Vegetable
Garden Vegetable
GardenI am not a gourmet cook so most of the things I make are very straightforward. This is the most complicated recipe, both in number of ingredients and in preparation, that I have ever made. It is also complicated in its flavours. I have never eaten a dish with as many distinct flavour notes and part of the challenge in preparing it is to not overcook (to avoid having some of those flavours lose their individual character).
As I finished the first batch, I vowed that it would also be the last. But a double recipe makes a lot of Tablecloth Stainer and it freezes very well—by the time we had eaten the last of it, it had become one of our favourite meals.
Manchamanteles (‘tablecloth stainer’ is a direct translation) is a traditional Mexican dish which comes in many forms. It is a specialized version of the Mexican mole—a thick dark sauce with a chili base (and often chocolate). Manchamanteles de Cerdo y Pollo is a simple red mole with meat, fowl and fruit. The recipe came to me from Dorde Woodruff, Salt Lake City, Utah, who adapted it from a recipe in Elena’s Secrets of Mexican Cooking by Elena Zelayeta (1958, Prentice-Hall). Dorde's recipe is not repeated here because it metamorphosed into a vegetarian dish which is now the only version we make.
Dorde Woodruff reported that she usually uses more sweet potato than the amount given in the original recipe. She also made it without meat: “It’s one of my most satisfactory vegetarian dishes.”
She didn't say exactly how she adapted the recipe so I was on my own. My first step was to replace the meat with nuts and I chose cashews because they are mild flavoured with a texture that is not unlike cooked cubes of chicken or pork. One pound is a lot of cashews and may be more expensive than the chicken and pork of the original recipe but the cost is still very reasonable on a cost per serving basis. If you like some crunch, substitute almonds for up to ¼ of the cashews.
The sweet potatoes are not at their best until they have been cured and spent a month or two in storage, making it too late for using fresh peppers and tomatoes. So, at the time of summer harvest, we freeze sweet red peppers and tomatoes for this recipe in appropriate sized freezer bags.
We usually double the following recipe.
Whole cashews can be left whole or broken into chunks — passing them through the slicing attachment of a food processor works very well. Brown nuts in skillet in oil and butter. Keep them moving and aim for a light brown. Watch closely — they turn black if you turn your back on them. Transfer to a large saucepan.
The solid ingredients in the sauce are combined first in the skillet, with a little more oil (they will be cooked and then run through a food processor before transfer to the large saucepan). Brown almonds and sesames lightly in skillet. Add onion and sweet red pepper and fry a few minutes longer. Add tomato and spices and cook for 10 to 15 minutes. In the standard recipe, the sauce is seived to remove the bayleaves and cloves. If powdered cloves are used, then all that has to be removed is the bay leaves. So rather than putting the solid ingredients through a food processor and then sieving the whole sauce at the end, I use large whole bay leaves and fish them out just before running the finished sauce through the food processor.
Pour this sauce plus the water and apple cider (and the water from the pineapple if you are using canned tidbits) over the browned cashews in the large saucepan and simmer for 30 minutes. Add sweet potato cubes and simmer 15 minutes longer. The amount of liquid from the tomato, cider and water in this recipe is just sufficient to make a very thick stew—fine for spreading over a bed of rice. If you prefer to eat it out of a bowl with warmed tortillas and like your stew to be liquid then add enough water to get desired consistency.
Add pineapple and cook for a final few minutes, just long enough to blend. Serve on a bed of rice. Slice bananas on top.
Divide rest of sauce into meal size portions and freeze.