I Promised You Mole, and Mole You Shall Have!

I'm exhausted... I made Mole today. I ignored my husband and child. I spent the entire day in the kitchen. We skipped church. But... I made Mole.

I won't lie, making Mole IS labor-intensive. When toasting the peppers, we had to turn on fans and vents, and at one point my husband and child actually left the house for a half-hour because they were coughing and gagging and my daughter's face was turning red!! In Mexico, they always have their windows open. No one has AC -- it's too expensive, and seriously, the electricity goes out too often to turn something like an AC unit on anyway! =)  So, winter in the midwest found me making Mole in a very tightly closed-up house and chile oil in the air.

Anyway, it IS worth it!!! When I tasted that Mole, it took me far away. It made my sweet adoptive Mexican family come back to me. They ate my Mole with us. (I think they would've been proud of me for making it from scratch!!) My husband, and our friend Amanda, and I ate Mole and each talked about our individual experiences in Mexico. We compared cultural notes. We brought something to life that in a sense is gone. I know that not everyone I knew a decade ago is dead. But since I almost never have contact with them, they are so far gone to me that they are only a memory and it hurts. But the sweet/tangy/spicy homeyness I brought to life made me feel close to friends again. It took me back to many a wedding, baptism, and Quinceañera.

Below are a few pictures, but I owe the recipe (as far as I ever follow a recipe) to a blog I found called "Mexico in My Kitchen". Here is the link if you want to make it, too:
http://www.mexicoinmykitchen.com/2009/02/how-to-make-mole-poblanocomo-hacer-mole.html

I substituted the tomatoes with tomatillos (once again, because red tomatoes make me barf), left out the bread and added a tiny little bit of arrowroot starch (which it might have done without!), lessened the amount of almonds, and increased the amount of onions, garlic, and raisins.

Cut peppers open, removing seeds, and toast each side... but only for a minute because they burn quick!

Once you toast the peppers, grind the spices, fry the plantain, pumpkin seeds, almonds, raisins, onion, garlic, and tomatillos, blend with chicken broth and chocolate in blender, and then stew for a little bit.

In large stock pot add Mole sauce to about 12-15 chicken drumsticks, and stir AT LEAST every two minutes. Scrap the bottom of the pan because it sticks very quickly!!!

Serve with Mexican Rice and corn tortillas! (ummm, I'll write more about Mexican Rice once I master it!)

Here is my dear friend Amanda, about to dig in! She was sweet enough, as was my husband, to actually eat my rice! Ayayayay! I need work on that part of it =)

PS -- You might wonder why I tagged this post as both "peppers that don't bite" AND "spicy"... Well, it's not all that spicy like hot-spicy, but it's rich, flavorful, and might be a little spicy for the average American tongue! There is a Mexican saying that goes: "Comida sin chile no es comida", which means: "Food without spice isn't food". You could even say the emphasis is more like "Food without spice JUST isn't food", or "Food without spice isn't REAL food". Anyway, whichever way you interpret it, they are right!!! It is now my mantra.