These past weeks I have been visiting and subscribing to a bunch of food blogs in order to widen my virtual social network and getting better at what I am so passionate about, preparing food, the whole reason of this space.

My cyber trips have brought me to so many interesting places maintained by even more interesting people. What I like more about the blogosphere is that it’s made for real people by real people. For me, the best blogs are those whose authors talk to you without pretentiousness and create a warm feeling of community.

I get that feeling in Jenn’s blog The Leftover Queen. I found her blog after seeing the Foodie Blogroll in several blogs. I wanted to find out more about what it was and ended up joining the blogroll. What is it? In Jenn’s own words:

This Blogroll is especially designed for people who have a passion about food. If you have a blog about food, whether you cook it, or just like to talk about it, this blogroll is for you! It will be our way to create a community of Foodies!

And a community of foodies is what she has been creating not only with the Foodie Blogroll but also with the Royal Foodie Joust. What is that? She once again says:

Every month I will be hosting the Royal Foodie Joust where Foodies from all nations come together and compete for the Queen’s favor! Each month a new challenge will be brought forth – you will be given three ingredients and your creativity of what to do with these ingredients will be the only thing separating you from the rest!

Ok, you might be thinking, all this is fine and good, but I thought you were going to write about pumpkin mole, like in the title of this post. Are you deceiving me?

I am just getting to it (it took you long enough) This month’s Royal Foodie Joust is about creating a dish with:

Chocolate, any kind but white.
Chilis/Chili Powder, any type.
Grains in any form.

The first two words that came to my mind when I saw the ingredients were “Mexican wedding”. The traditional food in a Mexican wedding, at least in Central Mexico, is pollo con mole Poblano (from the state of Puebla) and rice. With that in mind I decided to look through the ingredients in my fridge and pantry to see what I could make.

Since I didn’t have all the 20 different ingredients that the classic mole Poblano recipe calls for, I decided to use what I had at hand. That’s how this pumpkin mole (a poor attempt that ended up being more of a pumpkin sauce, tasty, nonetheless) and chicken over Mexican rice recipe was born.

For this recipe you will need:

1. 1 Abuelita chocolate bar (found in the Latino food section of your grocery store, if they don’t have one, change stores)
2. 2 cups milk
3. 1 cup pumpkin puree
4. ½ tbsp ground ginger
5. ½ tbsp cinnamon
6. ½ tbsp ground clove
7. 2 tbsp Tupperware South Chipotle mix (you can use chipotle adobado powder)
8. 1 tbsp ground paprika
9. salt to taste
10. 1 large chicken breast, grilled and cut in strips
11. 4 cups Mexican rice

Preparation:

• In a large pot heat milk until it starts to boil. Don’t walk away, milk tends to boil over the moment your attention is somewhere else.
• Add pumpkin puree and chocolate bar and stir constantly until it dissolves.
• Add the rest of the ingredients (except chicken and rice) and stir constantly.
• Reduce heat to low, cover and let it simmer for about 20 minutes.
• Serve over rice and grilled chicken and enjoy the delicious spicy/sweet taste of this weird yet delicious mole attempt.

This recipe is far from the real mole Poblano, of course. Next time I make it I will try to incorporate more of the typical ingredients like sesame seeds, different kinds of peppers and lots of onion and garlic. But for the sake of simplicity this is a very tasty option.
Buen provecho!