mole Archives - Hungry Travelers

mole

Chichilo, Oaxaca’s forgotten classic mole

Posted on January 30, 2021February 2, 2021 by Pat and David

Chichilo is perhaps the most unorthodox of Oaxaca's seven classic moles. Thickened with corn masa, it lacks the fatty richness of seeds or nuts. Nor does it boast the sweet and round flavors of the tomatoes, tomatillos, raisins, or plantains found in other moles. The simplicity of chichilo is very similar to a Texas all-meat chili con carne. It consists primarily of meat stewed in a sauce of puréed chile peppers. But chichilo is also one of the Oaxacan ‶burnt″ dishes that get part of their flavor from charred ingredients. Some of those recipes call for blackened onions, fire-roasted tomatoes, or even fire-roasted green chiles with the charred flesh left on. This version of chichilo, adapted from Zarela Martinez's seminal The Food and Life of...Read More

The fruit-laden surprise of manchamanteles

Posted on January 23, 2021January 22, 2021 by Pat and David

We've always thought that part of the appeal of mole poblano to American palates is the sweetness imparted by Mexican chocolate in the sauce. By that standard, manchamanteles should be an even bigger hit. This bright sauce always features chunks of pineapple and fried plantains. We've been curious to try making it since first tasting it in a restaurant years ago. Adapted from recipes by Rick Bayless, Zarela Martinez, and Diana Kennedy, this variant also adds sweet potato pieces to the stew. Some cooks make this classic Oaxacan mole with a dizzying array of chiles and dried fruits. We've opted for a streamlined version of this labor-intensive recipe. In the interest of simplicity, we've specified lard as the cooking fat. Vegetable shortening is a perfectly...Read More

Mole negro with sweet potato and feta salad

Posted on January 17, 2021January 16, 2021 by Pat and David

Fans of Mexican cuisine dream about this mole. It's practically the national food of the region of Oaxaca. If you go to the fresh market in Oaxaca city, you can select all your ingredients and have the market miller grind them together for you into a paste. (The miller will use toasted cacao seeds, sugar, and almonds rather than pre-made chocolate tablets.) Admittedly, the market approach has a few disadvantages. You don't get the rounded flavor that comes from roasting the seeds, nuts, and spices. This recipe gives you full control, but it takes most of a day to make. We often double the recipe and pressure-can the leftovers in 12-ounce canning jars. That way we can enjoy mole negro at will. If you're a...Read More

Delicious pumpkin seed mole tops salmon steak

Posted on January 9, 2021January 8, 2021 by Pat and David

Also known as pepían or mole verde, this sauce starts off bright green but mellows to a less neon hue as it cooks. Whereas most moles are thickened with sesame seeds or almonds, this one—as the name suggests—is thickened with a paste of toasted, ground pumpkin seeds. Everything dark in most moles is light and green in this one. Green pumpkin seeds combine with fresh green chiles, fresh green herbs, and fresh green vegetables for an appealingly bright flavor that's welcome in the winter months. Pumpkin seeds—pepitas in Spanish—are widely sold roasted and salted as snack food. But raw seeds are key to getting the right flavor for this sauce. If you can't find them locally, order from Nuts.com. Many traditional Oaxacan recipes call for...Read More

Mole coloradito brightens any early winter meal

Posted on January 2, 2021December 31, 2020 by Pat and David

As one of the seven classics, mole coloradito occupies the sweet spot between the bright punch of mole amarillo and the luscious richness of the darker moles. Brick-red in color and somewhat thinner than many other moles, it is straightforward to prepare. This recipe uses only guajillo peppers, a moderately hot chile with thin walls and a smoky, fruity flavor. The sauce is fairly harsh when you first start cooking but becomes smooth and mellow somewhere around the two-hour mark. The finished mole is surprisingly fruity and pairs nicely with cold sauvignon blanc wine. Coloradito is very versatile when it comes time to serve. Traditionally, it's ladled over a pork roast, over roasted leg and thigh of chicken, or over enchiladas. In Oaxaca, the sauce...Read More

