Sluttishly Savoury: Cheat's Turkey Mole Poblano

Yes, it's chocolate week, and chocolate's not just for cocktails or sweet stuff, oh no. Mole (that's "molay", not the little black furry creature which is way too cute to eat) is a traditional Mexican sauce for meat, with Mole Poblano being the most famous version.

Proper mole is quite a faff and uses tomatillos and special fancy pants chillies. This baby is a dumbed-down version that uses supermarket ingredients and takes half the time. There's still a long list of ingredients, but as most of them just get bunged in the food processor it's not too strenuous.

I used red jalapenos to give heat and sweetness, and chipotle paste to add a smoky undertone, but it's easy to add more or less, or substitute a different chilli according to your taste. And don't be scared by the chocolate - it adds a certain flavour to the sauce but it doesn't overwhelm the dish.

Cheat's Turkey Mole (serves 2-4)

You'll need:

• 1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled
• 25g pumpkin seeds
• 25g almonds
• 25g sesame seeds, plus more for sprinkling over
• 2 peppercorns
• 2 cloves
• 1/2 a stick of cinnamon
• 2 petals of a star anise
• 1 tortilla
• 200g tomato puree or passatta
• 500ml vegetable or chicken stock
• 50g dark chocolate, grated
• 1 tbsp chopped jalapenos
• 1 tbsp chipotle paste 
• 400g turkey thigh chunks

Make it!

• Put the onion, garlic, pumpkin seeds, almonds, 25g of the sesame seeds, peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon and star anise into a food processor and blitz it to a paste. Tear the tortilla up and blitz that into the mixture too.
• Put some oil into a large saucepan and heat. Fry off the onion paste for a couple of minutes.
• Add the tomato puree and continue to cook for a couple of minutes.
• Add the stock, bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile, brown the turkey pieces in oil. Cook for around 15 minutes, until they are cooked through. 
• Stir in the chocolate, jalapenos, chipotle paste and turkey pieces. Simmer gently for a further 2 minutes.
• Season to taste and serve with rice or more tortillas and a good sprinkle of sesame seeds.