One of the advantages of being a cook is that there is a great chance you will be able to work with people from all over the world. An advantage of this is that you learn things about their culture, including what they like to eat. I work with some people from Oaxaca and have tried many of their traditional recipes. This one for mole is always a favorite.
A friend asked me the other day if mole took several days to prepare. I’m sure many people think that mole is something that could take hours, if not days, to prepare because of its richness and depth of flavor. Traditionally, it may have simmered for days, but I’m not sure. This particular mole can be made in a couple of hours. I like to call it a quick mole. *Update! I was just informed after tasting today’s batch of quick mole that the proper terminology is mole loco!
It’s also important to note that there are many different kinds of moles. Every region of Mexico has its own version; Puebla has its famous mole Poblano, there are mole negro, mole coloradito, mole verde. Some moles use a bit of local chocolate to add sweetness, some use jalapenos and cilantro, and others will use nuts and raisins. The Oaxacan style mole here is not the simplest recipe because it requires several pots and pans, and quite a few ingredients. But I would highly recommend trying it at home if you are ambitious because it will taste better than any mole you have tried in a restaurant or bought at the store.
The key to many great recipes is building flavor. In cooking, all of the components of a recipe must be prepared with care because these are the building blocks of the finished dish. When you look through the photos you can see how simple ingredients such as onion, garlic, and cumin are caramelized and toasted to bring out their natural sugars, transforming them from their raw, astringent state into a sweeter, softer, and more aromatic one.
So, how to make the mole? You can follow the photos above to get a general idea of the method:
Ingredients:
1 Spanish onion, thickly sliced and sauteed in oil
5 or 6 garlic cloves, sauteed in oil
1 green apple, sliced and sauteed in oil
Handful of pumpkin seeds (pepitas), toasted in oil
(Hint: Prepare one sautee pan with oil and sautee the above ingredients separately, but take them out of the oil with a slotted spoon so that you can use the same pan and oil. Just be careful not to burn any of the ingredients.)
1 tablespoon cumin seeds, toasted
4 cloves
Handful of dried guajillo peppers, toasted in the oven, de-seeded, and rehydrated in hot water
salt and pepper
Method:
Put all of the ingredients into a blender.
Add just enough of the water that the peppers have soaked in to help liquefy the ingredients.
Taste the mixture for salt; it should taste well seasoned. This is your mole base. This base could be made in a food processor with little to no liquid and kept in the refrigerator for future use.
The next step is to fry the mole. Prepare a skillet with about an 1/8″ of oil, get it nice and hot, have a splatter guard ready, and pour the mole base into the oil. ALWAYS USE CAUTION WHEN ADDING LIQUID TO HOT OIL. The oil does not have to be smoking, just hot. You can gauge its hotness by dropping a spoonful of mole into it; it should sizzle but not violently. Stir it well for as long as you would like. The longer it simmers, the more the flavors will develop. At this point you can add stock to the mole in order to thin it to the consistency you like. If you are going to prepare a chicken mole, as in the slideshow above, add chicken stock; if you are going to have a vegetarian mole, add water or vegetable stock.
Again, season to taste. That’s about it. This is really a quick mole, but if you begin to understand the technique of building a sauce like this, in the future, it just becomes a matter of plugging in different or additional ingredients to master any other type of mole.
To finish the dish, chicken is typically simmered in broth with some aromatic vegetables and then finished in the mole. However, the chicken could be cooked entirely in the mole. Mole is all about the sauce, so a simply prepared meat like chicken is a great medium to showcase the mole.
Rice is probably the ideal side dish. Here, the rice is cooked in a flavorful tomato broth with diced potatoes, carrots, and zucchini.
Fresh, warm tortillas and ice-cold Coca Cola round out the meal. And what’s better for dessert than a good, old-fashioned, traditional siesta?
