Mexican Tomato

Submitted by TheGreats

For my dish I decided to go with a Mexican style deep-fried tomato. To accompany the tomato I chose a turkey and chocolate based mole sauce which is not a difficult sauce to make but it does take some time. Turkey and chocolate is the most traditional and ancient of Mexican style sauces, and is very flavorful.

Mole Sauce Ingredients:

• 1.5 Lbs Turkey wings cut in to large pieces
• 1 tablespoon Garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon Onion powder
• 1.5 tablespoons Salt
• 2 tablespoons Cumin Powder
• 1 Piece of Abuelita or Ibarra Chocolate
• 1.5 tablespoons white Sesame Seeds

Deep-fried Tomato Ingredients:

• 3 Tomatoes on the vine
• 1 New Mexico Dried Chile
• 1 Avocado
• Soft White Cheese (preferably Queso Blanco if you can find it)
• 1 Small White or Yellow Onion
• 1 bunch of Cilantro
• 1.5 tablespoons Cumin Seeds
• 4 Eggs
• 2.5 Cups Fine Ground Cornmeal or Flour, both work. It is a preference.
• 1 tablespoon Cumin Powder

To Start the Mole:

• To start the mole, add the first 5 ingredients to your crock pot with enough water to cover the turkey. Set to high to and cook for at least 10 hrs.

• After the ten hr period take out all of Turkey bones, meat, and skin and add one piece (90 grams or 3.15 oz.) of your Mexican Chocolate of choice or if you can not find it add semi sweet with a half teaspoon of cinnamon and a tablespoon of sugar in the raw. Cook for at least 2 more hrs.

• A note about mole: I say at least because you can go as far as 18 hrs cooking this sauce. Just take the meat out while it is still recognizable if you want to use it in your dish later. If not go for the longer cook and let it break down. It adds terrific body to the sauce.

• When you are ready begin the construction of the Tomatoes put your drained sauce on your stove over med-low heat and stir semi occasionally (once every 4 min or so). Let the sauce thicken till it is close to a gravy thickness.

• Take off the heat and pour the mole in to a bowl. Add the Sesame Seeds and let it stand at room temp to cool down (This shit is really hot at this point). Stir before serving a skin will develop on the surface of the sauce in minutes.

For the Tomato:

• Gather your ingredients. Make sure that you have all of them.

• Pour yourself a nice beverage. I prefer Rum and Coke.

• Start by boiling you Dried New Mexico Chile in some water about 2 min so it is soft. Take out the seeds and cut in to 1 inch squares. Slice your tomato in to three pieces as seen in the picture. Also slice your onion very thin.

• Next make a slice out of the fat end of your avocado and stack all of these veg on the bottom slice of your tomato.

• After that take the middle slice set it on top of the veg stack and place a little turkey meat (if you so desire) and the Queso Blanco on the tomato.

• Set the tops on you tomatoes and send at least four toothpicks through your tomatoes to hold the slices together. Take the vine off and break a few tooth picks in half. Send the unsharpened end in to the center of the vine so you can later reattach it to the tomato.

• Add the Cumin seed to the Eggs and beat well.

• Stir together the corn meal and cumin powder.

• First pack your tomatoes with the meal, then egg them, then meal them then egg them. Then once more meal them.

• A note about tomatoes: They have wax on the skin typically. This makes nothing want to stick to them so do this until you get a good coat on you tomato. If you handle them to much you will smudge the breading job so be very careful with your toms.

• You ought to come out with something like this.

• You want really hot oil before deep frying these bad daddies, but remember, something large and relatively cold is going to tremendously affect the temperature of the oil upon submersion. Allow time between toms to reheat the oil. If you have a home deep fry kit simply deep fry to GBD (Golden Brown and Delicious). If you do it on the stove like me pay attention to your oil. If you are not experienced with deep frying keep baking soda handy. If you start a fire simply sprinkle it on the fire till it stops don't use water it will make things much worse.

For the Plating:

To plate this dish I reattached the Tomatoes to the vine. I poured about 5 oz of the sauce on to my plate and set the bunch of Tomatoes in the center and garnished the dish with the tops of cilantro sprigs.