Mole at home - a survey of mole pastes begins..

Dishes made with mole - and especially mole negro - are probably my favorites in all of Mexican food.  I started buying mole pastes to try - making the paste myself is a little overly ambitious but it's very easy to use the paste to make a quick meal. 

The first one I bought was the Doña María paste, which is a red mole.  I got it at my local supermarket.  My friend YumYums was on hand to help prepare this one, and she had an extremely difficult time getting the paste out of the jar - it settled so bad it was like concrete.  After we made the basic chicken with mole sauce, I didn't care for it that much... I will give the paste another try since I have a whole gigantic jar of it sometime in the future, but I didn't like the flavor on the first try.  No pictures of that one.

Last weekend, I was in downtown and stopped randomly into Two Bits Market, and I picked up a mole negro paste from San Angel Mole.  The jar looked pretty promising, and tonight I opened it up and used it for chicken again.  I was so ridiculously lazy that I didn't make any rice or even pull out some sesame seeds to sprinkle on top, but at least I had some tortillas to clean my plate with (see below).  Mmmmm.. this mole was quite good.  I will definitely use the whole jar of this paste! It had a really rich flavor.

I still feel like there is better mole out there, so I will continue on my quest, but I'm pretty happy with the San Angel mole so far. 

On the agenda:

1. don't laugh, but I have in my cupboard a jar of Target's house brand Archer Farms Cocoa Chili Mole Simmer Sauce.  It actually looks pretty ok in the jar, but I'll have to see for myself!
2. go to the local Mexican grocery market and buy a few other brands to try.  I have heard that Rogelio Bueno is pretty good so I want to check it out.
3. pick up some of the mole paste from Guelaguetza - I liked their mole a fair bit when I ate at the restaurant recently, and I think I remember that they sold the mole paste in their gift area.

Comments

[Brianilagan]

Ohh Grand Central Market maybe? hmm...oohhh MacArthur Park! haha i haven't looked for mole specifically, but I'll keep my eye out! You should do a mole video...that I would watch 'cause i wanna make some :) I made it once.