We at Editer.com love The Modern Pantry. We love the graceful proportions of its Georgian townhouse premises, the cool colours and minimal leanings of the decor, the little gourmet shop, the weekend brunch, and all of Anna Hansen’s globally inspired food, a bold step away from the prevailing English tendency when she opened in 2008, and ever-thrilling for her regular clientele.

Anna’s menus feature exciting ingredients and kickass herbs and spices, things like cassava, samphire, smoked chilli, Thai basil cress, green tea, sea beets and Lucques olives. Nothing’s that hard to find for Londoners, and the recipes in the handsome The Modern Pantry cookbook are made even more accessible with suggestions of substitutions, side dishes and short cuts.

This Mexican-inspired dish is great for winter, with its rich, intense sauce, and natural affinity with game. Anna prepared it for us with guinea fowl, but it goes just as well with chicken, rabbit, pork, even monkfish. The chocolate in the sauce is a Mexican thing: it is often used to bring depth to a savoury sauce. There are a lot of ingredients, and the method sounds convoluted, but it’s quite straightforward. Serve with tomatillo salsa, the recipe for which also appears in The Modern Pantry book, fried plantain and mustard greens or cavolo nero, or plain brown rice.

Anna Hansen’s guinea fowl mole rojo

Ingredients for four

  • 60g unskinned almonds
  • 50g pumpkin seeds
  • 50g raisins or sultanas
  • A large red chilli
  • 3 tbsp sesame seeds
  • Two star anise
  • Ten cloves
  • Cinnamon stick
  • 1tbsp Urfa chilli flakes
  • 3tsp fresh oregano
  • 2tsp thyme leaves
  • Two large bay leaves
  • 50g stale breadcrumbs
  • Six tomatillos, husks removed
  • One onion, roughly chopped
  • Ten garlic cloves
  • 1 litre chicken stock
  • 80g dark chocolate (70 per cent solids), chopped
  • 1tbsp vegetable oil
  • Two guinea fowl, jointed
  • Maldon sea salt
  • Black pepper
  • 1

    Spread out the almonds, pumpkin seeds and raisins on a baking tray and bake in an oven preheated to 160˚C for ten minutes until the nuts and seeds are golden and the fruit plumped up.

  • 2

    Cook the red chilli on a hot griddle or frying pan until charred all over. Trim the stalk.

  • 3

    Lightly toast the sesame seeds, star anise, cloves and cinnamon in a dry frying pan, then grind finely, along with the Urfa flakes.

  • 4

    Transfer to a food processor and add the almonds, pumpkin seeds and raisins, the charred chilli, oregano, thyme, bay leaves and breadcrumbs. Whizz up into fine, aromatic crumbs, then remove 2tbsp and set aside.

  • 5

    Char the tomatillos, onion and garlic under a hot grill, which should take 5–10 minutes.

  • 6

    Add them to the crumbs in the food processor and blitz again until you have a consistent mass.

  • 7

    Transfer this to a large pan, whisk in the stock and bring to the boil.

  • 8

    Reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes, then whisk in the chocolate and season to taste.

  • 9

    Heat the oil in a large frying pan, add the guinea fowl pieces, and brown thoroughly over a high heat, seasoning them as you go.

  • 10

    Place in an ovenproof dish, pour over half the mole sauce (you can freeze the rest for up to two months), cover with foil or a lid, and cook at 180˚C for 30 minutes or so, until the meat is cooked through.

  • 11

    When it’s done, remove the guinea fowl from the sauce and keep it warm. Pass the sauce through a sieve, pushing down with the back of a ladle to extract as much liquid and flavour as you can.

  • 12

    Return the sauce to the pan, adjust the seasoning, then gently bring to the boil. Put the guinea fowl on a serving plate, pour the sauce over it, then sprinkle over the reserved aromatic crumbs.

  • 13

    Serve immediately with tomatillo salsa.

Anna’s mole tips

  • You can get tomatillos from specialist markets, supermarkets and food halls such as Selfridges. Tinned ones are fine as an alternative, they just won’t caramelise as quickly when you grill them.
  • The aromatic powder mixture that you make with the nuts, seeds, herbs, spices and breadcrumbs is wonderful sprinkled onto salads, steamed vegetables, and so on. Make an extra batch!
  • If you can’t find Urfa chilli, any mild chilli flakes will do.
  • If you do this with monkfish, do use fish stock instead of chicken stock.
  • Depending on how thick you like it, loosen the mole with water during the cooking stage if need be. You don’t actually have to cook the meat in the sauce – you can grill or barbecue it and serve the mole on the sauce on the side.
The Modern Pantry, 48 St John’s Square, London EC1 (020 7553 9210; www.themodernpantry.co.uk)
@themodernpantry
The Modern Pantry cookbook is available to buy online, or at the restaurant.