Manchamanteles Poblano Conventual

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 6-quart clay cazuela or Dutch oven
• •Cast iron comal for toasting chiles and spices
• •High-powered blender
• •Fine-mesh strainer
• •Wooden spoon
• •Puebla talavera serving dish

Instructions

1. 1

   Cook the meats

   Put the pork shoulder, chicken thighs, onion, 3 garlic cloves, bay leaves, salt, and 8 cups water in a heavy pot. Bring to a gentle simmer and skim the foam for the first 15 minutes. Cook until the chicken is tender, about 35 minutes, then remove it. Keep simmering the pork until it yields to a fork, about 1 hour more. Strain and save the broth. Discard the spent onion, garlic, and bay leaves.

2. 2

   Toast the chiles

   Heat a dry comal over medium. Toast the chile ancho and chile pasilla separately, about 20 to 30 seconds per side, just until the skins puff and the smell turns deep and sweet. Do not blacken them. Burned chile makes bitter mole, and no convent cook in Puebla would forgive that laziness.

   The pasilla is thinner than the ancho and burns faster. Keep it moving. If one chile goes black, throw it away and toast another.
3. 3

   Soak the chiles

   Put the toasted chiles in a bowl and cover with hot water for 20 minutes. Hot, not boiling. Boiling water toughens the skins and pulls bitterness forward. Drain the chiles and discard the soaking water.

4. 4

   Fry the thickeners

   Melt 2 tablespoons manteca de cerdo in a skillet. Fry the almonds until pale gold, then the sesame seeds until fragrant, then the raisins until they swell. Fry the torn tortilla and bolillo until toasted at the edges. Work in batches and keep everything moving. This is the convent architecture of the sauce: seed, bread, fruit, spice, and chile held together with discipline.

5. 5

   Toast the spices

   On the same comal, toast the cloves, cinnamon, and black peppercorns for less than a minute, just until fragrant. Grind them in a molcajete or spice mill with the thyme and marjoram. Do not leave the spices whole in the sauce unless you want someone biting into a clove at the table. That is not tradition. That is poor work.

6. 6

   Blend the sauce

   Blend the drained chiles with the fried almonds, sesame, raisins, tortilla, bolillo, roasted tomatoes, remaining 3 garlic cloves, ground spices, and 2 cups reserved broth. Blend until very smooth. Add more broth only if the blender refuses to move. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve, pressing hard. A convent sauce should have body, not grit.

7. 7

   Fry the mole

   Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon manteca de cerdo in a wide cazuela. Pour in the strained sauce carefully because it will sputter. Cook over medium heat for 12 to 15 minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon, until the color darkens to brick red and the fat begins to shine at the edges. La manteca es el sabor. This frying step wakes up the chile and marries the seeds to the sauce.

8. 8

   Braise everything together

   Add 3 cups reserved broth to the cazuela and stir until smooth. Return the pork and chicken to the sauce. Simmer gently for 20 minutes, then add the plantain, pineapple, and apple. Cook 15 to 20 minutes more, until the fruit softens but still holds its shape. Taste for salt. Add piloncillo only if the fruit is sharp or flat. The sauce should be sweet-savory, not candy.

9. 9

   Rest and serve

   Let the manchamanteles rest off the heat for at least 20 minutes before serving. The sauce thickens and the fruit gives itself to the chile. Spoon it into a Puebla talavera serving dish, scatter with toasted sesame, and bring it to the table with warm corn tortillas. It is called tablecloth-stainer for a reason. Use the good mantel anyway. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.

Chef Tips

• •Use chile ancho that is flexible, glossy, and smells like dried fruit. If it cracks like old paper, leave it with the vendor. Bad chile gives you bad mole. Si no conoces el mercado, no conoces la cocina.
• •The fruit must be ripe but firm. Soft pineapple or overripe plantain will dissolve and make the sauce muddy. The fruit should sit in the mole like stained glass, visible and deliberate.
• •Manteca de cerdo is not optional here. Oil will cook the paste, yes, but it will not give the same rounded flavor or the same shine at the edge of the sauce. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
• •This dish is better after a rest. Make the sauce and meats one day ahead if you can, then add the fruit when reheating so it stays intact.
• •Serve with corn tortillas, not flour. Flour tortillas belong to the northern table. This is Puebla.

Advance Preparation

• •The pork, chicken, and broth can be cooked one day ahead. Refrigerate the meats in a little broth so they do not dry out.
• •The chile sauce can be blended, strained, and fried up to 2 days ahead. Reheat gently with broth before adding the meats and fruit.
• •Do not add the pineapple, plantain, and apple until the final simmer. Fruit left overnight in the sauce loses its shape and turns the dish too sweet.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 400g)