Holy Mole Batman!

 

    The rain fell hard as I woke up in the hammock that was my bed for the week while I was in Merida. I got ready and put my swim trunks under my shorts in preparation for the day. It was cenote day, the day that we would go to the ancient Mayan city of Dzibilchaltun to explore the ruins and then swim in the cenote located on-site. 

    After Toni woke up and got ready we left for the ruins, stopping along the way for some pan dulce and coffee at a 7/11 nearby. Dzibilchaltun isn't too far from Merida, only about a half-hour drive. I sat in anticipation of the ruins and the adventure that it would be to explore them and swim in the cenote. We pulled up to the entrance of the ruins, the large entrance gate stood closed with a large sign stating "Cenote Cerrado" The cenote was closed. Toni parked the car on the side of the road and he walked up to a couple of guys standing near the gate under a tent. He came back and explained that the ruins and cenote were closed because of the weather. Our plans had been foiled for the day. We had to figure out another way to pass the day.

    As we drove back to Merida, we discussed going to the Gran Museo del Mundo Maya, the Grand Museum of the Mayan World. I then had an idea, Toni was trained as a chef - which is how I met him - and he always talked about his favourite Mexican dish being mole (pronounced moh-lay). I had never had mole and was definitely interested in trying it. I suggested that we return to his house and he could teach me how to make authentic mole. He loved the idea and suggested that we make chicken enchiladas and top them off with the mole. We had our plan, now we needed to get ingredients. 

    Mexican Walmart is similar to American Walmart aside from the fact that nothing is in English. We parked our car under one of the giant fabric shade canopies in the parking lot, which is commonplace for large stores with parking lots. We went in and bought all the supplies that we would need for the mole and the enchiladas. As well as a couple sweet treats that Toni recommended for me to try. The total cost came out to about $300MX or only $15US. We loaded up our car, having to turn down a parking lot worker who wanted to load our groceries for us. We then headed to Toni's house to make our lunch.

    The main ingredients in mole are chocolate, peanuts, chiles, and a tomato-based sauce. We had to rehydrate the chiles and cook the peanuts, the tomato sauce we made from seared tomatoes, onions, and plantains. Searing vegetables is a popular method of preparation in Mexico according to Toni, it involves exposing the vegetables to an open flame on the hob. This burns the outside of the vegetable and adds a bit of a smoky flavour to the profile of the food. We set the chicken in a pressure cooker with half an onion and some spices and set it to cook the chicken to we could shred it for the enchiladas. The peanuts we put in a pan and cooked with some sesame seeds and raisins. The peanut mix was cooked until the peanuts turned a deep brown colour. The chiles sat in a saucepan over a low heat reintroducing water into the dehydrated and deseeded remains of the chiles. Toni prepped the Ninja Blender and broke up the block of cooking chocolate on a chopping board. I shredded the chicken from the pressure cooker and rolled the enchiladas and set them on a plate to prepare for the mole. 

    We combined the basic ingredients in the blender and made the first blend. Toni tasted it and began to tell me that the flavour profile was off and how to adjust it. We would add in more peanuts, then more chocolate, then another chile, and keep up the trend of adding the various ingredients we had until we got to the right flavour. A secret ingredient that we used to create a thicker mole was to add a small slice of hard bread, like what would be used in a cheeseboard. After a few minutes of tasting, adding, and blending, the mole was up to Toni's standards and tasted amazing. We ladled it onto the enchiladas and added a garnish of onion, crema, and cheese to top it off.

    We set the table, opened a couple bottles of Toni's favourite beer, Dos Equis, and dug into the enchiladas. The mole was amazing, the balance of the flavours made me feel like Remy on Ratatouille when he sees colours explode and flavours combine. The rich dark chocolate and the savoury peanuts coexist beautifully with the explosive capsaicin notes of the chiles. The tomato sauce added a hearty, earthy and smoky flavour to top it all off. I'm not ashamed to say that I polished off the food that I loaded onto my plate. The enchiladas were delicious too, but the mole was really the star of the whole dish. When we had our fill, we still had enchiladas left over so we tucked them into the refrigerator to save for later. The extra mole sauce that we had we put into a tub to keep for later and use in any other recipes that we made. 

    We ended up taking some of the leftover mole to our friend Sari later, and she even posted online about how good it was and how much she loved it. It is definitely a recipe to keep. 

-TDB