Camacho Watcho

Awhile back I was reading a friend’s blog post about the Omnivore’s 100 (or the 100 foods to eat before you die). On his list of things he had yet to try was Mole Poblano. Mole (mole-ay) is a Mexican sauce made of ground spices and chiles and it is typically made for special occasions such as weddings due to its lengthy preparation process. I had helped my mom and sister make mole a few years back for Christmas Eve dinner so I decided to give it a go and offered to make Mole Poblano.

While mole in general is made of ground spices and chiles, mole poblano is a bit different due to its history and the addition of one ingredient in particular…chocolate. According to my cookbook “Mexico The Beautiful”, there are several legends about the creation of mole poblano. They tell the tale that the head sister at the convent of Santa Rosa was charged with creating a meal for the archbishop and Spanish viceroy. She used the Mexican mole as the base and added chocolate, which she knew was an ingredient used for royalty. In the end, she created “a festive dish that epitomizes the culinary marriage between the Spanish and Mexican worlds.”

It sounds simple, but let me tell you, mole is the furthest thing from simple. Just check out the ingredient list: mulato chiles, pasilla chiles, ancho chiles, vegetable oil, tomatillos, cloves, peppercorns, Mexican cinnamon stick, anise seeds, coriander seeds, sesame seeds, cloves, raisins, almonds, pumpkin seeds, tortillas, french rolls, chicken broth, Mexican chocolate.

And as if the list wasn’t lengthy enough…each chile must be deseeded, fried, soaked and then pureed, each type of seed must be toasted separately. The tortillas, rolls, almonds and raisins are each fried separately…and it goes on and on.

So where did I find all of these ingredients? The simple answer would have been to go to the Rainbow or Cub Foods on Lake St. in South Minneapolis. But instead, I used this shopping trip as an excuse to visit El Burrito Mercado in W. St. Paul. And, of course, even though I was there for mole ingredients, I had to try their famous Mexican food that they prepare in their deli. Wow – was it good! I had one chicken and one beef taco (both corn tortillas) topped with white onions, cilantro and lime, rice and beans. Absolutely fantastic – especially the beans. They were so creamy and smooth…practically melt in your mouth good! I can’t wait to take my dad there next time he visits!


So back to mole, I spent the afternoon making the mole and a few appetizers of beef and chorizo empanadas. I was almost finished, when I decided to taste the mole to check if I needed to adjust the seasoning. So I took a little taste…hmmm…just as I remembered it. Intense, complex, toasted, dark….a taste that I actually don’t really like. I couldn’t believe that after an entire afternoon of cooking, I was just remembering that of all the moles that I do enjoy, mole poblano is just not my favorite.

But that was okay by me. I loved the process of making the mole and am looking forward to making other mole recipes in the future. Maybe I’ll try the hazelnut mole recipe again that we made a few Christmas’s ago or perhaps a mole verde, since I love tomatillos so much. Perhaps. Regardless, the important part is that we all tried mole poblano and could mark it off the Omnivore’s 100 list of foods to eat before we die. What’s next? Who knows…Ed does keep talking about wanting to try lobster thermidor…

Tags: Food, restaurants, twin cities

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008 at 8:47 am and is filed under Customs, Food, Shopping. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.