Can we talk moles?

[Stinky The Clown]

I find the concept interesting. I know little about them. Some, I am led to believe, can have 30 ingredients. I tend to cook far more elemental things, although, from time to time, I like a long slow braise. But with respect to moles, and Mexican cuisine apart from that in our Southwest border area, I am uninitiated.

Who knows moles? Can they be sweet as well as savory?









One a related topic:

The only mole I know well is my one that lives silently at CC, waiting for the day . . . . .

[Dover]

1. You ARE ambitious! This is one recipe I wouldn't attempt unless I

had an experienced teacher watching over the process. Learning mole sauce would make for a great cooking class!
I'm surrounded by very good south-of-the-border and spanish restaurants who serve up some delicious mole. In fact I had some just last week on a very cold day. So I'm spoiled and haven't bothered to compete with experts. But I'm guessing that the really amazing mole which is also quite involved and beyond what most restaurants are willing to make, is to be found in the home kitchens of those of Spanish/Mexican descent who have their own family recipes. The quality of the chocolate is key, so I'm told, as is the roasting and combination of the peppers used (ancho, poblano, chipotle, etc.). But really that's already way over simplified. And that is the extent of my knowledge. Not wanting to discourage you, and don't know what experience you've already had with it, but I think one has to have some experience/knowledge as to what the authentic stuff tastes like prior to trying to make it, and I'm gonna guess that not that many people have had the real deal with any frequency, if at all. And it's really getting hard to find the real stuff probably due to its complexity.

How many people would be satisfied with the stuff in the jar if you served it up without their knowledge of the source? Depending on brand, that can certainly be acceptable if you just have to have some and can't make it yourself or find it at a good restaurant. But it is far from the real deal.

[Stinky The Clown]

2. I had a similar challenge with Asian cooking. I can follow a recipe, but some foods . . . .

. . . . you just have to *get*. Someone out me on to The Breath of the Wok and gthat helped me understand the zen of it all. I am by no means an expert, or even competently conversant, but at least I have a modicum of cultural understanding that when I follow recipes now, I at least think I get them.

[Dover]

3. Well, another way to look at it is, you might just create your OWN version that is very satisfying.

It can be your own family recipe and interpretation.
There are no rules, so go for it, and you'll end up knowing more than before you tried it.

As for me, I do wish I'd find some cooking class that has some truly authentic recipe to work off of.

I was looking at this recipe for mole at some point and it looked pretty good if you want to have a look. Or maybe you've already come across one. I also like this one because it has pictures.
I NEED pictures...so even if I don't know what it's supposed to taste like, at least I can try to make it look the same...lol. And maybe you can find a good source for some roasted, blended chile peppers that are especially for mole, and good chocolate too.

http://casualkitchen.blogspot.com/2008/01/how-to-make-mol-sauce-intense-exotic.html

If you do try it, let us know how it goes. :hi:

[Lucinda]

4. I love SW cooking but haven't ventured into moles yet

If I were going to try one, I would look for one at allrecipes.com, or another website with reviews and tips listed for the main recipe. I like digging through all the reviews and tweaks when I am looking for something new to cook.

[Retrograde]

5. My recipe for Oaxacan mole negro

1. Go to the farmers' market
2. Find the stand that sells the Oaxacan food
3. Buy a container or 3 of mole

I once made Mole Poblano from scratch, using Diana Kennedy's recipe. After most of a day of roasting peppers and pureeing various ingredients I did come up with something not too bad, but it is a lot of work.

There are moles other than the chocolate based ones. "Mole" means sauce, so guacamole is an avocado sauce. I like the Oaxacan mole amarillo, or yellow mole, which I make the same way I do the mole negro :)

[japple]

6. Diana Kennedy is certainly the master. I loved her cooking shows

on PBS many years ago, and I love her books. I guess she has been replaced by Rick Bayless, but I'm not crazy about him.

[Dora]

13. We just published her most recent cookbook:

She's a dynamo!

http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/books/kenoax.html

[tigereye]

21. is that the woman whom Lynne Rosetto Kasper visited in

Mexico on a recent show? It was fascinating...

[Warpy]

9. Mole poblano should be left to experts, IMO

Even the Mexicans I know buy containers of it from restaurants when they're doing fancy dinners.

Still, it's instructive to try it just once, just to gain an appreciation of how difficult the process is.

[EFerrari]

7. Gmta. I'm making pre-fab today but

as soon as Spring Training starts (and the light comes back), want to try Mark Miller's mole recipes. He's never let me down yet, I've never worked one of his recipes and felt like it was too much work or a waste of time.

