Mahi Mahi Braised with Green Mole

My favorite use of green mole is as a sauce for fish. I have some mahi mahi defrosted so I decided to braise it with a bit of the mole and serve with rice and green peas. I start some white basmati rice in my rice steamer and - to make it more flavorful - I add a few sprigs of cilantro and use chicken broth rather than plain water (1 cup basmati rice, 2 cups liquid and 3-5 sprigs of cilantro). Alternatively, you could chop the cilantro and stir it in after you cook the rice - this is a bit more work but would give you a "fresh" cilantro flavoring.

While that is cooking, I rinse my fish fillets, pat them dry and set aside. I also set up some frozen, organic peas in a pan of water that I will boil later. I wait until the rice is cooked to start both of the fish and peas because I don't want to overcook the fish. Fish is very delicate and cooks quickly; many times people who don't like fish have eaten either overcooked or not very fresh fish. When you buy fish it should smell fresh and only faintly like fish - if it smells strong or even overpowering then it is starting to turn bad and you shouldn't buy it.

My rice cooker turns itself off when the rice is cooked with a loud pop. It cooks that small amount of rice quickly (10 minutes) but this will be enough for dinner and a few lunches. I set the heat under my saucepan with frozen peas to high - I will turn them off as soon as they boil.

Under a large, skillet I add about two tablespoons of olive oil and a scant tablespoon of butter. I turn the burner on to medium-high heat. When the butter is melted and starts to sizzle, I add my mahi mahi fillets (I have about four-medium sized fillets no more than 1/2 an inch thick) and when a bit of white edging appears on each fillet, I turn them over. I then add about 1/3 of a cup of green mole to the pan and cover. I cook this for no more than 3-5 minutes depending on the size of your fillets. (I don't mind my fish even a bit underdone so in this case I turned the heat off after about two minutes and left it on the burner covered while I set up plates for dinner.)

With the mole already made, the rest of the meal takes no more than 20 minutes. It does payoff to make some items ahead of time and freeze them in batches that are easy to take out and use to enhance small meals. This recipe serves two for dinner and leaves leftovers for two lunches over even another meal if you don't like reheating a fish lunch at work.

Green Mole - Pronounced Moe-Lay

This week involves prepping for Mother's Day Brunch and Tamale Making party. I typically make pork or chicken for the tamale filling and flavor the meat with this green mole or mole poblano (rich sauce flavored with several types of chilis, chocolate and spices). Green mole is the easier mole to make; it takes about 90 minutes to two hours and much of that time is unattended cooking. Mole poblano is a whole other story since it is at minimum a six hours process and that is only if you have all the ingredients on hand.

Since green mole is less time consuming and what I consider to be a fresher sauce, I tend to make it closer to the time of using it. However, if you make a big batch and don't plan to use it right away it freezes well and can last awhile stored that way. Green mole is a good sauce to use for chicken, pork or fish. I also tend to make it with vegetable broth so that my vegetarian friends can just eat it with rice. It would probably go very well with tofu even.

In a large pan filled with water, add 8 medium (approx 12 ounces) fresh, green tomatillos that have been husked and washed; one medium tomato; 1 poblano chili ; and 3 jalapeno chilis. Do not cut any of the vegetables; you will de-stem and de-seed the chilis later and the tomatillos and tomato will be left whole. Turn on the burner and cover, bring to a boil and simmer for 10-15 minutes. (You can used canned tomatillos - use 1 1/2 13-ounce cans- and if you do you will not need to simmer them with chilis.)

Next place a medium-sized skillet on burner, put the heat to medium and when the pan is hot add one cup of hulled, un-toasted pumpkin seeds. The seeds should start popping and you need to stir constantly to prevent them from burning. When they have all popped and nicely toasted (approximately 4-5 min) remove from the heat and place in a pie plate or cool cookie sheet. This will stop the seeds from cooking and start the cooling process.

Now clean five large romaine lettuce leaves and half a bunch of cilantro. You want to make sure to remove any grit from both of these items. Shake out excess water but don't worry about completely drying. Tear the lettuce into rough smaller pieces for easier processing in the blender. Next, rough chop half a medium onion and three cloves of garlic. Set aside near the toasted pumpkin seeds.

By this time, the tomatillos and chilis should be cooked. You will drain them and let cool slightly. When you can, remove the poblano and jalapenos from the pan and cut away the stem, slice the chilis in half and scoop out the seeds using a small teaspoon. Then roughly chop the chilis and set aside. (When working with chilis it is always a good idea to wear thin latex gloves. If you don't, even after washing your hands, the oils can linger and you discover - after gently rubbing you eye sometime later - that they had quite a kick. Rinsing your eye with cool water will help but it might take awhile for the burning sensation to go away.)

Now that all the ingredients are prepped, you will use a blender to pulverize everything together into a smooth puree. You will have to add the ingredients to the blender in small batches and pour each batch into a large pan (I typically use the same pan I used to simmer the tomatillos and chilis). Since most of the ingredients are dry add enough broth to each batch (1/4 to 1/2 cup per batch is usually enough) to help with the pureeing. You will need at least 4 cups of vegetable or chicken broth. After pureeing all the ingredients, add any leftover broth to the pureed ingredients in the pan.

You will turn the burner onto low and let the mole simmer for approximately 30 minutes. It will change from a fresh, avocado green color to a more grayish, green color similar to the color of overcooked/canned peas.

Fish for Dinner

After a weekend of dining out, I have decided dinner should be on the simpler side; nothing too spicy or heavy. I have defrosted some fish; petrale fillet of sole which is a thin, delicate white fish. This is a good fish to fry breaded or with a batter and if you are going very low calorie you can even steam it.

I have decided to do the fish in a light batter and serve it with some oven-baked rice and steamed zucchini. Since the rice takes the longest I will start with that process. I set the oven to bake at 400 degrees and then take a skillet that has a lid out to use for this. I melt 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) of butter and once melted I saute half a small onion. When the onion is soft, I add 1 cup of raw, long grain rice and let it cook a bit until it is translucent and slightly toasted. I slowly add two cups of broth (you can use chicken or vegetable); stir the rice and onion well; cover with the lid; and place in the pre-heated oven. It will take approximately 18-20 minutes.

Now I rinse and dry three zucchinis and set up my steamer pan with water. I cut the zucchini, place it in the steamer and turn the flame on to medium. It is now time to set up the fish. I rinse it, pat it dry with paper towels and set it aside. I put a cup of flour in a pie dish and add a bit of salt, pepper and dried thyme (a scant 1/4 teaspoon each). I then whisk one egg with a bit of water. The fish is so thin that it will cook really quickly (about three minutes) so I am waiting for the rice to be fully cooked before I start the fish.

After about 18 minutes, I carefully remove the covered pan from the oven. Now be very careful with this pan and cover it with potholders because it is easy to forget how hot it is if you need to move it suddenly. Luis and I have both had the experience of grabbing the pan barehanded accidentally - not very pleasant. When you remove the lid, the rice should be fluffy and there should be no liquid left.

In another, larger skillet I heat a small pat of butter with a bit of olive oil (in this case I have some lemon-infused olive oil to use to enhance the flavor). When the oil is hot, I coat each fish with the flour mixture first, then dip it in egg and then add to the oil in the pan. It should long take about 60-90 second per side of each fillet so everything else should be cooked and ready to serve.

For more flavor, you could add a light tomato sauce (similar to the albondigas sauce) or some green mole. In this case I unfortunately don't have either handy so our meal with be sauceless but by no means flavorless.