Mole amarillo meets champagne for New Years Eve

Posted on December 26, 2020March 2, 2021 by Pat and David

If there's one shortcoming of Mexican mole sauces, it's that many of them are not exactly wine-friendly. Mole amarillo, however, is an extreme exception. It's a bright, sprightly sauce with a nice acidic tang and a heady combination of sunny spices. Amarillo is a perfect riposte to the cold and dark days immediately following the winter solstice. It also pairs spectacularly with sparkling wines, champagne included. One of our favorite choices is Gruët Brut, a terrific American sparkling wine from New Mexico made by a family with roots in France's Champagne district (gruetwinery.com). They blend it from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grown at 4,000-5,000 feet of elevation between Albuquerque and Las Cruces, New Mexico. (The company's Blancs de Blancs and Blanc de Noirs also go...Read More

Starting on Oaxaca’s seven moles with mole rojo

Posted on December 19, 2020March 2, 2021 by Pat and David

For many years we cooked a Christmas Eve spread for around 25 family members. Since we have only our own palates to please this year, we decided to make the holidays festive by beginning a marathon of cooking dishes often associated with good times and holiday cheer, at least in Mexican and Latinx households. We're talking about tamales and moles (MOH-lays, in case you were wondering how to pronounce it). This will be the beginning of a series with recipes for our versions of the seven classic moles of Oaxaca and some ways to serve them. Why Oaxaca? Mexico has a rich variety of regional cuisines, but we think of Oaxaca as the mother kitchen for them all. The Isthmus of Tehuantepec was the spice...Read More

Faces of Pátzcuaro, Mexico, on the Day of the Dead

Posted on October 27, 2020October 23, 2020 by Pat and David

[caption id="attachment_7757" align="aligncenter" width="1832"] Island cemetery in Lake Pátzcuaro is decorated with marigolds. [/caption] In this COVID year, every ‶normal″ celebration seems a little strange, even abnormal. Yet there is something comforting, even reassuring, about marking our festivals. To forget them is to lose continuity with our past. This year, we'll again seek out marigolds to honor family members who are no longer with us. And we'll make a dinner with mole amarillo, the saffron-scented marigold-colored sauce popular in this season in many parts of Mexico. We will also remember the faces of Pátzcuaro, the colonial city of 80,000 in the Mexican state of Michoacán. Thanks partly to Disney's Coco and partly to glossy travel stories, Pátzcuaro has become almost too famous for its Day...Read More

Cradle of Mexican cuisine, Oaxaca relishes mole negro

Posted on February 3, 2017June 9, 2020 by Pat and David

No one escapes untouched by Oaxaca. This lyrical, magical city has been a powerful cultural and trade center for millennia. It is also arguably the cradle of Mexican cuisine. You can always eat well in Veracruz, Mexico City, and Puebla. But in Oaxaca, you feast. Every dish is a taste revelation. Tomatoes and chile peppers were domesticated in northern Oaxaca around 4500 BC—presumably to spice up all those meals based on beans and corn, which the ancient Oaxacans had domesticated 3,000 years earlier. And Oaxaca continued to expand its larder. By the time the high culture of Monte Alban (right) arose around 500 BC, the Oaxaca Valley was a crossroads of trade between South and North America. Foodstuffs poured in from as far north as...Read More

Mole amarillo for turkey enchiladas

Posted on November 29, 2013November 29, 2013 by Pat and David

Mole amarillo is a classic sauce for Day of the Dead meals in Oaxaca. When we first started visited the Oaxaca region in the 1980s, we already knew the spicy, chocolate-y mole poblano. But of the seven classic moles, the one that really blew us away was the complex, subtle, and tangibly acidic mole amarillo (yellow mole). It was the first taste of travel that we labored to bring home. In those days, that meant growing our own tomatillos and yellow chile peppers and experimenting a lot to get the flavors right. It really does represent the culmination of our garden, which may be why we introduced mole amarillo with enchiladas into our post-Thanksgiving rotation many years ago. It's a perfect way to use to...Read More