On the 16th March, after four days of travel by car, I reached the Mexican Dark Skies supper club in North Western Scotland, Assynt, Sutherland, (north of Ullapool) run by Monica Shaw and her partner Mark Washer. He’s particularly interested in astronomy, and the long black northern nights in Scotland are perfect for this. They have an airbnb for rent with attached observatory.
This is one of the wildest areas of Scotland. Sutherland means ‘southlands’ which seems bizarre until you realise it was so named by the vikings who came from further north.
Monica, being American, having lived a while in Texas, knows her Mexican food. She made a supper club feast for the Equilux, not the Equinox. The Equilux is when day and night are equal, it occurs a few days before spring Equinox, and a few days after autumn Equinox. They will host a supper club at least every quarter, on the equinoxes and solstices (summer and winter).
I had pumpkin seed mole when I visited Tulum in Mexico, buying it in a small plastic bag by the weight. It was a greenish black, dense and full of flavour. There are several different moles- black which is with chocolate, red and green.
My recipe is adapted from the one is Leite’s Culinaria. I grow my own tomatillos – really easy to grow in the UK- and very hard to buy. They are an acidic green husk tomato, not unlike gooseberries in flavour. They can be frozen.
Pumpkin seed mole
Ingredients
- 250 g green pumpkin seeds
- 100 ml olive oil or vegetable oil
- 1 brown onion, chopped
- 5 cloves garlic
- 1 tbsp cumin, ground or whole
- 1 tbsp coriander seeds
- 1 tbsp Mexican oregano
- 1 tbsp Mexican epazote
- 200 g tomatillos
- bunch fresh coriander leaves, leave aside a few for decoration
- handful parsley leaves
- 1 green chilli, charred, deseeded
- 200 ml hot vegetable stock
- 1/2 lime juice
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Dry roast the pumpkin seeds, apart from 1 tbsp for decoration, for a few minutes in a frying pan.
- Grind them up in the blender. Set aside in a bowl. You'll need the blender again.
- In the same frying pan, add the oil and gently fry the onion. Add the garlic.
- Add the spices and the already charred and chopped chilli
- Add the tomatillos, simmer for a few minutes then add the vegetable stock.
- Then blend this mixture until liquid.
- Put this mixture back in the frying pan and cook for a few minutes
- Add the ground pumpkin seeds which will absorb the liquid until you have a thick sauce. Keep tasting and add salt.
- Finally add a big squeeze of lime and fresh coriander leaves. Decorate with the whole pumpkin seeds.
- Use as a sauce for bean stew or for tamales or whatever. It will keep in the fridge or freezer
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