Last Wednesday I did not know what to prepare for my lunch for the next day as we did not have much time to go to the supermarket and we were running out of everything. I looked into the cupboard and found some cans of tuna and I decided to prepare one of my favorite dishes "Atún a la Vizcaína". This time I decided to invent a new version "Pasta with Atún a la Vizcaina"; I prepared my tuna recipe and I then boiled some pasta with salt and when it was cooked I drained it and served it with tuna dish and added some parmesan cheese, it really became a great dish.

This tuna recipe we can be served by itself or presented in a wide variety of ways. Our nice Alejandra really likes it in empanadas or as a pie. This can easily be done by rolling out some fresh or frozen puff pastry dough and for the empanadas you cut 5" circles out of the dough and place a large spoonful of the tuna dish in the middle and fold in half and pinch the edges to seal well. You then cut some slits on the top with a sharp knife and place them on a cookie sheet and bake in a medium oven until golden. You can do the same thing as a pie, by lining a pie dish with the puff pastry, then filling it with the tuna dish and then placing another sheet of dough on top. You then seal the edges and cut some vents in it and you might even decorate it with some nice fish shapes cut from the dough. You bake it like the empanadas, and if you prefer a shiny crust you can paint it with a beaten egg white. Another nice way of serving this dish is to cool it and then make a nice sandwich with a nice large crusty bread roll.

Ingredients

1 can of tuna in olive oil
1 tomato, chopped
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1/2 chile jalapeño, finely chopped
1 tbs parsley, chopped
1 tbs soy sauce
5 stuffed olives, chopped
1 tbs capers, chopped
1 handful almonds, chopped
1 handful pine nuts
1 handful walnuts, chopped
1 tbs. olive oil

Preparation

1. Sautee the onion and garlic in the olive oil in a pan over medium heat until the onions are translucent.

2. Add the chile, parsley, tomato, and soy sauce.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients and the tuna can without the liquid.
4. Let it cook some minutes until the flavors melt together and serve.

Normita

Hola amigos, this time I came out with a very Mexican recipe "Mole Poblano". Mole is one of the most important dishes in my country, you can find it prepared in many different ways depending on the region it is prepared. It is a type of aromatic sauce in which different foods are cooked and it can be red, black, green, etc. This particular Mole comes from Puebla. The city of Puebla is a beautiful colonial town located 132 km from Mexico City by the federal highways 150D and 190 in the State of Puebla, Mexico. If you want to know more about them, please follow these links:

Mexico City: http://www.tourbymexico.com/df/df.htm
State of Puebla: http://www.tourbymexico.com/puebla/puebla.htm
Town of Puebla: http://www.tourbymexico.com/puebla/puebla/puebla.htm
Puebla: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puebla
 
Here is the recipe:
 
Mole Poblano with turkey (optionally with chicken)
 
Ingredients

Mole
1/2 cup, plus 2 tbs of vegetable oil
1/2 pound of chili anchos deveined and seeded
2 pounds of chili pasilla deveined and seeded
3/4 pounds of chili mulatos deveined and seeded
5 chilies chipotle in adobo (or to taste)
1 1/2 pounds of tomatoes
1 medium onion finely diced
10 cloves of garlic
1/3 pound of peeled almonds
1/4 pound of peeled peanuts
8 cloves
1 tsp of black pepper
1 2" piece of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of anise seeds
1/4 pound of seedless raisins
1/5 pound of bitter cooking chocolate
1 tsp of sugar
2 tbs of salt, or to taste
½ cup of sesame seeds

Turkey
9 pound turkey cut in pieces
16 cups of water
4 cloves of garlic
1/2 of an onion peeled
1 tbs of salt

Preparation

1. In a large cast iron pot, put the turkey, the water, the garlic, the onion and the salt. Set fire to high.
2. When it starts to boil cover it and lower heat to medium and cooks for one hour or until the meat is well cooked.
3. Remove the meat from turkey and save the broth.
4. Put 2 tbs of oil in a pan, add the chilies anchos, pasillas, and mulatos and sauté them for a few minutes.
5. Put them in a pot with water and let them soak during 30 minutes.
6. Take out the chilies from the water and mix them in a blender. Reserve them.
7. Sauté the chilies chipotle and the tomatoes in the same pan.
8. Peel the tomatoes and mix them in a blender with the chipotle. Reserve them.
9. In the same oil where the chilies were fried, fry the diced onion and the garlic during 2 or 3 minutes, until they become transparent.
10. Take them out and mix them in the blender. Reserve them.
11. Fry the almonds during 5 minutes in the same oil, then add the peanuts, the cloves, the black pepper, the cinnamon and the anis seeds and fry them for 3 minutes more.
12. Mix these with the raisins in the blender and reserve them.
13. Heat the rest of the oil in your cast iron pot. Add all the reserved ingredients cook them during 5 minutes, stirring constantly.
14. Add the chocolate and the sugar without stopping the stirring.
15. When the mixture boils add 4 cups of the turkey broth.
16. Cover the pot and cook it on a low fire during 20 minutes.
17. Add the salt and taste the seasoning and adjust. If the Mole is very tick add more turkey broth.
18. Add the pieces of turkey, cover the pot, and cook on medium heat for 10 minutes.
19. Meanwhile roast the sesame seeds in a small pan on medium heat until they are well toasted and acquire a golden color.
20. Once the turkey is heated through, serve it with a sprinkling the sesame seeds and a generous amount of Mole.
 
Enjoy it!
 
Normita