Mancha manteles

8 servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
1 Small turkey, in serving
Pieces, or 2 chickens
½ cup Lard
2 Ancho chiles, chopped
2 Pasilla chiles, chopped
2 Serrano chiles, chopped
4 ounces Almonds,blanched,slivered
1 tablespoon White sesame seeds
2 Chorizos, peeled/chopped
1 large Onion, sliced thin
½ pounds Tomatoes, peeled, seeded,
And chopped
1 teaspoon Cinnamon powder
2 cups Turkey or chicken stock
1 tablespoon Sugar
5 teaspoons Cider vinegar
1 teaspoon Salt or to taste
4 ounces Pineapple, chunked
2 Firm cooking apples,
Peeled, cored, & sliced
1 large Unripe banana, peeled
And sliced

Directions

This looks very much like Mancha manteles, which Richard [Manchurian Candidate] Condon describes in The Mexican Stove: Two little women staggered in from another room carrying a gigantic bowl of something which was jetting hot perfume. The sen~ora hoped I enjoyed mancha manteles. Reyes explained that this was the second Mexican meal of my life, ... but that he knew that I would -love- mancha manteles. The sen~ora beamed and instructed me to eat heart- ily, remembering that the translation of mancha manteles was: ta- blecloth stainer. I was sweating hard as she overdid me the honor of preparing my plate, a very wide plate, perhaps a foot in diam- eter. The tablecloth stainer contains the following: one turkey, four chorizo sausages, sliced pineapples, sliced apples, sliced bananas, some pork; ancho, pasilla and serrano chiles; almonds, cinnamon, lard, and tomato puree. Reyes scooped away as though he had picked up a fake stomach at Macy's. I got through it. ...

A very peculiar physiological metamorphosis happened to Reyes that afternoon. When he entered the chairman's house he was a well-set-up, definitely not stout fellow who spoke American with a marked California accent. After that dinner he was not only a stout man - and I mean a shorter, rounder, fatter man with a pronounced paunch - but his speech changed. He would ramble in the diction of a jazz musician or break into voluble Spanish.

Not that the sen~ora's meal taught him to speak Spanish. He had always spoken Spanish. But never to Jewish delicatessen waiters, for example, or to austere British bootmakers.

Brown turkey in lard. Remove. Pour off fat, leaving 2 T in the pan.

Fry chiles, almonds, and sesame seeds together until fragrant. Blend to a puree in a blender. Fry chorizo meat in the fat that remains in the pan. Remove. In the same fat, cook onions until soft. Add blended mixture, tomatoes, and cinnamon. Cook a few minutes and then turn out the whole mess into a large casserole. Mix in the stock, sugar, vinegar, and salt. Taste for seasoning. Add browned turkey pieces, chorizo meat, and fruit. Cover and simmer 45 min to 1 hr. After Richard Condon's recipe and description.

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