Mole sauce recipes?

[loraxc]

I dried about 8-10 homegrown Holy Mole peppers using a dehydrator recently. I want to try making a mole sauce, but I know very little about mole. Any fave recipes to recommend? If it matters, I will be trying to come up with a vegetarian application for the mole (we don't really eat meat).

[lowereastrittenhouse]

I'm a vegetarian and see no problem with serving mole in untraditional pairings... I've used the sauce with tamales and enchiladas (Deborah Madison has a good corn-and-goat cheese enchilada that's more Southwest US than Mexico, but it balances vegetable and dairy well).

For the mole itself, I can't recommend the Rick Bayless cookbooks enough: Authentic Mexican has the best recipe for traditional pueblan mole - and he gives a good explanation of mole and the variations on it. (His mole coloradito is amazing, too, but it's not a chocoloate-y sauce.)

The bad news is that you're still going to need to get more chiles. Pasilla may be a supporting note in some moles but it's never really the only chile.

[ferret]

I'm a little late to this game but one of my local Mexican restaurants has an excellent plaintain enchilada served with a black mole. A great combination.

[BananaBirkLarsen]

I got my mole recipe from Mexico the Beautiful Cookbook. It makes an incredibly complex, intense, delicious mole. I found a (somewhat altered) version of the recipe here: http://www.thespicehouse.com/recipes/... . If you switch out the chicken broth for vegetable broth, it should make quite a nice veggie version.

I'm not sure what you could put it on that would hold up to the intense flavour though. Zucchini maybe? Portobello mushrooms? It would need something with a meaty consistency that wouldn't get lost in the sauce. I have it on good word from a vegetarian friend that tofu mole does not work. I'm not a fan of fake meat, but some sort of soy-meat really might be the best option in this case.

[loraxc]

I think portabelloes could be really good. I also make my own seitan, which holds up well to spicy jerk sauce. I need to look into the traditional uses of mole more. I really have never focused on it and have only eaten it a few times because there are so many other veg-friendly Mexican foods, but the peppers smell heavenly and I think this could be fun.

[loraxc]

Google is revealing lots of great uses for mole in veg dishes. :)

[loraxc]

paulj, the peppers have already been dried so I need some use for them in that form. The plants are making more, which I will use fresh, but I thought it would be fun to dry some.

andrewtree, thanks! I like the idea of just using my peppers, but maybe I will buy some other kinds.

[paulj]

You don't have to use multiple types of chiles in your mole, especially since the one you are using is not traditional.

[andrewtree]

This is a great instructional video for making mole;
http://www.ciaprochef.com/CFA/mexico/video/mole_rojo.html

and this recipe looks similar to the one in Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen which I have made and enjoyed
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05...

It would seem to be unusual to make mole with a single type of chile, you will miss some complexity of flavor

[paulj]

There has been one or more threads about vegetarian applications for a mole - however, what vegetable would you want to bury under a heavy dark sauce?

Garden sites describe this pepper as a hybrid Pasilla, and show a long dark pepper. Are you aware of the ambiguity in the name 'pasilla'? In Mexico pasilla is a dried chile, the fresh form called a chilaca. But grocers influenced by California call the Poblano pepper Pasilla (dried it is ancho). So while a mole can be made with a variety of medium hot chiles, most recipe use the dried ones, not fresh.

I would suggest looking up uses for fresh Poblanos. For example they are roasted to remove the skin, and cut into strips (rajas). Those strips could be used in a variety of vegetable dishes. Or they can be stuffed (rellenos).