Around the World in Foodventures (Mexico: MOLE)

I took a friend to a concert back in June, on the way to which she took me out to dinner at her favorite Mexican restaurant.  I fancy myself a mole connoisseur (Being Italian, I judge Italian restaurants by their meatballs and gnocchi....and I judge Mexican restaurants by their mole 😉) --  and let me tell you, this place had the absolute best mole I'd ever eaten.  Anyways, I decided right then and there that I would be making mole for the Mexico leg of this series, and so, today, Hubby and I hunted around at a few local Latino markets to gather the necessary ingredients, and I made the thing:

Here it is served over Hubby-made chicken with a salad that includes some leftover ingredients such as plum tomato, tomatillo, and corn tortilla strips, garden-fresh veggies from our neighbor across the street, some pan-friend extra plantain on the side, and a sprinkle of Cotija cheese over the whole lot.  Now, I don't know how my mole exactly compares to the restaurant I mentioned above, because it's been a while since I was there and I don't have any here right now to compare -- but this is SO good.  😁  I've also always thought/been told/believed the "urban legend" as it were that mole is an extremely long and complicated process involving a myriad of ingredients.  While there are a bunch of ingredients, it's not the most I've ever used making something, and cooking it only took a couple of hours which is totally fine by me because, by golly, one could make a huge batch and freeze it in portions for later use.   It could even be made easier by prepping the peppers and roasting the other vegetables ahead of time.  Either way, I will be doing this again.

I basically used this recipe (https://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Mexico-Chicken-Puebla-Mole/), but after researching a few others and comparing and contrasting, decided to include 1-2 Tablespoons of peanut butter at the very end.  Tasting the batch before and after the amendment, I feel the peanut butter was a good addition.

This post is part of my project: "Around the World in Foodventures" (I decided I want to expand my culinary horizons even further by making the national dish or a popular recipe, or some signature food or traditional meal from every country in the world. Maybe it'll happen alphabetically, or by region, in random order, or something else. I figure if we can't (yet?) travel everywhere, we at least have the luxury of being able to taste it. It’ll be fun and interesting, but obviously, will take a long time to get through -- as we'll only be doing it once a week or so at most. I am chronicling the journey here.)

“If I’m an advocate of anything, it’s to move…Walk in someone else’s shoes or at least eat their food.” --Tony Bourdain