Mole De Olla (Mole cooked in a pot)

[eleny]

I treated myself to Essential Cuisine's Of Mexico by Diana Kennedy.

Since I didn't have all the ingredients available, I substituted or left out a few for now. My changes are listed last. I made this today because it's been rainy since last night. Delicious.

Mole De Olla

Ingredients

Meat
3 pounds of pork neck bones or 3 pounds of boiling beef (brisket or shoulder cut) with bone
2 quarts of water
2 tsp salt

Seasoning Sauce
4 ancho chilies, wiped clean, sees & veins removed
4 pasilla chilies, wiped clean, sees & veins removed
1 cup tomato verde, cooked and drained (about 5 tomatillos simmered whole for 10 minutes till soft but not till the skins break down
1/2 medium white onion, roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1/8 tsp cumin seeds
3 Tbsp vegetable oil

Vegetables
8 ounces zucchini
4 ounces green beans
1 large ear of corn
1 small chayote - about 8 ounces
8 ounces of potatoes
3 sprigs of epazote

Garnish
Wedges of lime and chopped white onion

Instructions

Cut the meat into serving pieces
Cover with water, add salt, bring to a boil and then simmer until meat is tender

Meanwhile, prepare chilies. Toast on both sides, cool and crumble into a blender.
Blend chilies with the rest of the seasonings except the oil.
Heat oil in a fry pan and fry the sauce for 5 minutes.
Add to the meat when meat is tender.

Clean & trim squash, cut into halves and then into four lengthwise.
Trim beans and cut into halves.
Cut corn into six pieces.
Cut chayote open, remove core, then cut into 1/4 inch wedges.
Skin potatoes and cut into cubes.

When the meat is tender, add veggies and cook the mole slowly, uncovered, for 30 minutes or until veggies are cooked.
Add epazote 5 minutes before the mole is ready, add salt if necessary.

Serve in deep bowls with hot tortillas, wedges of lime and finely chopped onion on the side.

.........................................................................
My Changes

I used a rack of spare ribs cut into individual ribs. When the meat was cooked, I removed the bones using two tongs - easy.
I used 2 cans of mild green chilies.
I had no chayote or epazote. Since I made a big pot of this mole to freeze some, I'll add them next time I find these ingredients.
I used one large bag of frozen vegetables that had corn and string beans in it (along with carrots, limas and peas. But I did use fresh zucchini and potatoes, though.

When the meat was half cooked, I removed the meat to a separate pot. Then strained the pot liquor to clarify it a bit using a hand held strainer. I washed out my original pot and added everything back in straining the pot liquor a second time. Continued cooking till the meat was tender enough to be removed easily from the rib bones.

[NMDemDist2]

1. funny you should post that, I have been craving Mole and am moving

to the Land of Enchanted Chili Peppers :rofl:


I'll bookmark this one to try once I'm back into my kitchen. Spent today packing the garage in 100 degrees and the kitchen is on the list tomorrow. I gave away the stuff we couldn't use up today and we'll have the last of the frozen fish tonight, tacos tommorrow (hopefully using up the last of the maters, hamburger and tortillas) and chicken breasts on Monday.

Tuesday is take out in the new house (we hope)

[eleny]

2. Enchanted Chili Peppers

Ah, the fragrance of chile peppers and coffee beans roasting in the morning!

[NMDemDist2]

3. ROFL, but coffee isn't as fragrant in the roasting cycle as it is when

you grind it. Grinding is the smell we all know and love! Roasting is a whole different smell and as the husks get blown off, they stink a bit I must say and de-caf smells horrible IMO

but roasting chilis?? oh yeah!

[TygrBright]

4. Crossing fingers for ya, soon-to-be-NM Dem!

If you can plan an outing north in around October you can get a couple of bushels and a ristra or two CHEAP by the roadside. Also pinon.

Most yummy! I'd love to learn to cook with chiles but the DH is not fond of them. So I keep a little jar of Hatch around for my eggs, etc., and am becoming a connoisseur of all the best green chile dishes in the SF area.

I thought that mole usually had unsweetened cocoa in it?

curiously,
Bright

[eleny]

5. I was surprised by the "mole" in the name

Next I want to try her Gallina Pinta (Oxtail, pork and bean soup) and then her menudo dishes.

[NMDemDist2]

6. OMG! I'm exhausted. but the kitchen is FINALLY packed

the truck and the loading crew arrives tomorrow at 9AM

what a chore!

:evilfrown:

[Warpy]

7. You could substitute zucchini for the chayote

I find them quite similar.

