bean steak molé with queso fresco polenta
February 10, 2014 § 80 Comments
Several weeks ago I acquired an appetite for spicy Mexican flavors and it has yet to be satiated. If you have visited my blog recently you may have noticed the “heat is on”! But that’s ok because the recipients of my cooking happen to love spicy latin cuisine. Taco’s of various sort have been on high rotation as well as loads of guacamole and homemade salsas. Nontheless, last Sunday was a big day for us here in the Seattle area. Our home team, the Seahawks, made it to the Super Bowl and I really wanted to prepare something special to celebrate. Here it is. Bean steak molé.
To truly appreciate Mexican cuisine, you must embrace the chile. The piquant peppers enliven dishes with their sweetness and heat. The heat in this molé surfaces from two types of chile’s. This recipe calls for chipotle in adobo, which is smoked jalapeños in a tangy sauce and pasilla, a dark colored medium hot chile. Pasilla is a rich flavored chile, perfect for sauces and can be found dried and after rehydrating blended into a paste. The sauce is thickened with black beans, and little bits of crushed toasted almonds provide a gentle crunch for texture, and to top off the heat is a hint of dark chocolate. Molé is wonderful served with warm homemade tortillas. We served ours with a creamy polenta seasoned with green chiles and queso fresco. Success! Both the molé and the Seahawks!
I n g r e d i e n t s
- 1 dried pasilla chile pepper
- 1 – 15 ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
- 1/3 cup toasted almonds
- 2 chipotle chile pepper in adobo sauce
- 2 – 3 tablespoons adobo sauce
- 1 ounce dark chocolate, chopped
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 1/2 pounds skirt or flank steak
- 2 green onions, sliced
M e t h o d
In a small bowl pour boiling water over the pasilla chile pepper. Let stand for 30 minutes. Drain chile pepper; remove and discard stem and seeds. Transfer chile to a blender or food processor. Add black beans, almonds, chipotle chile peppers, adobo sauce, and chocolate. Blend or process until smooth. Add chicken stock, a little at a time, blending well after each addition; set aside.
In a skillet heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and garlic. Cook about 5 minutes or until onion is tender, stirring often. Transfer onion mixture to blender/processor with molé blend/process 1 minute more. Transfer molé sauce to a saucepan; set aside.
Preheat broiler. Score a diamond pattern on both sides of steak. Rub steak with olive oil and sprinkle a little salt & pepper on each side. Place steak in an ungreased baking pan. Broil steak 4 or 5 inches from the heat for 5 minutes, turning once. Transfer steak to a cutting board and let stand for 5 minutes.
Bring molé to a simmer stirring often. Thinly slice steak across the grain; add slices to the molé and simmer for 30 minutes or so.
Serve molé over warm queso fresco polenta. Garnish with freshly chopped cilantro or green onions.
Q u e s o F r e s c o P o l e n t a
I n g r e d i e n t s
- 2 cups of chicken stock
- 2 1/2 cups milk (I use whole)
- 1 – 4 ounce can diced green chiles, undrained
- 1 tablespoon freshly diced oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup polenta or coarse cornmeal
- 3/4 cup crumbled quesco fresco cheese
M e t h o d
In a saucepan combine chicken stock, milk, diced green chiles, oregano, salt and bring to boiling. Gradually add polenta, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to low. Cook, uncovered, for 5 to 10 minutes or until thickened. Stir in quesco fresco. Add a little more milk to achieve desired consistency. Remove from heat. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.
COTTAGE GROVE HOUSE 
I really hope I can find the right chillies for this, it looks amazing!
I hope so too. The pasilla can be purchased dried and the chipotle’ comes in a can with adobo sauce. Hope you have them available in your market. This is a very easy molé sauce to prepare. I have seen molé recipes calling for 30 different ingredients and takes several hours to prepare! Not this one! Thank you for your comment.
Looks wonderful. I adore anything with chillies in it and am a big Mexican food fan.
Thank you! I adore chile’s more than anything right now. I seem to incorporate them into all kinds of things lately. It’s the weather, I think.
I hope you don’t lose your taste for Mexican cuisine anytime soon!! Keep those recipes coming!! This one is amazing, and I’m tempted to stop by the store tonight to get the ingredients. I LOVE the polenta idea, Seana… mixing the chiles and the queso fresco… is perfect!! Tantalizing. Deliciously tantalizing..
As always, I want those dishes. I want that spoon. I want everything in the photos.
