Mole Tasting at Red Iguana
For an easy dinner any night of the week, stop at your favorite Mexican restaurant and pick up a quart of your favorite mole. On our outing to Park City this week, we stopped at Red Iguana 2 in Salt Lake City for lunch and purchased two quarts of mole to be used for a dinner during our stay. First, we enjoyed the mole tasting to make our selection. The offerings included:
Mole Amarillo
Mole Coloradito
Mole Poblano
Mole Verde
Mole Negro
Red Pipian
Mole de Almendras
It was a tough decision, but we settled on the Poblano and Negro. Dinner tonight was a breeze with the two moles already made and available. If you cannot find a restaurant that sells good mole by the quart, you can also purchase mole at the grocery store and follow the directions.
We are having dinner for six tonight. The remaining work was to prepare the meat, 4 skinless, boneless organic chicken breasts and a 1-1/2 pound pork loin. The breasts were cut into 1-1/2 cubes and sautéed in a small amount of vegetable oil until brown. We then covered the chicken with the mole Poblano and simmered for 40 minutes. The pork loin was trimmed and also cut into cubes, sautéed and simmered in the mole negro. Sprinkle sesame seeds over the mole before serving.
We prepared a side of Mexican rice, which is always made with a chopped onion. Stir fry the rice in a tablespoon of oil, making sure each grain is coated with oil and then adding chicken broth. We added some chopped green onions (because they were left over from our breakfast frittata.
The rest of the menu was an appetizer of Rajas (recipe coming soon), a salad of arugula, zucchini ribbons, red pepper and panela cheese. Dressing was olive oil (2 parts), lime juice (1 part) and Dijon mustard, salt and pepper. The final accompaniment was Jamaica, a tea made with dried hibiscus blossoms.