A Day for Mole

A couple of day ago, I found myself with a lot of free time and a determination to make something that I love, but is often prepared too quickly, ending in a muddle—Mole.
I summoned my inner poblano housewife and set to work making mole in as traditional a way as possible while still trying to keep it my own. Mole is often described as a chocolate sauce, but it’s actually much more complicated than just chocolate. Proper Mole Poblano involves chocolate, but also a combination of peppers, nuts and spices. Just for fun, I laid out about 90 percent of my mole ingredients on a cutting board before I set to work.


From what I’ve read, I understand Mole to be a dish used more for special occasions than day to day eating, and the prep time in making mole really confirms this. Individually roasting and frying peppers, toasting nuts and spices, blanching tomatoes, blackening tomatillo and mixing, pureeing, tasting, adjusting and boiling down took about two and a half hours. The time and end result was worthwhile as I had a sauce that tasted of chocolate and cinnamon and cloves yet was complex in that despite those flavors the sweetness was an underlying one giving rise to a slight and nuttiness as the flavors evolved on the tongue. I also ended up making more mole than I could possibly use in one meal, leaving me more Mole for future experiments, I’m thinking pulled pork enchiladas or duck breast or possibly lamb shank and mole.

The dinner I made on Monday was simple (one I spent all the time making the Mole.) I browned chicken legs then covered them in mole and turkey stock and baked them for 45 minutes. When finished I served them over rice (to absorb the Mole) with black beans, shallots and tomatoes. I finished the dish with sprinkled Garrotxa cheese (I hope using conquistador cheese isn’t an affront to Mexican cooking) and cilantro for the color and to brighten the dish a little.

If you enjoy cooking and find yourself with some free time, I wholly encourage making Mole or some other sort of traditional ethnic dish. Most of these dishes are very time consuming because traditionally, women in some of these cultures spent their days cooking and tending to their homes. However, the payoff in making these dishes from scratch is a truly great ethnic dish that doesn’t suffer from their more modernized mass produced ripoffs that we tend to see in our cuisine these days. It might even be an enlightening experience.