (this is how I need to do all my sauces now).
http://www.bravotv.com/foodies/recipes/ ... ed-nopales "
Tonight I was treated to my most favorite meal in the world of cheese enchiladas with real New Mexican red chilie sauce. Something about it is soooo much deeper and has much more flavor than the stuff that served in the Mexican places in the Ville.
I could not even finish the rest of the plate. A perfect New Mexian chilie relleno.
Will make a great breakfast in the morning though.
Hope all is well with everyone.
Sarita
