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nutty sauces

Nuts can be used to flavor and thicken sauces.
Most of the mole sauces have several kinds of nuts in them.  

A. pollo encacahuatado = chicken with peanut sauce

This sauce is seemingly very popular in Mexico.

Several internet recipes make it with peanut butter instead of from scratch. I don't like peanut butter. Not surprisingly, I don't like this sauce very much either. It tastes like diluted peanut butter to me.

I mention this sauce here because it was my stepping stone for the other sauce on this page. I started making the peanut sauce, immediately changed my mind after the very first tasting.  

INGREDIENTS

This is what you need for 2 servings:

• 1/2 cup peanuts
• 2 chiles ancho, rehydrated
• 1 garlic clove
• olive oil
• S&P
• 2 pieces chicken

optional:

• cinnamon
• 11 whole clove

Pic1a: pollo encacahuatada
= chicken with peanut sauce
internet picture

Directions

• Cook the chicken in some water.  Reserve the broth.
• Fry the minced garlic, peanuts and spices for a few minutes in some olive oil.
• Pour off and discard excess oil.
• Clean the rehydrated chiles: cut stem, remove seeds, peel. Blend with some stock.
  • If you didn't peel beforehand, strain the blended chiles to remove remaining peels and seeds. (see Pic5-8 below)
• Blend the chiles with the peanut mix and sufficient stock to keep it pourable.
• Transfer back to the pot. Bring to a low boil.
• Simmer over low heat, 10-15 minutes to thicken the sauce.
• Add the chicken.
• Simmer 5 more minutes.
• Adjust seasoning.
• Serve over chicken. Enjoy.

---

B. peanut & fruit mole  aka nutti-frutti sauce

2019-11-04

We didn't like the peanut sauce straight up, so I set about to changing it into something that was more palatable to us. My final ingredient list is unusually long for me, but the end result was worth it. Switch out the tomatoes in favor of more chile peppers, and this would truly be a delicious and fruity mole sauce.

• I used a variety of nuts and seeds, pushed the peanuts back to 20% but they still dominated too much to my liking.
• After blending the chiles, it even looked like this would become a mole sauce, (Pic5-7) but that would require considerably more chile peppers. I left it at the 2 pasillo / gancho chiles that I started with.
• I added tomatoes, because I noticed that the ones I had needed to be used urgently. That watered down the sauce too much to my liking, but made it easier to simmer unsupervised without burning.
• Honey gave it a hint of sweetness.
• I added fruits to make it a bit sweeter and to push the peanut flavor in the background.
• I had 2 plantains, but forgot to add them. Maybe tomorrow.

The final sauce still smelled like peanuts, but we could barely taste them anymore. The fruits dominated the flavor palette.  

I have served this over beef and over chicken, both times with great success.

INGREDIENTS

This is what you need for 6 quarts:

• nuts + seeds: 1/2 cup each:
  • peanuts, unsalted roasted
  • shaved almonds
  • pumpkin seeds (pipian)
  • sunflower seeds
  • walnuts or pecans
• fruits:
  • 1 cup pitted prunes or dates
  • 1 cup dark resins
  • 1 lime, juiced
  • 2 plantains
    or if not available: sweet bananas
  • 1 cup diced mango
• peppers:
  • 2 chiles pasillo-ancho
  • 1 chipotle pepper
    or 1 tsp. chipotle powder
  • 1 tbsp. paprika powder
• olive oil
• garlic, 3-4 cloves, peeled, minced
• 2 tomatoes
• 2 medium onion, chopped small
• 2 tbsp. raw honey
• 2 old bread rolls
• 2-lb. beef roast
• 8 new harvest potatoes

Pic1b: peanut & fruit mole sauce

Directions

 

Pic2: a larger piece of 'special trim' beef, cooked stovetop
Pic3: after 25 minutes
Pic4: slice and serve

• Start the beef roast in a separate saucepan.
  Add 2 cups water to get beef broth.

 

Pic2: seeds & nuts, oil, paprika
Pic3: beef broth, 2 ancho chiles
Pic4: add 1 minced potato

• Fry the onion, garlic, seeds and nuts in olive oil for a few minutes. (Pic2)
  I added 1 tbsp. paprika powder here.
• Add 2 cups of beef broth and the dry chile peppers. (Pic3)
• Simmer over low heat 10 minutes or until the chiles swell and soften. (Pic4)
  I also added 1 minced potato.
• Remove the stems and seeds from the chiles. If possible, peel them.

 

Pic5: chiles with broth
Pic6: strain out peels and seeds
Pic7: pureed chile with broth = mole starter

• Blend with some broth. (Pic5)
• Strain the pureed chiles to remove peel and seed fragments. (Pic6)
  This already looks remarkably like mole sauce. (Pic7)

 

Pic8: blending nuts, tomatoes
Pic9: add meat
Pic10: add potatoes

• I blended 8 plum tomatoes with the nuts. (Pic8)
  It dilutes the sauce too much. Recommendation: use 2 tomatoes max.
  The bread can also be blended.
• Transfer sauce a 6-qt. pot.
• Add meat, potatoes and if not blended in yet, also the bread. (Pic9-11)
  I sliced the already fully cooked roast, added the slices to the sauce.

 

Pic11: add bread
Pic12: simmer
Pic13: served

• Simmer for 30-60 minutes over low heat. (Pic12)
  Stir occasionally to prevent burning.
• Serve and enjoy.

 

 

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