Mole Verde Veracruzano

Veracruz, the central highlands around Xalapa, Coatepec, and Naolinco, is where this green mole belongs. Not Oaxaca. Not Puebla. Veracruz. The Gulf gives the state fish, olives, vinegar sauces, and trade, but the mountains give this dish its herbs, tomatillos, chiles, and the cool-weather kitchen where pork sits well under a green sauce.

The color comes from tomatillo, jalapeno, cilantro, epazote, and hierba santa. The body comes from ground pumpkin seed. That is the hand of Veracruz here: green, herbal, a little sharp, thickened with seed instead of bread alone. I learned a version outside Coatepec from a woman who stirred her mole with a wooden pala and corrected me before I even touched the blender. She said, 'The seed goes first. If the seed is wrong, the mole is wrong.' She was right.

Do not confuse this with Oaxacan mole verde, which leans on hoja santa, masa, and a different herb balance, or with the thin green sauces people pour over enchiladas and call mole because the word sounds serious. This is a home pot. You toast the pumpkin seed, roast the tomatillos and chiles, blend the herbs, then fry the sauce in manteca de cerdo until it stops tasting raw. No me vengas con atajos.

Serve it in a glazed cazuela from the Veracruz highlands, with warm corn tortillas and the pork tucked into the sauce. The mole should look generous, not precious. La cocina no es decoracion, es trabajo.