Mexican Pork Mole

Mexican Pork Mole

Posted on by Jenny MacBeth

Do the Lambada if you like Mexican food. I love everything about the culture. – The dances, music, arts, and especially, the food. I tried my hand at a pork mole. Mole simply means sauce; a number of sauces.

Put on Santana, grab a Dos Equis and let’s get started…

You’ll Need:

1 Pork Tenderloin roast (cubed and unseasoned)

2 cups of onion, diced

2 Tablespoons of chili powder

1 Tablespoon of ground cumin

1 Tablespoon of cinnamon

1/2 cup of Dos Equis (drink the rest)

2 (14 oz.) cans of diced tomatoes

2 (4.5 oz.) cans of green chillies (fresh is best, but this will do)

1/2 cup of dark chocolate morsels

Splash of lime juice (fresh is best)

Cilantro, diced (garnish)

In a large pot, over medium heat spray in some olive oil. I use a Misto, or you can use PAM cooking spray. Brown your pork evenly for 10 minutes. Remove from the pot and set aside.

In the same pot, add in your chopped onion and cook until slightly tender. Add in your chili powder, cumin and cinnamon. Let the ingredients do the Rumba for about a minute or two. Join in the dance by stirring often.

Time for the Salsa. Add in your diced tomatoes, beer, dark chocolate and chilies. Once those simmer for a minute or two, bring it to a slow grind over medium-low heat. Let the pork join the party and simmer until hot and tender.

Serve it over rice, or by itself. Finish it with a squirt of lime and sprinkle with cilantro to garnish. The next time I make this, I will use fresh chillies.

What’s your favorite Mexican Mole? Please share with us because this girl likes to eat.

Cha Cha!

Magic Hat Black Lager Dark Chocolate Pasta Sauce

Posted on by Jenny MacBeth

When creating a name for the recipes, I want to use every ingredient. All of those sound scrumptious.

It’s Friday night happy hour at my house. Grabbed me a Magic Hat (or 2), and turned on Pandora’s Foreigner station. It’s not all Foreigner. It’s a mix of Journey, Bon Jovi, and a few others similar to the era.

Good times…

My friend Cheri asked me to try something using dark chocolate and beer, so I came up with this…

Adding dark chocolate (DC) and a lager to red sauce dishes give the recipe an amazing lift to hearty goodness. You might think that adding DC would make the food sweet, but if you use an 82 percent cacao bar, you will be amazed. Not to mention, this recipe is spicy. Glen’s not a fan of DC, but really enjoyed this plate of happiness. He said, “This is interesting in a good way!”

Next time you make chili, pasta sauce, really, any red sauce dish, add in a little DC. I dare you.

You’ll need…

1 pound of pasta (whatever you fancy)

1/2 stick of butter

4 chicken breasts

4 shallots (finely chopped)

1.5 tablespoons of red pepper flakes

1/4 cup of real bacon

24 ounces of no salt added tomato sauce

1/2 cup of Magic Hat Black Lager

1.5 ounces of 82% cacao (about 1/2 of a dark chocolate bar)

Fresh ground pepper

Sea salt

Parmesan (freshly grated)

A bunch of fresh sage (chopped)

Loaf of Pain de Campagne

Time to get the party stared…

Here are ‘some’ of the ingredients. By some, I mean, I thought I had all the ingredients set up for the photo shoot. As I was preparing the sauce, I had realized that I didn’t. Oh well. The problem is that I got so excited, it slipped my mind.

Use real bacon crumbles. I’m a big fan of fresh everything, but using the bacon-already-crumbled-in-a-bag helps save time, especially, when you are coming home from a long work day.

Also, I like Hunt’s ‘no salt added’ tomato sauce. This is a salty recipe to begin with, so you want to pull back on it where you can. The recipe calls for 24 ounces – I used three 8 ounce cans.

If you haven’t had Magic Hat Black Lager, I suggest you do. Especially, if you like Guinness. I usually use Guinness in my red sauce foods, but I wanted to try it. It’s perfect to eat and drink.

I have no idea why I put a can of tomato paste in the shot. I’m laughing my ass off. Again, excited to get cooking, I must have grabbed the wrong can for the picture. I assure you that I didn’t add it to the sauce. The sauce is already thick and does not need more oomph from the paste.

First up…

Boil the water. Add in a little salt. I’m a big fan of sea salt and so happy that they came out with an iodized version.

Add in 1 pound of whole grain pasta. Boil for about 10 minutes. – I like my pasta al dente. Drain, rinse, and set aside.

In the same pasta sauce pan, melt your butter over a medium-high heat.

Add your chicken breasts. I use thin-cut breasts. They cook up in half the time. I’m also a worry-wort about, “Is my chicken cooked?”. No need to worry with thin-cut.

