Holy Mole 🇲🇽 🙌

Exploring Mexico's 'Mother Sauce'

Greetings Friends 🥂

Today is a dive into one of my culinary obsessions. Being a curious cook has led me down so many rabbit holes over the years, always with delicious results. I came to appreciate Mexican 🇲🇽 cuisine later in my cooking career. I’d had many bad iterations…. Taco Bell 🔔 didn’t do anything to bolster my opinion and the often-times-heavy TexMex experiernces didn’t leave me craving more.

Then I experienced legit Mexican cooking. The explosive flavors and complexity of Mole Pipián & Mole Negro got me absolutely hooked. After that my natural curiosity led me to spending my own time reading, traveling, talking with chef friends and…. cooking!

When you stop thinking of Mexican Cuisine as one area, and instead think of it regionally…. it really helps a lot. In regards to Mole, Oaxaca and Puebla are renown for having amazing Mole.

I broke down the main culinary regions of Mexico previously in the Last Call Substack and you can catch up if you missed it (also killer recipes for Margs 🍹 and Guacamole 🥑 ) ⬇️

Last Call...

Which brings us to today… Mole. The iconic sauce that in Mexican Cookery is the true measure of a cooks mastery. This was another appreciation that came later on… and became an obsession.

Most people that have had Mole in restaurants are eating jarred pastes that have been doctored up. Even in the home setting… it’s common to take shortcuts like adding peanut butter (🤦‍♂️) to shorten the preparation time. These sauces are “ok” but the magic in Mole is in the layering and building of flavors… True Alchemy 🙌

And that’s the issue with a lot of Moles. They can be time consuming to make… some rack up well over 20 ingredients to gather up…. and the result?

One of the most delicious… multi-layered… robust… complex sauces you’ll ever taste. Your time is always rewarded!

So What is Mole? 🇲🇽

Let’s dive in… but first… 🚨 Mother’s Day is only 10 days away 👀 🚨

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Mole, Mole, Mole… Molaaaay

So what is Mole? (pr: moe-lay)

Mole is a sauce… and the origin word “molli” means sauce. Makes sense 😂

The sauce itself will vary in thickness and texture based on the style. And there are a lot of them… here’s 11 you may have heard of

Amarillo

Blanco

Chichilo

Colorado 

Manchamantel (incl because the name literally means “table cloth stainer” 😂 )

Negro 

Pipián

Poblano

Rojo

Verde 

Xiqueno

As stated above, Oaxaca and Puebla are the 2 iconic Mole making regions, but Mole is also made in other areas.

What follows is brief overview that should get you intrigued and exciting to make Mole at home… (hint: you making at home will taste better than 95% of Mole you eat out).

Essentials:

At their core, Moles all start with chilis…. this is what gives the sauce it’s personality. Using fresh, dried or both… there are tons of flavor profile options.

Some chiles are mild and sweet, others racy and hot (check previous post Spice is Nice for more discussion on chilis 🌶 and some amazing salsas)

From there, some form of seeds and/or nuts (sesame seeds, almonds, pecans, etc) are toasted and ground. This provides a lot of depth (flavorwise) and also thickening. How finely ground this mixture is will influence how smooth (or coarse) the final sauce is.

Many times fruit is used in the mole and/or tomato (or tomatillo) providing sweet or sour profiles.

Most people think of chocolate as necessary for mole. While it is essential in the Oaxacan Mole Negro it is not used in many mole recipes. In the Oaxacan cult-classic, the chocolate provides immense depth and pleasant bitterness to balance plantain and other sweet flavors.

Much of the time spent making mole is all prep. Toasting, grinding, frying and making pastes. Many moles rely on frying a paste of the chilis in fat to bloom and develop the flavors. When called for, this is a vital step that will impact the final intensity of flavor in the dish.

After this step usually the seed/spice paste is added and fried. Then additions of stock and a long simmer to reduce and meld the flavors. Adding the sugar or chocolate towards the end.

There’s so much going on here flavorwise….

To make this easier here’s a trick:

One chef friend of mine finds it helpful to put the ingredients of Mole into (5) categories.

1) hot (chili)

2) sour (tomato or tomatillo)

3) sweet (from piloncillo or fruit)

4) spices (peppercorn, cinnamon, clove, star anise, etc)

5) thickeners (seed, nut, bread, tortilla).

It’s a really helpful way to zoom out over any Mole you are making to get an idea of the ingredient interplay.

Examples:

From the list above, here’s 4 examples of some of the important ingredients and flavor profiles.

Manchamantel:

Meaning “table staining sauce”, this mole is sweet and spicy using chipotle, pineapple, plantain and peanuts. It’s a wonderful mole to serve with chicken or pork

Negro:

This was a near-religious experience for me and I spent years making this on my own. The chiuacle chili is native to Oaxaca has a very fruity tone with mild-medium spice. The peppers are delicate, thin skinned, and cultivation of them has decreased. This mole has deep, earthy flavors. Heat balanced with sweetness. Nuttiness from seasame seed and spices like clove and peppecorn.

It’s absolutely luxe and I love it with Duck, but would eat it dipped into tortillas by itself 😂

Pipián:

This mole is characterized by pumpkin seeds, serrano chilis, and romaine lettuce. It’s bright, zippy and perfect for many types of seafood or chicken. There’s a few ways to make this, and you can vary the heat level pretty easily… I’m excited to share that with you (teaser 👀 😂 )

Poblano:

Probably the most popular type of mole that people think of. From the Puebla region. This is a rich, thick chocolate based mole that uses pasilla, guajillo and ancho chilis 🌶. This and Mole Negro get into the 20+ ingredients needed. Truly a labor of love… and very special.

As you can see, Mole is a very wide ranging landscape and I’m excited to make some with you. So later this week I’ve got 2 perfect Mole recipes for you to try that you can start your Mole journey.

This is definitely a technique that you will be glad to know… your friends and family will love you for it 🙌

One of these recipes was taught to me a by a Michelin * chef who was influential in opening my eyes to the amazing flavors of Mexico 🇲🇽

Until Next Time! Mole Recipes incoming for the Paid Subcribers this week!