Mole Poblano: Cook-Off 9

[C. sapidus]

Wow, Klary, that is absolutely gorgeous! Thanks for linking that recipe, too. It will be a contender when the next fit of mole madness strikes.

[Lapin d'Argent]

3 things I did this time which made the difference between good and fantastic mole:

I fried everything in lard, not just the chiles.

Thank you Chufi -- Time to render some beautiful lard, hunt up exotic ingredients, and get a batch of Mole going! The weather this week is supposed to be in the single digits, so now is the perfect time.

- L.

[Ce'nedra]

Wandering Chops (a food blog I frequent) recently made this mole using nutella! Now that's interesting:

http://wanderingchopsticks.blogspot.com/20...tella-mole.html

[Chufi]

I made a very good batch of mole last week. We had some with chicken (simmering chicken pieces in the mole until done) and we had some with back beans. I have a lot in the freezer, and I'm thinking about other meats to use with the sauce. I'm not sure if this was mentioned somewhere, but would any kind of game work? Venison maybe? And what would be the best way to put the 2 together - braise the venison separately and then combine with the mole, or simmer the meat in the sauce?

and another thought.. would duck work?

[kalypso]

Klary, I think your Mole Poblano looked terrific in the photos upthread. The frying and seiving does make all the difference doesn't it.

As to meats other than chicken, turkey and pork would both be fairly traditional in Mexico. Rabbit would be nice.

When I have prepared sauce, I usually either sautee off the meat and then finish it in the mole, or poach the meat ahead of time and use the poaching liquid to reconstitute mole paste. In either case, I finish cooking the meat in the mole.

[Chufi]

For future reference: I ended up using guinea fowl (I wanted duck, but the duck legs did not look too good at the store). Browned in a frying pan first, then braised slowly in the mole until really tender. It worked, the guinea fowl just has a little more character than chicken and matched the sauce very well.

[Chufi]

here´s a quick question that´s been bugging me.

If a mole does not have poblano peppers, can it still be called Mole Poblano, as in, ´from Pueblo´? or is it just ´mole´ without the poblano peppers?

Recipes for Mole Poblano have been popping up on Dutch foodsites, without the poblano peppers of course. Before I start criticizing people for their choice of words I want to make sure I´m right. Thanks.

[rancho_gordo]

I don't think traditionally there are poblano chiles in it. Isn't it mostly dried chiles?

It's called Mole Poblano because the mole is from Puebla, not because it uses the fresh green chiles. The Oaxacan moles are very different as is mole from Michoacan.

It's kind of an advanced dish to offer in a Dutch magazine!

[Dakki]

I agree with Rancho Gordo. As I understand it both mole and chiles are "from Puebla" and one is not an ingredient in the other.

Making mole from scratch is pretty intricate and time-consuming even for the people on eGullet I think. Those Dutch bloggers must be quite the "foodies."