| |
|
Making Pollo en Mole Poblano with Chef Miguel Ravago of Fonda San Miguel
Fonda San Miguel, 2330 West North Loop
Austin, Texas 78756
(512) 459-4121
|
Demystifying Mole Poblano
Meet Miguel Ravago, chef extraordinaire and co-founder of Fonda San Miguel in Austin, Texas. He is smiling because he is making Pollo en Mole Poblano, one of the many classical Mexican dishes for which Fonda San Miguel is famed. Miguel has invited us to join him and learn how simple this dish is despite its long list of ingredients.
Miguel has kindly shared his recipe, one that reaches into the heart of Mexican cooking.
|
|
The recipe is but one of many authentic recipes in Fonda San Miguel: Thirty Years of Food and Art, published by Shearer Publishing. Click to find Fonda's mole recipe reproduced in its entirety here. To read the book review click here. To discover more about the restaurant click here.
|
Let's begin
Put a chicken to boil in salt and pepper seasoned water. Set it on low and forget about it while you make the sauce. The aroma will rise reminding you to peek from time to time if you want to.
|
|
Get your ingredients ready. Miguel tells us that mole is not really complicated to make, that its starring role in Mexican cooking comes from the richness of its ingredients, from their nuanced blend of tastes. Miguel lines his ingredients up so that he can grab them as needed - pictured are seeds and nuts, chiles and garlic cloves. Peeking from the left edge of the shot is chocolate. This is Mexican chocolate and you do want to use the Mexican variety if you can get it.
The list of ingredients for mole is quite long. Do not let this intimidate you. The glory of mole is its subtlety. What are pictured here are restaurant proportions, far larger than home proportions. You are really adding "a little of this," "a little of that." When you understand the concept of 'little' the list is not so intimidating.
|
Tomatillos
|
Husk tomatillos. Just as your chicken is cooking without needing attention, so also will the tomatillos cook on the back of the stove while you attend to the seeds and spices.
The tomatillo is commonly used in Mexican cooking, and is not to be confused with the tomato. This little green vegetable comes in a paper husk which is removed before cooking .
|
|
Wear Rubber Gloves to Work with Chiles! |
|
Miguel puts on his rubber gloves to deseed and devein the chiles that will blend to give the unique flavor to mole. Yes, admits Miguel, he has foolishly worked without gloves. He was not smiling then. BE LIKE A CHEF - WEAR RUBBER GLOVES.
Once this task is done, you will fry the chiles briefly to bring out their flavor, then drain and soak in hot water for 30 minutes. This will soften them so that when all ingredients are tossed into a blender, they will blend to create the subtle flavor of a perfect sauce. |
The Kitchen at Work - Toasting and Frying
|
| |
|
After the few simple steps outlined above, your kitchen stove is ready to work. The toasting of many seeds is the aspect of making mole that intimidates most people, but Miguel tells us that you can easily do several at the same time if you get a few pans working. In the foreground of this shot, you see raisins and pumpkin seeds waiting their turn to descend into the hot fat. Miguel is frying pumpkin seeds in a small kitchen strainer to control that they do not burn. In frying pans on the stove, seeds are toasting over low heat. You CAN do this all at once as long as you keep vigilant.
|
|
|
Tortillas - Of Course
Another subtle taste in this elixir is the corn tortilla. It adds flavor while thickening the sauce. Miguel is frying tortillas torn into pieces.
Do a few extra, let drain on paper towels and have tortilla chips.
|
Get ready to blend
The individual ingredients have been toasted or fried. The tomatillos are cooked and added to the mix.
But there is something missing and it is one of the glories of mole......
|
|
|
Sesame seeds and CHOCOLATE!
The Aztecs loved it, the Americas gave it to the world. Chocolate is the clincher, the unique and delicious addition to mole and it should be Mexican chocolate. If you can't get that, be sure it's unsweetened chocolate. Following recipe instructions you will now puree these ingredients in a blender, then sprinkle sesame |
Ingredients at the ready, the stove empties and is bare. The ingredients are poured into a blender with a little chicken stock. The magic of mole begins as spices meet chiles and chocolate and bits of corn tortillas. A restaurant has giant blenders, but for those of us at home, we may need to blend in batches, pouring each batch into a saucepan large enough to hold the finished product and the chicken as well.
|
| |
|
Blended to make mole sauce
With the addition of more chicken stock, we have mole sauce. This will cook for 45 minutes. During the cooking time, remove the parboiled chicken and slice it into serving sizes, discarding the unusable parts. Add the chicken to the sauce for the last fifteen minutes of cooking.
|
|
The Finished Product - A Glorious Pollo en Mole Poblano
In the true spirit of Mexico, serve mole on your most vivacious dinnerware. Garnish with sesame seed, a slice of orange and serve with arroz blanco - white rice.
|
| |
|
Please also read these article and find recipes
Recipes: mexican recipes
about mexican food and cooking
popular
mexican
ingredients
chiles , chillies, peppers
huitlacoche
falling in love with mexico
maize or corn
|
Read more about Fonda San Miguel
chef miguel ravago
tom gilliland
fond San miguel restaurant
'book review: fonda san miguel
|
©
