Mole poblano de guajolote
A thousand years ago the Aztecs knew something that Norteamericanos are still struggling with, at least once a year: Turkey just isn’t very good. Sure, deck it out with mom’s stuffing, aunt Carol’s squash soup, some candied carrots, a metric ton of mashed potatoes, a couple of pies and plenty of liquor, and it will go down, but it’s no picnic. Gravy is nice, but realistically, more drastic measures are clearly called for:
The title page of Cocinero Mejicano, Tomo 1, the second edition of Mexico's first truly Mexican cookbook
Another recipe
I combined the two recipes, along with some Oaxacan mole wisdom (because it’s clear that certain general assumptions are being made in the recipes), thusly:
Take mulato, ancho, and pasilla (only belatedly did I realize that pasilla chiles were the closest thing to the “chilohatle” chiles in the recipe – I actually used arbol chiles to try and give it more heat) and boil them gently in water, just enough to hydrate them.
Then split them and remove the stem, seeds, and, especially if you want to keep the mole mild, the veins.
Reserve the water that you boiled them in and add while blending (I do everything by hand, but I didn’t do this by hand) the chiles with:
Coriander
Anise
Cloves
Cinnamon
Cocoa (you can do cinnamon or cocoa but I did both)
Crushed peanuts
Ground pepper
Salt
Roasted sesame seeds (like cinnamon, not pre-hispanic, but “traditional” – often used as an either or with the peanuts, but I was on an ingredient roll)
And turkey leavings/juices
The whole thing is then added to around 32 ounces of crushed tomatoes and simmered for 3-4 hours, minimum, closer to 6 is probably better because what you’re looking for is the flavors to merge completely, giving over their individual identities to become something else entirely.
Chiles - Mullatto, Ancho, and arbol (should have used pasilla)
Coriander, cloves, anise
Ground peanuts
Getting close to done
It will take a couple of times to get the fire that you want just right – and it’s easier to add cocoa and calm the sauce down that it is to get it hotter towards the end of the cooking process. No matter how it turns out, it’s unlikely to be insipid!
I think it’s my turn to cook the bird next Thanksgiving. We’re pretty adventurous when it comes to different brines, but I might need to make this sauce for the turkey next year.
Or you know. This weekend. Because it looks pretty awesome.
It is pretty terrific – really easy to control the heat by adding or subtracting chocolate, too. I never make turkey, but I was thinking about making it again one of these weekends.
Makes a great turkey enchilada with leftovers – probably still best to brine it though – turkey needs all the help it can get.
I use peanut butter rather than crushed peanuts, and add quite a few raisins. This tames the heat and adds a surprising amount and quality of flavor. If you leave the raisins whole, they add an occasional burst of flavor when you bite one.
If the finished product is still too hot, piloncillo dissolved in water or non-citrus fruit juice will take care of it; pear nectar is really nice, but peach or apricot or even apple does well also.
Cashews or even pistachio if you’re feeling wealthy can be substituted for peanuts for a softer flavor.
If you’re really serious about this, and you seem to be, you should try building Diana Kennedy’s 3 day, 100 plus ingredient version, modeled on the original convent recipe. I doubt if I will essay that again, but I learned a great deal about Mexican cuisine and cooking with chiles from making her recipe, and we had a several month supply of mole classico plus Christmas presents.
100 sounds exciting! Is there a best book of hers?