SAMPLING THE 7 MOLES OF OAXACA

The “typical” savory-sweet mole mentioned above, and the one most frequently found.onion, garlic, whole spices like cinnamon, cloves, black pepper and cumin, dried chiles, pumpkin and sesame seeds, herbs like hoja santo (which contributes to the dark color) and cilantro, bread for thickening and sometimes dried fruit for extra sweetness.

Red mole, also known as mole poblano,  using many of the same spices and base ingredients and also contains chocolate, but less. Instead, this sweeter, spicier and  versatile version is amped up with several kinds of dried red chile like pasilla, guajillo and ancho as well as pulverized raisins and almonds or peanuts. When the sauce is done, browned chicken, pork or beef is typically added and stewed until tender .

This brew translates to “a shade of red,” or “on the nifty side,” depending on what you’re doing in the kitchen. Somewhere between rojo and negro in color, this brown mole shares the base ingredients of whole spices, onions, garlic, seeds and chocolate and features  secret ingredients for thickening and sweetening: mashed ripe plantain.

Picture all the goodness of the first three moles without the sweet and chocolate stuff and you have a delicious basic sauce to pour over or use as a cooking base   It’s not unlike a simple Indian curry sauce, the sky’s the limit.

White on the outside, green on the inside — that’s a pumpkin seed. Extra pepitas or pipian, along with fresh tomatillos, jalapenos and cilantro are the key ingredients in bright green mole verde. It can be diluted with chicken stock when it’s finished and poured over cooked chicken to make a soupy sauce mopped up with tortillas or bread.

This one’s a little more intense. Round up all the beef bones y as you’re going to need them. This dark, spicy sauce starts with rich, homemade beef stock. The stock rehydrates dried chiles de arbol, anchos and guajillos which you then blend with the usual slow-cooked garlic and onions. Mole chichilo is thickened with either masa harina, lime-cured corn flour, or crushed fresh tortillas. No chocolate here but excellent for braises.

This  mole is between the bright red chorizo grease, tomatoes and ancho chiles, you do not want to get this stuff on anything white. Featuring fresh pineapple in addition to plantain, manchamantel is a sweet, spicy, fruity sauce . Hence the name – translated into “tablecloth-staining”