Mexican Ingredients Back In Stock!
Many of you will be excited to know that we have reintroduced some of our more popular 
Mexican ingredients from the Spanish Table into our new Paris-Madrid Grocery. Included are the ever-popular Oaxacan Moles from Juquilita: Mole Negro (Black Mole) and the Mole Rojo (Red Mole). Also making a comeback are the guava paste and guava roll candy from Guayeco. We also keep getting requests for the Tajin Clásico seasoning, a perfect blend made from a select combination of world-class Mexican Chiles, lime juice and sea salt. These and more are now available at the Paris-Madrid Grocery. ¡Delicioso!
Juquilita Mole Oaxaqueño
Mole is a very thick sauce used in Mexican cuisine in which many ingredients are ground and then mixed together, just as Lila Downs sings in her famous song, La Cumbia de Mole, “…you grind the peanuts, you 
grind some bread; dried almonds are also ground, as is the salt; chocolate, cinnamon are ground; pepper and cloves are also ground.” There are many styles of Mole ranging from sweet to hot, and also the color ranges through the red spectrum. It’s usually cooked with pork or poultry. Some of the best-known moles come from the town of Oaxaca, and Juquilita is a small producer of top-quality traditional Moles that are unique to Oaxaca. This traditional, ancient recipe of roasted cacao beans, mulato chiles, cloves, and special spices brings the true flavors of Mexico to your kitchen! $10.99/ea.
Guayeco Guava Paste and Guava Roll Candy
The company that produces these guava fruit products, Procesadora de Guayaba de Calvillo, has been in existence since 1996, and are dedicated to producing the finest-quality products from guavas cultivated in the Calvillo Aguascalientes region of Mexico. All their products are 100% natural, without additives of any sort, no artificial flavorings, color, or preservatives. The guava paste can be paired with a number of cheeses to create a cheese plate with a difference, or be eaten alone.
Guayeco Ate de Guayaba (Guava Paste) $4.49/ea.
Guayeco Nugate (Guava Roll with Nuts and Milk Candy) $4.99
Tajin Clásico Seasoning $5.99
Tajin seasoning, from Jalisco, is an age old Mexican tradition turned into an exciting flavor experience guaranteed to tickle your taste buds, and to make fruits and veggies extra delicious! 
Nothing more than a blend of chile peppers, salt, and dehydrated lime juice, Tajin Clásico is both tangy and spicy, and is often used to enhance the flavor of fruits and vegetables. The seasoning is massively popular in Mexico, and is most often used as a condiment to season mango and melon, and also, to season micheladas, a popular Mexican beer cocktail. Yum!
Polar Opposites!
This week we highlight two wines that couldn’t be more dissimilar. One is a Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot blend from Graves, an appellation in the Bordeaux region of France. It’s an opulent, fleshy red; a wine that will enhance a sophisticated meal. The other, a hedonistic wine that packs some serious flavor, concentration, with alcohol to match! A big Spanish wine with a decidedly Australian sensibility—think jammy! To paraphrase the words of Sparky Marquis of Mollydooker fame, “Just steady yourself when you get up from the table, mate!”
2010 Chateau de Chantegrive Graves $24.99
A fabulous sleeper of the vintage, Chantegrive’s 2010 is the best wine I have ever tasted from this estate, which has long made very good wines that represent terrific values. An equal part blend of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2010 exceeds all expectations. Notes of tobacco leaf, creme de cassis, barbecue smoke and loads of flesh, opulence and richness characterize this dense purple-colored wine, which is full-bodied and over-achieving. Drink it over the next decade. A major sleeper of the vintage.
90 points, Wine Advocate.
2015 Bodegas Jorge Ordoñez Triton Tinta de Toro $19.99
The 2015 Triton Tinta De Toro is a stunning wine from this relatively modest appellation and vineyard owned by Jorge Ordoñez and his partners. The wine, 100% Tinto de Toro, 
spent eight months sur lie in Burgundy and Bordeaux barrels. It is a killer example of Toro, which produces relatively full-throttle, intense wines from ungrafted vines. This beauty, inky purple in color, offers up notes of graphite, forest floor, blackberry and cassis in a full-bodied, pedal-to-the-metal, long, rich and concentrated style. At $20.00 it is a remarkable value and probably capable of lasting up to a decade, although there is no reason to defer your gratification.
94 points, Wine Advocate.
Chicken with Mole Sauce
Instructions by David Lebovitz
Begin with one chicken cut into six or eight portions. Brown the poultry pieces quite well in a large casserole in vegetable oil. Once browned, remove the chicken pieces from the pan and sauté one chopped onion in the casserole and cook until translucent. Deglaze the casserole with some wine of stock, and scrape in any browned bits from the bottom with a flat wooden spatula.
Add the chicken back to the casserole along with a cinnamon stick or two, and add enough chicken stock, water, or white wine to cover chicken pieces. Cover the casserole, and gently simmer chicken until tender throughout.
Once cooked, remove chicken pieces from the liquid and arrange them in a shallow baking dish. Smear chicken pieces generously with mole and bake in a moderate oven, turning once or twice during baking, for about 30 minutes. Serve with a sprinkling of toasted sesame seeds.