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Mole from Mexico
Description
The basic ingredients are straightforward enough, though some of them may require a bit of digging to locate. There's quite a bit of preparation to make a fine mole, but the effort is worth it, as a taste of the results will prove.
Ingredients
3
tortillas (corn) 1⁄2
French roll (short) 2
plantains (very ripe) 3 oz
chocolate (Mexican chocolate) 3
tomatoes (plum tomatoes are best) 6
ancho chiles 3
pastilla chiles 3 clv
garlic 1
onion (small) 2 T
almonds 4 T
peanuts 4 T
pecans 2 T
sesame seeds 3 T
raisins 8
peppercorns 1
cinnamon (1 stick) 1⁄2 t
anise 1⁄2 t
cuminInstructions
- Grind up all the chiles, as well as the cumin and anise, very finely. Set them aside. Grind up the nuts to small chunks, but not powder.
- Sauté the nuts in the pork lard. If you prefer something less heavy use vegetable or canola oil. Then sauté the raisins in the same oil. In a fresh skillet, sauté the plantains in pork lard or oil until they've gone slightly crispy. Then sauté the bread in the same skillet.
- Mix the vegetables together with the sautéed plantains and add 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth. You can use a blender or stir well with a spoon or mixer, then strain the result. Strain the chili mix to remove any seeds, stir well, then add the result to the vegetable mix.
- Make a paste by mashing the bread and tortillas well, then add them in too. Add 2 cups of chicken stock. Add another cup of chicken stock to the ground nuts and blend that in.
- Finally, melt the chocolate and add it to this soupy mixture and stir well. Now, for the hard part. Stir almost continuously for about 2 hours.
Notes
The result is enough to spread on dishes for a dozen diners and will keep well in the refrigerator for a week.
Stirring the mole can be done by trading places among several people, or you can set a mixer on very low speed, preferably one that has a computerized timer so it can be turned off and on every few minutes for a few seconds. But you'll need a mixer with a heating element since the blend also needs to be cooked over low heat while it is stirred.
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Find a recipe for mole verde and another for mole poblano in the food recipes for Cinco de Mayo.
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