Manchamanteles

The mole with fruit in it, added late enough that the pineapple and plantain keep their shape.

Chicken, Pork. Not vegetarian — contains chicken, lard, pork.

Ingredients

• 1.2 kg chicken thighs, on the bone
• 400 g pork shoulder, in chunks
• 6 ancho chillies, stalks and seeds removed
• 2 guajillo chillies, stalks and seeds removed
• 60 g almonds
• 400 g tomatoes
• 4 cloves garlic, unpeeled
• 1 onion, quartered
• 1 small cinnamon stick
• 4 cloves
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 2 tablespoons lard
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 300 g fresh pineapple, in thick wedges
• 2 ripe plantains, in thick rounds
• 1 cooking apple, in thick wedges
• corn tortillas, as on their own page, to serve

Method

1. THE PINEAPPLE AND PLANTAIN GO IN LATE ENOUGH TO KEEP THEIR SHAPE, which is the whole balance of this dish and the thing most often got wrong. Fruit in a chilli sauce for an hour dissolves: the pineapple collapses into threads and the plantain goes to a sweet mush that thickens the sauce and makes the whole pot taste like a pudding. Added for the last fifteen minutes, in thick pieces, they soften at the edges and stay recognisably themselves, so a mouthful is either savoury or fruit rather than a blur of both. That distinction is the point of putting fruit in at all.
2. THE PIECES ARE CUT THICK FOR THE SAME REASON. Wedges of pineapple a good two centimetres across, plantain in rounds not slices, apple in eighths rather than dice. Cut small, fifteen minutes is enough to lose them even so.
3. THE PLANTAIN MUST BE RIPE AND BLACK-SKINNED. Green or yellow plantain is starchy and stays firm and faintly chalky, and in a sauce it reads as badly cooked potato. Ripe to the point where the skin has gone mostly black, it is sweet and soft and is what the dish wants.
4. THERE IS VINEGAR IN IT AND IT IS WHAT STOPS IT CLOYING. One tablespoon, in with the sauce. With three kinds of fruit, ancho chillies and almonds, the pot is heading somewhere very sweet, and a little acid pulls it back without being tasted as acid.
5. THE SAUCE IS DELIBERATELY LOOSER THAN A POBLANO. The fruit releases liquid in those last fifteen minutes and will thin it, so it is left a shade thicker than wanted before they go in. Reduced to a poblano's consistency first, it would be right for a moment and then wrong.
6. The chillies toasted on a dry pan 30 SECONDS a side, soaked 20 minutes in hot water and DRAINED.
7. The almonds fried in a little of the lard until golden. Lifted out.
8. The tomatoes, unpeeled garlic and onion charred on a dry griddle 12 minutes. The garlic peeled.
9. The cinnamon, cloves and thyme toasted dry 30 seconds and ground.
10. The rest of the lard melted in a heavy pot and the chicken and pork browned in batches. Lifted out.
11. The chillies, almonds, tomatoes, garlic, onion and ground spices blended smooth, then STRAINED into the pot, scraping the base.
12. Cooked 15 MINUTES over a medium heat until darkened, then the vinegar and 500 ml of water stirred in.
13. The meat returned, covered, and simmered 1 HOUR.
14. The sauce reduced UNCOVERED 15 minutes, to a shade THICKER than wanted -- the fruit will loosen it.
15. The pineapple, plantain and apple added in THICK pieces and simmered 15 MINUTES ONLY, barely stirred.
16. TESTED: the fruit should be soft at the edges and still hold its shape. Tasted and salted. Served with tortillas.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Mexico · All recipes