Helen’s Mexican Mole

Mole is Mexican and has all sorts of myths associated with it. The one thing I think is true is that it originates from a convent in Mexico when the inmates did not know what to cook for an important visiting priest/bishop or someone. So they (she) prepared a meal that contained the full contents of their stock room. I believe the “original” recipe has 16 or 17 ingredients. Mine is certainly not original.
I was first introduced to mole by my sister who spends winters in Mexico. She took me to one of their local cafes in Baja to try it – I thought it was bland. I next tried it when visiting Mexico City with friends from the UK. One of the group tried mole and I tasted his. Neither of us liked it – it was far too chocolatey for a savoury dish. Against my better judgement I tried it again in a Mexican restaurant in Guatemala 2 years later. It was brilliant. I invented my own dish based on this.
I think mole is a sauce that gets served up with cooked meat, e.g. turkey. I cook beef in it as if it is a stew or chilli con carne. So here goes:
onions
garlic
peppers
fresh chillies
ground coriander
ground cumin
hot paprika
blade mace
ground almonds
meat, e.g. stewing beef
tinned tomatoes or passatta
tinned kidney beans
dark chocolate

Fry - onions, garlic, peppers, fresh chillies. I use a mixture of different of peppers, and a mixture of hot and not so hot chillies.
Add spices and fry them a bit: ground coriander, ground cumin, hot paprika and blade mace (crushed a bit in the fingers). These are not strictly Mexican - I was introduced to mace in Mexican food many years ago and often use it. Having said that I am not sure you can really taste the mace in such a strong dish as this one.
Add ground almonds.
Brown the meat in spice, almond, chilli stuff.
Add tomatoes from a tin - or use Passatta (Italian sieved tomatoes). You may need to add some water too as the spices, nuts and chocolate thicken the sauce a lot.
Cook for ages!
Add tinned kidney beans.
Then add the chocolate - should be very dark and high in cocoa solids. You don't need a lot. E.g. 1 kg of beef + 1 carton of Passatta + 2/3rds of a Green & Black chocolate bar. Add it slowly and taste, as the procession from hardly noticing the chocolate to it being to strong is surprisingly fast.
That’s it. It keeps well and tastes even better the day after it was cooked. Incidently – if you omit the almonds and chocolate you get my standard chilli con carne dish...

Tiramisu

1 cup boiling water with 1.5 tablespoon instant coffee powder (or 1 cup very strong filter coffee)
200ml amaretto (you can use brandy or sherry or marsala wine)
2 boxes boudoir biscuits )
250ml fresh double cream (I used the extra thick kind so I didn't have to beat it, if you use whipping cream you don't need quite as much)
250g mascarpone cheese
dark 70% chocolate cooking chocolate, finely grated

Whip the cream if necessary, then mix with the mascarpone and icing sugar and a dash of amaretto, combine until smooth.
Put the coffee and the rest of the amaretto into a bowl and dip the first packet of bouidor biscuits into the liquid, saturating about 3/4 of the biscuit (for the first layer).
Layer the biscuits along the base of the dish you are using, then cover with a layer of the cream mixture. sprinkle half the choclate on top of the cream.
For the next layer of biscuits saturate them a little less (or else they sink into the cream layer). Cover with the remainder of the cream mixture and top with the chocolate.
This serves six in small-ish portions (but it's very rich so that's usually all you need unless there are lots of men!).

Chocolate Mousse

An easy recipe for chocolate mousse.

You need 2oz of 70% cocoa solids chocolate and 1 egg per person. A small amount of unsalted butter and whatever you like in terms of flavouring (e.g. rum, coffee, orange zest, brandy).

Break the chocolate into small pieces and melt over a bain marie or in the microwave.
Meanwhile, separate the eggs. Beat the yolks until smooth and whisk the whites to make peaks.
Allow the melted chocolate to cool slightly, stirring in the butter so that it melts into the mix and then any flavouring. Now stir in the egg yolks so that they cook just a little from the heat of the melted chocolate. The whole mixture should be gunky. Tip it into the bowl of whisked egg whites and fold the mixture together with a round bladed knife or metal spatula.

Now spoon into ramakin dishes or small dessert bowls and put in the fridge for at least 4 hours to set.

Serve with cream!