Finally acknowledged as one of the great cuisines of the world, Mexican cooking must also rank as one of the oldest. By 2000 B.C., the Meso America societies were primarily agricultural, but 5,000 years earlier, the hunter-gatherers had began cultivating the crops which remain the staples of the Mexican diet today.
By the time of Columbus, there were at least 150 plants domesticated in the New World. It's hard to conceive of a world without corn, beans, squash, tomatoes, chilis, peppers, potatoes, peanuts, pineapples, avocados, papaya, not to mention chocolate, tobacco, chewing gum, rubber and cochineal. These are just some of the wonders that Europeans found in America and which changed their world.
While Mexican cooking varies from one region of the country to another, no state compares with Oaxaca in the variety of cuisines found within its borders, just as Oaxaca boasts the greatest diversity of flora and fauna, of indigenous cultures, music and artistic expression.
It has taken hundreds of years, but the delicious flavorings of typical Oaxacan cooking have finally been discovered by the rest of the world. Oaxacan cuisine has become positively trendy among the foodie set. Mole (pronounced "moe-lay) is the most internationally known of all Mexican foods especially the "Poblano" with its 20 ingredients. But among Mexicans "Mole Negro Oaxaqueño" with up to 30 ingredients rivals and may even surpass it as a favorite. The truth is that every family has its own favorite recipe.
There are seven moles that originated in Oaxaca. They are:
Mole is usually a rather complex concoction so they are often prepared in large batches and sold in paste form in the markets.
The word mole comes from "molli" of the language of the Aztecs, Nahuatl, and means sauce or stew. Although some moles have a small amount of chocolate, mole is not a chocolate sauce as many North Americans think. Aside from their smooth consistency, one thing all moles have in common is chili peppers, some as many as five different varieties. The rest of the ingredients include red and green tomatoes, garlic, onion, sesame, squash seeds, almonds, pecans, anise, peanuts, and bread crumbs among many others, and vary depending on the type of mole.
All of these dishes are virtual throwbacks to the complex (and to our palates unusual) combinations of ingredients that were common in this part of the country before the arrival of the Spaniards.
None of the dishes is particularly hot, but they have a complex, haunting flavor that speaks of cultures long gone, but not entirely forgotten.
This is one of the simpler mole recipes and all the ingredients are easily obtainable.
Recipe Ingredients:
Fry it brown in its own drippings.
Toast the chiles anchos and put in water to soak, grind it with the rest of the ingredients and fry it very well, add boiling water to make a red mole sauce.
Keep frying, adding the meat and some broth.
Thicken it with corn flour. blend some of this dough with lard and make little balls of it and perforate them with the finger.
Add them to the stew, when it is boiling, as well as some young green
pumpkins and string beans, separately cooked.
Serve with fresh hot tortillas.