Add some fresh ground pepper and a dash of sea salt. Brown the breasts on both sides for two minutes.

Once the chicken is a little brown on both sides…

Add in your diced shallots, and red pepper flakes. Turn the heat to medium and let it all mingle for five minutes, or until the shallots are transparent, and the chicken is cooked thoroughly.

Remove chicken, cover, and set aside.

Stir in the bacon, tomato sauce and beer. Let it cook for two more minutes.

Fresh Parmesan, red pepper flakes and sage. These are the ‘other’ ingredients that I forgot to add in the picture above. I’m kind of glad I did – it’s a nice photo. If I do say so myself.

Stir in the cacao and a little grated Parmesan. Let it melt into bliss…

Cook for another 2 to 3 minutes.

Time to plate it…

Some people like to mix their pasta in the sauce first. This sauce is heavy, so, I recommend you don’t.

Layer a chicken breast over the pasta…

Add a layer of sauce, then fresh grated Parmesan, then top it off with a few sprinkles of diced fresh sage. Delicious!

Since the chocolate in this recipe reminded me of a French dish, I used a loaf of Pain de Campagne. All breads are cool in my book, but this was perfect for this dinner.

This recipe is gourmet, and when we think gourmet we think, “A long time to prepare.” I have to tell you, this took less than 30 minutes. Magic!

Do you have any cool ideas you want me to cook up? Please share because this Girl Likes to Eat!

Dark Chocolate Chili Cupcakes

Posted on by Jenny MacBeth

Happy April Fools! Who’s going to try one of my cupcakes?

We are meeting friends for dinner tonight. Since it is April Fools, I wanted to bake them some yummy cupcakes, but make two of those, not so yummy. My friend Paula recommended that I use chili powder. I have a great recipe for dark chocolate and chili pepper sauce for pasta, so I didn’t think that chili powder would do the trick.

I was already planning on making dark chocolate something, since our friends both love it. And, since Paula inspired me to use spice as my trick, I found a recipe.

First, I need to tell you that I’m not much of a baker. It may taste yummy, but my artistic ability to make baked goods, look like works of art, are not so good. My decorating skills look more like a Jackson Pollock painting. So, even though I followed this recipe exactly from The Cake Mistress, it doesn’t look like hers. Sigh.

I will say, especially since I’m posting this, it tastes scrumptious. However, I think I will try a different version next time. I’ll explain what I’ll do different throughout the post.

Let’s get started…

I couldn’t find baby chillies, so I used two small chili peppers. I like it spicy. The Cake Mistress calls for two baby chillies sliced and seeds removed, or use dried chili flakes. I opted for the fresh chillies by adding to 1/4 cup of hot water for about 10 minutes, but since I take photos of my food and preparation, my chillies were soaking for about an hour. This takes time. but don’t worry, you only get a hint of spice in the finished cupcake. Next time, I’m going to skip this step and add crushed chili flakes to the batter. I also wouldn’t mind trying Jalapeno jelly.

I love my Kitchen Aid. It’s the best for whipping up batter. I tossed in 3 eggs, 1 cup of butter, and 1 cup of sugar, then mix until light and fluffy. The Cake Mistress says to use caster sugar. Of course, I couldn’t find it. I just used regular sugar.

Add in 1/2 cup of milk, 1 1/2 cups of flour, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla.

Add half a bag of Nestle special dark chocolate chips, 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder, and 1/2 of the chilli-infused water and combine. This is where I would add the Jalapeno jelly for next time.

Beat with an electric mixer for 2 minutes, until light and creamy.

Put mixture in your cupcake pans with liners. If you are planning an April Fools prank, make sure you remember which ones are meant for the joke. I added tons of salt to two – Shhh! <insert evil laugh here>

Bake for 20 minutes at 350, or until firm to the touch. Allow to cool for a few minutes and then transfer to the counter. Finish cooling fully before icing.

In the meantime, start your topping. Combine the other half of the dark chocolate and 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan over a medium heat. As the mixture begins to melt, reduce heat to low, stirring constantly, until melted.

Remove from heat, and whip in 1/3 cup of heavy cream, and remaining chilli water. I guess this is where I went wrong. The Cake Mistress said to let it rest for 10 minutes until the mixture was velvety. It took a good 30 minutes to thicken up, and it still wasn’t thick enough to make her cute swirly topping. Nonetheless, I added the dark chocolate sauce to the cooled cupcakes.

Since I couldn’t find baby chillies, I added crushed chili flakes for garnish.

I put the cupcakes in the refrigerator and the icing harden to perfection. My cupcakes have a crunchy layer.

Secret ingredient: Pair this cupcake with a Guinness. Oh so yummy!

Please share your ideas because this girl likes to eat.