There is no substitute for epazote. Even around here, I don't see it too often because people don't realize what magic such a stinky herb can accomplish.

[eleny]

8. I'll see if I can find the epazote at Mexican or farmer's markets

The recipe has zucchini in it, so I can just add more. Thanks!

[Warpy]

9. If you've never used epazote, beware!

The stuff seriously stinks. In fact, I'm tempted to tell you to put a couple of drops of gasoline in to substitute for it because that's part of what it stinks like. Feh! Horrible stuff.

One of the wonderful things to do with it is to cook a pot of black beans with onion, garlic, and a sprig of epazote. The result is pure magic. You'll wonder what you were doing eating black beans without it.

Mexican folk medicine cites epazote as a cure for intestinal gas, which is why they paired it with beans in the first place. It was a brave soul who tried this particular herb, a braver soul who tried to figure out if it had any culinary value.

Some herb companies on the web have dried epazote. It lacks the gut wrenching stench of the fresh, but can probably be substituted if you're desperate enough. I tend to grab it off the shelves when I find it at the supermarket and freeze it if I'm not doing beans that week. It survives the freezing process fairly well, and the frozen herb doesn't stink quite as much when I throw it into the pot.

Good luck with your mole. It looks wonderful!

[Gormy Cuss]

10. Absolutely true of epazote.

My epazote plant is the end of the stinky herb tour of my garden. Kids always say it smells like gasoline.

Epazote behaves like a reseeding annual in my garden and seems to be pretty easy-going. In her 1970s era cookbook 'the Cuisines of Mexico' Diana Kennedy reported finding epazote growing wild in Central Park and backyards in NYC.

[NMDemDist2]

16. does it repell any insects? IOW does it help keep you vegatble

pests away?

flies? skeeters?

I'll be it will grow in my New Mexico garden big time :bounce:

[yellerpup]

11. I'm going to try that soon.

I haven't made it since I got my first Diana Kennedy cookbook. She's my authority! Thanks for the reminder.

[eleny]

12. Any other recipes in there that you like especially?

[yellerpup]

13. Hooked on chilorio

I trust her recipes to make anything. The flour tortillas taste so far beyond anything that can be bought you will be amazed. I make a huge (hugh) batch of chilorio for every party...basics, like frijoles refritos, pescado en cilantro is unbelievable, bola de queso de relleno knocks the socks off everyone I've ever served it to. I'm pretty sure I must have been a Mexican peasant in another life. All soul food to me!

[eleny]

14. Sometimes nothing but Mexican food will do it

Thanks for letting me know which recipes you liked. I'll read up on them this week. I've made tortillas before and they were pretty lousy. But I'm game to try them again with her recipe. I'd like to try making some thicker ones. I really like dishes where you can dip into some sauce - goopy, soupy flavorful bowls of stuff. :D

[yellerpup]

15. Goopy, soupy flavorful bowls of...

posole! Are you a fan of posole? It's a pork and hominy stew that I learned from a Mohawk/Quapaw friend of mine who taught me a quick version. Unless I'm having a party, I am almost always cooking for two. Feel free to improvise according to your own tastes.

POSOLE FOR TWO

Stew 1 or 2 unsmoked, fresh pork chops in chicken broth with onion, garlic, cilantro and fresh chile (serrano or hot jalepeno) until meat is done.
Turn off heat and let meat cool off in broth.
Strain broth, flake meat off the bone and refrigerate.
Starting with strained broth, add a chunked carrot or two, a potato diced large, a stalk of cerery (all, some or none of these ingredients)
Add one can of Ro-Tel Original tomatoes and green chiles
Add 2 small or 1 large can of (drained) hominy
Simmer for about 1/2 hour then add your shredded pork (or chicken-or both) and heat through.
Serve with tortilla chips or fry bread, a sprinkling of chopped cilantro, and a generous squeeze of fresh lime juice.

[eleny]

17. That was like a recipe I wanted to try from her book

It was a recipe that called for the corn and pork. But I was thinking of substituting chicken for a change up. Thanks!

[yellerpup]

18. Mmmmmm.

Fresh corn would really soup it up another notch. Now I'm craving tamales!

[Tab]

19. Green mole?

I've always liked mole since I was first introduced to it, although I haven't got a lot of experience using it in recipes, but I saw in the store something called "Green Mole" (by Dona Marie, which produces the regular mole I can get my mitts on).

I got it and it was gross, I thought. Has anyone here tried it? What do you use it for, or how do you use it?

- Tab