Editor’s Pick
DECEMBER 15, 2009 10:05AM
Easy Mexican Mole, and the Best Margaritas on the High Road
Many of my culinary memories center on the cuisines of Old and New Mexico. Here I'm combining both--one of my favorite Mexican dishes, mole poblano, and the best margaritas I've tasted anywhere, on the High Road to Taos. Both are perfect to enjoy at the holiday season.
A traditional plate of mole poblano, typical of what one might find in the high mountain Mexican city of Puebla, where legend has it the dish originated.
A plate of Mexican mole, a complicated dish combining chocolate and spices generally served over chicken, is one of the most fascinating culinary memories a person can make, and certainly an acquired taste. After falling in love with this dish many years ago and having the good fortune to sample it in many places, from the storied restaurants of Mexico City to the mountain eateries of its legendary birthplace, Puebla, from Rick Bayless' kitchens in Chicago to the gardens of San Angel Inn, I decided a few years ago I needed to come up with a recipe of my own.
The typical recipe for mole involves over twenty ingredients, including various raisins, nuts and spices along with the chocolate, and can be very complicated to make. I wanted to create a more simplified version of it to make at home, and set out to create the best easy mole poblano recipe I could that would still pass the taste test with native Mexicans.
After coming up with this recipe, I carried my first batch across the street to our favorite local Mexican restaurant and asked some of the staff to sample it. They proclaimed it an unqualified success.
Here's my easy version of mole poblano, the Mexican national dish, suitable for feast days and family gatherings:
1 can fat-free chicken broth
1 can Ro-Tel diced tomatoes and green chiles
3 baby zucchini, diced
5 carrot sticks or baby carrots, diced
1 small pkg. chocolate chips (I use semi-sweet)
chile powder, to taste
cinnamon, to taste
dash salt
dash mace
sesame seeds for garnish (optional)
In large saucepan, combine chicken broth and tomato/green chile combination. Simmer over low heat and add diced zucchini and carrots; cook until vegetables are tender. Stir in chocolate over low heat until melted.
Season to taste. Start with a dash each of salt, cinnamon and chile powder. After this, continue adding in pinches of cinnamon and chile powder until it suits your individual taste (I like it hot, so I add a lot of chile powder).
Add a dash of mace or allspice if desired. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature, then place in refrigerator overnight. (The flavors will mellow as the mixture cools and sits, so it will not be as spicy hot the next day.)
When ready to use, put cooled mixture in blender and puree until smooth, then heat gently in saucepan until thickened.
Pour over cooked chicken. Garnish with sesame seeds if desired. Serve with Mexican rice and flour tortillas on the side.
To accompany the mole, make the best margarita possible. I've scoured the globe and tasted margaritas from Acapulco to San Antonio in search of the best margarita anywhere, and without exception my favorite is at Rancho de Chimayo in Chimayo, New Mexico (my runner-up is the prickly pear concoction served famously at Boudro's on the Riverwalk in San Antonio, Texas).
This wonderful hacienda, which was closed after an arson fire two years ago, reopened in October on the high road between Santa Fe and Taos.
Here is their famous recipe, which they typically serve in low stemware:
Salt
Lemon wedge
1 1/2 ounces (1 1/2 jiggers) Cuervo Gold or other high quality gold tequila
1 ounce triple sec
3/4 ounce lemon juice
Place a thin layer of salt onto a saucer. Rub the rim of an eight-ounce glass with the lemon wedge and immediately dip the rim into the salt. Set aside.
Pour the tequila, triple sec, and lemon juice into a cocktail shaker or lidded jar, add several ice cubes, and shake to blend. Pour into the prepared glass and serve.
On the Web:
(photo of margarita at Rancho de Chimayo in the creative commons at Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mulsanne/ / CC BY 2.0 )
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Comments
Cheers !
~R
Have a favorite gourmet restaurant in the SF area that serves up the best mole dish ever! It is so surprisingly different and delicious! This recipe you have shared here is absolutely wonderful! And you are a girl after my own heart with a slamp dunk Margarita to accompany this heavenly dish!
Lately, I have been making Pink Cadillacs, or Top Shelf Margaritas with a splash of cranberry juice. (Top Shelf being with Agave Tequilla and Grand Marnier).
It's not even breakfast time here and you have me salivating for this dish of yours!
Andale!!! And muchas gracias!!
but this recipe is good for the many other times that I need my mole! thanks
I might give this a try. The mole sauce too. :-)
BTW, do you have Bayless's cookbook? It's one of my favorites.
Jeanette, just throw in a dead rat and Anthony Bourdain would love it. Enough margaritas and he might not be able to tell the difference. I love Anthony, a guilty pleasure, but I expect if you didn't tell him, he wouldn't know this is a simpler version.
Procopius, I don't have Rick Bayless' cookbook down here in Florida with me, but I do have Diana Kennedy's, The Essential Cuisines of Mexico. I love Rick Bayless' cooking, and his Chicago restaurants.
Having now read it, I'm extremely gratified to discover you're *not* referring to small furry rodents as a meal.
I'm sure the chicken and chocolate works well, and now I've established it's not a creature feature, actually looks very appetizing. That said, could you please pass me a Margarita? My nerves are in shreds.
I'm thinking a couple margaritas and maybe mole sauce over guinea pig (just back from Peru).
I am excited to learn and share recipes with people on this blogsite. I am a born and raised native of South Texas. I have been cooking for 20 years. I first started cooking when I was 8. I am 28 now. I have wonderful recipes of traditional Tex-Mex cuisine that have been handed down through generations. I am looking to find new recipes and technique's of different styles of Mexican cuisine. Happy Holiday's~ Feliz Navidad!