Like this one, Fruit & Chile Mole

Mark Miller's Fruit And Chili Mole
ADAPTED FROM "COYOTE CAFE," BY MARK CHARLES MILLER, TEN SPEED PRESS"

Ingredients

* 2 ounces dried cascabel chilies, stemmed and seeded
* 4 ounces dried New Mexican or guajillo chilies (or use twice the given amount of ancho chilies, below), stemmed and seeded
* 2 ounces dried chipotle chilies, stemmed and seeded
* 4 ounces dried ancho chilies, stemmed and seeded
* 2 quarts water
* 1/2 pound Roma tomatoes
* 2 cloves garlic, roasted and peeled
* 1 3/4 cups diced fresh pineapple
* 1/2 pound ripe bananas
* 1 large green apple (Granny Smith or pippin), peeled, cored and chopped
* 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
* 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
* Pinch ground clove
* 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
* 2 teaspoons salt
* 1 tablespoon sugar
* 3 tablespoons peanut oil

http://events.nytimes.com/recipes/4687/1991/09/08/Mark-Millers-Fruit-And-Chili-Mole/recipe.html

[Warpy]

8. Most are savory and they're not all that dark red stuff with cocoa in it.

Green moles are often based on things like pistachios or even pumpkin seeds.
There are also squash or sweet potato based moles with sausage. The common ingredient to all of them is chile, not chocolate.

I had never heard of sweet mole, but surprise! A quick search turned up this little gem: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cookbook:Sweet_Mole_and_Vanilla_Bean_Ice_Cream which looks like a spicy chocolate sauce for ice cream. Even it is more hot/bitter than sweet.

Most moles are pretty complicated with lots of layering of different flavors. They can range from mildly spicy to hotter than the hinges on the doors to hell. Mole poblano is the one most people know the best and it's one of the more complicated ones. It's in the category of puff pastry, something every knowledgeable cook needs to try once so s/he knows what goes into it.

[Stinky The Clown]

10. Are any good brands of ready to use moles available nationally?

[Warpy]

11. I've tried them. They're mostly mole poblano, even here.

Just follow the directions. They are, um, edible. Like all processed foods, they're a pallid imitation of the real thing. The one that comes in something like a juice glass with a pry off lid is probably the best, can't recall the name because it's been years. I do know the packaging hasn't changed.

If you're doing a Mexican dinner for a bunch of gringos who don't know any better, you can definitely get away with it, though. It is rather warmish, so have plenty of flour tortillas for them to nosh on. Water makes it worse, you know.

[Dover]

14. "juice glass and pry off lid" would probably be Dona Maria mole.

Or maybe Rogelio Bueno Mole? Both come in a "juice glass".





http://search.mexgrocer.com/?vwcatalog=mex-grocer&q=mole&sa.x=15&sa.y=15

It's okay in a pinch. And as Warpy mentioned, most gringos wouldn't know the difference anyway.

Here's an online Mexican Grocery that might be helpful for products and recipe ideas:
http://www.mexgrocer.com/?engine=adwords!856&keyword=%28mexican+grocer%29

[Warpy]

15. I found the Dona Maria one slightly more palatable

but YMMV. The Bueno was a close second. The stuff that comes in real jars with twist off lids is horrible. Fortunately, I haven't seen it back east.

[Dover]

16. Pages and pages of readymade moles and mole cooking ingredients here >

I haven't tried but a couple of these readymades, but it looks like there are a number
of options as well as many of the ingredients for making authentic mole on your own, like chili pastes for mole, etc. I'm glad you brought up this topic because I didn't know about the availability of many of these things:

http://search.mexgrocer.com/?vwcatalog=mex-grocer&q=mole&sa.x=15&sa.y=15


This looked interesting ...

Complex dark sauce with chiles, nuts, spices, fruits, vegetables, chocolate and ranchero seasonings

[tigereye]

19. "hotter than the hinges on the doors to hell!"

love it! :rofl: You should write a book, Warpy! :thumbsup:


I think made a simple? version of the poblano for NYE one time- very time consuming, but not nearly as complicated as the one below...



I think this is the one I was thinking of that looked more "traditional" very different from the quickie versions...

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/chicken-mole-poblano-recipe/index.html

[pscot]

12. Despite the large number of ingredients

moles aren't technically difficult. Just take your time and work your way through it. The thing is, you end up with a lot of sauce and it stores well in the refrigerator if it's poured hot into sterile jars. The canned supermarket stuff is dreadful.

[Dover]

17. How about trying the real deal? Eat Mexico is a foodie tour of Mexico.

A great way to shake off the winter blues and get immersed in Mexican food/culture.

http://www.eatmexico.com/

And their recipe blog, The Miga Chronicles
http://lesleytellez.wordpress.com/?s=mole&submit=Search

Or you might email the web/business owner Lesley Téllez and ask what she recommends for
the mole beginner.

[tigereye]

18. I've only tried the "westernized" version - without roasting

spices or the more traditional spices that would be found near cities with larger Hispanic populations than we have here, or the local Mexican food store...


I did melt unsweetened chocolate in the way they recommended, and search for chiles - ended up using some canned ones, which lacked the necessary heat, I think and some fresher mild ones... I recently saw a recipe posted somewhere in my travels that seemed to be more of the truly traditional type. I have a good friend who lived in Mexico for several years and could certainly ask her for her preferred moles...


Mole seems a very good quest... :thumbsup:

[tigereye]

20. Mole (Cook West) by Gwyneth Doland looks interesting

just took a peek on Amazon... :hi: