Attempt on Mexican food

So yes, I don´t understand why us chocolate loving swedes don´t cook more with chocolate. I made this dish with chicken, and I actually ate it. U might not think that is so strange if u don´t know me, but if u do u know I have been a rather keen vegetarian for well over 10 years. I actually remember the last time I ate chicken before I gave it up. It was in 9th grade, so it would have been about 1995, and it was at luch in school.

But lately I´ve been so ill that I can´t really be bothered to keep a completely separate diet from the rest of the house. Luckily my family are all keen followers of organic produce, so the chicken was a big "KRAV" (organic) labled bugger, and this household rather have organic chicken once per month than mass produced broilers twice a week.
So it was chicken with mole then. Mole is normally in Mexico like a sauce you buy in a jar with all the spice mixes to add to your dish, but since we are far from any Mexican grocery shop I madey own makeshift mole.

Chicken with Mole

about 4 small fillets of chicken, or bits from all over

1 onion

3-4 cloves of garlic

500 ml of tinned tomatoes

1 cinnamon quill

1-2 chopped red chillies (more if u have the guts)

2 tsp paprika

2 tsp of ground coriander seeds

salt and some stock granules

40-50 g of good dark chocolate (70%)

Cut the chicken in bite size pieces and chopp the onion. Brown in a pan in some butter and oil. Add the garlic and the tomatoes. Stir in the spices and let it simmer about 20 mins. Taste and adjust seasoning. Stir in the chocolate. Serve with tortillas and a sallad.

Tortillas

2.5 dl spelt or wheat flour

0,5 dl natural yoghurt

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

0,5 tsp baking powder

(tomato purée or mixed herbs)

Mix everything together and work the dough untill its elastic. Leave a few minutes. Divide into 4-6 pieces and flatten them out with a rolling pin till they are as thin as u can get them. Fry in a hot, dry frying pan about 2 minutes on each side, or untill they begin to get a bit of a colour. Serve immediately.

Well it certainly didn´t look very good, but it tasted at least half-Mexican. Bastante bien, estoy contento

All hail to the chocolate king!

I am a self confessed choco-holic, and I would probably raise a few eyebrows if some health guru would mound up all the chocolate I ate in a year on a table, TV style. But I only like the good stuff, preferrably of about 85% cocoa. No milk chocolate passes my lips, no no, in fact it stays away if it contains any milk at all.

Here I could march on at length on the origins of chocolate, because I am actually something of an expert on the subjectject. This comes from that during my second year in univeristy, studying to be an archaeologist, I studied at a Canadian university (Trent University), and there I took the best course I ever took, Mesoamerican archaeology. In short I can tell you that when the spaniards arrived in the Caribbean, and eventualy the rest of Central America, the native people of various names (Teotihuacanos, Olmecs, Mixtecs, Mayas, Aztecs etc), had used cocoa in numerous ways. The bean itself was often used as currency, and its consumption was reserved for the royals and other wealthy individuals. At that time the indigenous did not keep any form of beasts of burden, meaning they didn´t mix the cocoa with milk, nor did they cultivate sugar cane or beats. The classic recipe for their chocolate drink (refining it in to bars came much later), was to add water and chilli. It was then poured from a heigh height in to drinking vessels (which were highly decorated with said process), to produce a frothy head.

It might not sound very appealing, but I think that is mostly because we are so used to that chocolate has to be sweet. During my stay in the Americas I missed no opportunity to travel till my bank account begged me to stay in, and I spent an amazing few weeks travelling around Mexico during christmas and New Year. The culinary capital of Mexic se llama Oaxaca. There is just no end to what ur tastebuds can experience there. In a little café I remember a bowl made of coconut shell, filled with a mix of water, cocoa, sugar, and corn. It was strangely fulfilling actually. In one part of town was all the chocolate shops lined up, they were completely opened up to the street, sort of 3 walls and a roof. Inside were massive drums where the cocoa was milled, and others where it was mixed with other ingredients to make bars etc, and when u wanted to buy some you could decide exactly what you wanted your bars to contain and in what proportions. Just point sugar, cinnamon, almonds...

I could go on and on about Mexico, and I thank all higher powers that I got the opportunity to travel so much before I got this illness. Its a country that has everything. Loud crammed citys, amazing archaeology, beautiful people, great culture, foggy jungle, chilly mountains, sandy beaches... Think I´m gonna have to post a few more photos from that trip. Above is the main market in Oaxaca.

The Mayan site Palenque

Colourful crafts

Zocalo in central Oaxaca on christmas day

Fabulous beach in Zipolite, a middle of nowhere town on the Pacific coast

And our makeshift hotel in Zipolite. We arrived on New Years eve and all thy had left was a couple of hammocks

Temple of the Sun, Teotihuacan, about 30 minutes outside Mexico City

Ok, I had a reason for writing about chocolate, namely that I, in memory of Mexico, made chicken with mole. But I think this post is so bloody long already, that I´ll just put the food stuff in a new one