Yellow Mole/sauce

INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

I think that before summer is completely gone and access to some of this
stuff (garden/store) becomes tough, I'll post this sauce recipe that runs a
close second in taste to a fresh batch of adobo. Actually, the idea of
growing yellow bell peppers, yellow tomatoes, and yellow chiles came from
this recipe, adapted from the mole amarillo in Mark Miller's _The Great
Chile Book_. The idea is to use ingredients that are all as close to being
yellow as possible, so that the end sauce turns out to be a golden yellow.
I made this the first time with greenish tomatillos and Santa Fe Grandes
that had a greenish tinge to them (overeager to pick, you know!) and the
sauce wound up a gaggy color that I would not put my lips to and my wife
wouldn't because it was too hot! (chilehead in progress!)
So, once you corral the ingredients, it's not too complicated. Here it is:
I use the broiler for most all of my roasting, so I'll refer to it as my
method. Put the tomatoes and bell peppers under the broiler until the
tomatoes are soft and the skin is split and brown in spots and the bells
are blistered all over. You'll want to turn them a few times so that all
this gets evenly done. Set them in a bowl and toss a towel over them and
let them cool off a bit. Now put the _____ (your chile's name here) and the
unpeeled garlic in to roast. The Ajis I use roast quickly - one turn over
and they're done. I just snip the good stuff off the stem with a pair of
scissors into the processor. The garlic takes a little longer. In fact, you
could roast it earlier with the big stuff under the broiler or on a dry
frying pan or toaster oven or whatever. While the bells and tomatoes are
roasting, oil up a frying pan and peel, dice, and start sauteing the onion
until it's just soft. Toss this sauteed onion into a food processor. A note
on the pan: if you're not into doing dishes, use a bigger pan, like a Dutch
oven, to saute the onions because the raw sauce also needs to be cooked
after being pureed and a high-sided pan is handy for this. After cutting
out the stem cores from the tomatoes and the stems and seeds from the bell
peppers, roughly chop them and put them into the processor as well. I don't
bother to skin them - the skins are thin and chop up nicely. Add the lemon
juice, sugar, some salt, nutmeg, allspice, and cinnamon. After the garlic
cloves cool, peel and roughly chop and have them join the party in the
processor. Puree all this stuff until you get the texture you like. Note: I
could have done all this in one leaky batch, but decided to go with two
shifts, instead. I like a texture where the skins are well chopped (I don't
strain this sauce), but it also doesn't look like baby food. At this point,
I empty the contents of the processor into another pan with a handle on it.
The hot oil in the next step will make the sauce spatter and it's no fun
being in the splatter zone with an awkward grip on a slippery bowl. After
the blending, or during it, heat up a high-sided pan with the rest of the
oil until the oil just starts to smoke. Pour in the raw sauce all at once
while stirring. I like a whisk here because it mixes stuff well without
pushing it around. The sauce will sizzle and spatter a bit, but keep the
heat on it so that it doesn't stop bubbling. Constantly stirring, cook the
bubbling sauce for about 10 minutes. It should be thick enough to almost
coat a spoon. After it cools and loses more water, it should be nice and
thick. Taste it and make any additions you might like (sorry, no
subtractions!).
This stuff is great with shrimp or fish or as part of some enchiladas or
empanadas or chicken or ...... do enjoy!
Posted to CHILE-HEADS DIGEST V4 #132 by sto_tolin@ONLINE.EMICH.EDU on Sep
22, 1997

A Message from our Provider:

“No Brainer: Turn or Burn, Fly or Fry, Live or Die”