I think I just need to move into your house. :-) xx
Thank you Prudy! :) The polenta was to die for I’m telling you. Don’t know why the spicy cravings lately. Maybe it’s a vitamin C deficiency. We are on our second batch of chili oil too. It’s wonderful. I think I might just post that too. I have this thing for dishes and I have had to tame it a bit. I went through a huge phase of collecting bowls of various kinds. I had to stop when I started putting them in boxes in the basement! Yes, that is an unhealthy sign, indeed. It is always so great to hear from you! :)
That looks amazing!
Why thank you!
Looks great, the flavours must be wonderful :)
Thank you Elaine, for your kind comment…
Yummy!
I’ve got to try this, hope I have the chilies, It looks so good. I love Mexican food.
It’s a good simple molé Suzanne. I have seen some very complicated recipes for molé and this one went together quickly and didn’t require 30 ingredients. It was wonderful.
Keep the heat coming! This looks amazing.
Thank you! I really enjoyed visiting your blog today. Those truffle dill potatoes look wonderful!
Damn well love a good mole! Ole!
Holé molé me too. Couldn’t quit eating it!
Smiley face
mmm that polenta does look incredibly creamy. (yup, definitely have noticed that the heat is on at Cottage Grove House :P)
The polenta was amazing. And you know, the molé would be fantastic as just a bean sauce without the steak. We thought it was spicy..but not unbearably hot. So glad to see you back! :)
thanks Seana, I’ve missed being a part of this wonderful community :)
Living in New Mexico, I certainly embrace the green – and red – chili. This mole looks delicious, Seana!
I can imagine. I’m always surprised at the variety of chile’s every time I go to buy them at the market. Even up here in the Pacific Northwest it is normal to find up to 6 varietals at the grocer. It’s great!
That’s AMAZING! :-) Where do you live in the NW?
Seattle! ;)
NICE. :-) :-) :-)
Your photos look wonderful and the presentation is great. Well done, Seana! Chipotle is the new paprika. I discovered this spice lately and fell in love with it.
Hey thank you Dolly! Coming from you I’ll take this as a great compliment. :) Smoked jalapeño is wonderful. Hope you are able to find them in an adobo sauce, it wonderful even in something as simple as scrambled eggs.
wow, amazing! Congrats to Seattle folk :-) Your food looks crazy good. I’ve always thought mole to be extremely complicated, but yours looks doable. So I’d better do!
You wouldn’t believe what a huge celebration this city had after the Super Bowl! Seriously! Our city had a “coming home” parade for the team and 750,000 people showed up downtown Seattle! There is only 650,000 population here in Seattle. Amazing. This molé was not complicated at all Liz. I always shied away from making it because I thought it was too much trouble. Not this one…very easy. :)
Oh this sounds incredible! Can I come for dinner?? I’m not allowed to make polenta anymore because my boyfriend hates it :-( sigh
:( That is sad. But, heck yeah! Come for dinner and I’ll make you a huge bowl of polenta. :)
Sounds like a dream :-)
Yum; I love Mexican food. I love your dishes too!
Thank you Kate. I used to collect pottery and have had to cut back a little because I ran out of cabinet space! Nice to hear from you…
Haha; me too, only I’m moving house to accommodate it all! Well, that and the extra children. My excuse is that with extra children we will need extra receptacles to eat/drink from!
I like the way you think! :)
Fab photos Seana of this wonderful dish! Well done to both you AND the Seahawks – must have been an exciting night for you all! :)
It was such an exciting night and really this city has not stopped celebrating yet. It’s very fun to be a part of the excitement and culture of a winning Super Bowl team.
Ah Mexican food! I’m glad I have found someone else who loves the Mexican flavours as much as I do. Serving this with the polenta is such a great idea! :)
Thank you Matt. The polenta was a very nice change from soft tortilla’s, which is how I would usually enjoy molé, or on rice… Seriously cannot get enough of this.
Oh yumm! I love me some spicy!
:) indeed…me too!
If only I could get my hands on those differing chillies. I was astonished by one particular supermarket in Houston that would’ve catered to the TexMex crowd. The selection of peppers was vast! Oddly, I wasn’t overly keen on TexMex cuisine. And I know so little about proper Mexican food. Funny, I don’t remember going to Mexican restaurants in London. Practically every other country, yes. Anyway, chocolate and savoury is something I’m going to have to try one of these days. :)
It is quite a site to see a nice selection of pepper’s at the market. I imagine the selection in Houston was quite impressive. You seem to find some nice varietals, I’ve seen them in your recipes! There are so many bad Mexican restaurants with huge plates of beans and rice! We have “taco trucks” here now which are very popular and serve wonderful Mexican food. Although I don’t frequent them myself. :)
Oh Seana! This looks amazing! For some reason I’ve never thought to combine polenta with Mexican food but as it’s corn based, it makes a whole lot of sense. I can imagine how delicious this must’ve been. Yum yum! I’m bookmarking this for the weekend! xx
There’s that cute little gravatar again! :) Hi Laura. Thank you for your kind comment. Hope you get a chance to make the molé. It was surprisingly uncomplicated to put together. I have always heard how molé takes hours and hours to prepare and with 30+ ingredients I’ve always shied away from making it. This was so good and easy to prepare. I enjoyed it without the steak, so you could make it vegetarian since there are black beans in it giving it substance. Off the charts with the polenta.
