All about Mole and the Best Tips & Building Blocks for Making it
It’s hard to imagine a better authority to speak about mole than Maricel Presilla. An award-winning author, culinary historian, chef, and restaurateur who has written extensively about chiles, chocolate, and “La Gran Cocina Latina,” Presilla recently hosted a Fine Chocolate Industry Association webinar on mole and shared the history as well as details about making it.
What is Mole?
Mole is a chile-based paste that becomes a sauce to enrich turkey. It’s a preeminent celebratory food made in large quantities and for large gatherings. According to Presilla, it’s a fusion food because it is based on a pre-Columbian sauce of tomatoes and chiles, but also with old-world spices and nuts. However, you can make mole with no Old World ingredients at all. There is no mole without chiles, and most moles call for dried chiles which are ground in a traditional metate.
Not all moles call for chocolate. but Presilla says that when used for feasts, moles call for cacao nibs or chocolate, which add richness and luxuriousness. Non-chocolate moles are thinner, less velvety.
Chiles add heat, cacao adds sweetness, and turkey is the preferred meat to be served with the sauce.
Origin Myth
According to legend, mole had “a virginal birth in the 17th entry in the convent of Santa Rosa in Puebla de los Angeles” when the nuns of the convent, led by a gifted cook, had to prepare a special dish for a bishop’s visit. They used only the ingredients they had on hand namely chiles, chocolate, old bread, nuts and spices, to make a luscious sauce for wild turkey and the dish became an instant success.
But this story ignores the truth, that cooking was not haphazard and as Presilla points out, “kitchens were laboratories” where recipes were painstakingly created. And in fact, mole has an ancient history with artifacts to show that it goes back to 450AD.
Cooking Myths
Don’t fear the chiles! According to Presilla, chiles don’t need to be hot, dry roasting and hydration tame the heat. Not all moles have chocolate but chocolate makes them tastier. Moles have the reputation for being difficult to make, but in truth, they don’t require hundreds of ingredients. But making mole does require organization and “building blocks.” Making mole for a big group can take several days but for small amounts, much less time is required. They can even be made with one chile and many little pinches of seasonings. The sesame that’s often seen as a garnish is an old-world import.
Building Blocks of Mole
Presilla explains that moles are based on clusters of related ingredients:
· Dried chiles such as guajillo, mulato, pasilla or chipotle
· Seasoning such as onions and garlic
· Dried and fresh fruits—raisins, prunes, ripe plantains, even apples
· Thickeners—corn tortillas, stale bread, nuts
· Fat—pork lard or in modern recipes, olive oil
· Chocolate or cacao nibs and sugar
· Liquid
· Tomatoes add sweetness and acidity but must be roasted before using
Maricel Presilla’s Tips for Making Mole
1. Use the right tools
2. Wash chiles, pat dry, open them and destem, then toast them on the comal or cast-iron skillet
3. Hydrate the chiles with water, soak until soft
4. Roast the sesame seeds, allspice, peppercorns, onions, and tomatoes
5. Grind ingredients in the blender
6. Don’t use poor quality lard, it’s better to use extra virgin olive oil
7. Fry the paste of the chiles then add the seasoning paste/ When oil begins to be released, then add the chocolate —taste for salt and balance
8. Strain the paste
9. Dissolve the paste in a liquid such as broth
10. Cook turkey in broth with seasonings then use both to dissolve the paste then cook it
11. Add the paste to tamales, shrimp, tortillas, and cheese
12. Use criollo chocolate, because it’s what was used in pre Colonial times
13. The spices are old-world cumin cloves cinnamon, anise seed, some moles call for pinches of all of them, but you can decide for my one chile I use just anise.
14. Use herbs too, including thyme and oregano.
15. Nuts and seeds should be dry roasted—almonds, hazelnuts, pepitas
16. Use panela (Mexican sugar)for sweetness