This is my kind of dish. Love it!
Wow! That sure looks delish Seana. I love, love, love polenta. Mmmm, I’ve got to have me some of this soon!
It’s wonderful for sure. I think it was great without the steak too! I found myself just putting the sauce on the polenta without the steak… (more beef for the young man!) Hope you get a chance to prepare some. Thank you Lidia!
I would be very happy eating at your table…your Mexican meal sounds absolutely delicious.
Often times I wish we could just jump over and enjoy these fabulous meals we share with each other on our blogs. :)
The mole sounds wonderful.
Thank you, and nice of you to visit my blog today… :)
Yum! Looks like a wonderful, hearty meal!
This looks amazing! So many beautiful flavors, not to mention beautiful plating. Glad to have found you and will continue to follow!
Thank you so much! Love your blog, it’s so beautiful…
wow, this looks awesome. and go seahawks!!
Oh I am glad you put the word creamy in front of the polenta because nothing else can describe it. It has become my heart’s desire a bowl of creamy polenta and more importantly your bowl – it looks delicious. I too am behind in my reading and have come to this post late but glad I did.
I’m glad you stopped by and I know exactly how it is arriving at a post late! :) In a way it feels like “old news”. But that ok, better late than never applies….right! Thank you Maria and can’t wait to make your cabbage rolls!
We love molé and anything with adobo. This is an interesting wrinkle on comfort food for cold winter days. It’s pinned. Ken
Thank you Ken. A lovely simple molé worth trying for sure. So great to hear from you today.
I could live on Mexican cuisine, and molé has been on my list of recipes to try, for a very long time. Mex-style polenta is an awesome idea. Go Seahawks!
Honestly, I couldn’t quit eating the queso fresco “maize” right out of the pot. This was one of those meals where you sit down to eat already stuffed because you kept eating it while preparing. Seahawks conquered!
… and then yumminess ensued!
Great comment Azita! Made me smile this morning!
On my must-try list. And even though I’m partial to Mexican cuisine, I’ve never made molé. I need a print button on your blog.
hmmm.. print button. I have been noticing them on blogs lately, perhaps I’ll look into it, This molé recipe is particularly easy to put together. I have seen several molé recipes which take hours to prepare using 30+ ingredients. This is my style…simple and it is so delicious too!
This looks mouth watering! Mexican polenta? It makes so much sense!
It does make sense! You must make Mexican polenta. It’s so delicious I could eat it with any type of taco meat…carne asada, carnitas, pollo asado. I hope you get a chance to try it, you’ll love it.
Polenta. This ingredient itself is a warranty for a good and tasty recipe. You made it even more special!
Never thought to make a latin inspired polenta before, but it was a very nice accompaniment to the rich molé. Much better than, say, tortillas or rice. So glad to see you here…
Oo nice, you made mole recently, too! Your queso fresco polenta is genius, and I need to try it! I love cheesy polentas, but I’ve only tried making them with either parmesan or goat cheese…
What a tasty recipe! So how did the Seahawks do? I love the addition of dark chocolate and what a great Bowl! I’ve been neglecting your blog a bit and what a surprise to see that the heat is on :-) some very nice recipes.
Wow! This looks delicious too!!! I can’t eat cornmeal because it is not low-glycemic, so I am trying to figure out what I could use instead for this and for the other polenta meal I just commented on. It just sounds so good!!!
I just saw your blog Lori. It’s wonderful! I used to follow a low-glycemic “diet” years ago so I know what you mean. Thank you for all your comments and if I can think of something to have with this I’ll let you know. :)
Thank you so much for your kind words! I might do some experimenting as well. I will let you know if I do! :-)
Oh, man does this look amazing!
Thank you. It’s been some time since I made it and you just reminded me, now I’ll most likely start craving it. :)
[…] tendency to get on this kick once or twice a year and it usually involves spicy soups, enchiladas, molé and various other spicy latin influenced […]