mole Archives - Taste With The Eyes

Chilean Sea Bass, Mole Coloradito

A little while back, I shared a recipe for Duck and Sweet Potato Enmoladas with a New Mexican Mole inspired by Chef Fernando Olea at Sazón restaurant in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He was named Best Chef Southwest 2022 by the James Beard Foundation for his unique interpretation of contemporary and traditional Mexican dishes.

The Chef is famous for his various moles including New Mexican Mole, Mole Verde, Mole Negro, and Mole Coloradito. Not only does the Chef offer a tasting of his exceptional moles at the restaurant, he also sells them online so we can enjoy them at home!

Mole Coloradito is prepared using one of Chef Olea’s traditional family recipes. Incorporating both guajillo and arbol chiles, he creates a harmonizing blend of savory and spice which are combined with tomato, onion, garlic, lime juice and many other ingredients. This somewhat spicier mole pairs wonderfully with pork or white fish.

Chilean Sea Bass, Mole Verde at Sazón Santa Fe — Mole Verde paired with Chilean Sea Bass at Sazón Santa Fe

Chilean Sea Bass, Mole Coloradito Recipe

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Duck and Sweet Potato Enmoladas

Duck and Sweet Potato Enmoladas
New Mexican Mole

Enmoladas are similar to the more familiar Mexican enchiladas, but with a mole sauce instead of a chile sauce. And where enchiladas are usually baked in the sauce as a casserole, enmoladas are usually stuffed with fillings, rolled, and plated then the sauce is ladled on top. The word enmolada translates to “covered in mole.”

The inspiration for this duck and sweet potato version comes from a menu item called Enmoladas de Pato at Sazón restaurant in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Originally from Mexico City, Chef Fernando Olea was named Best Chef Southwest 2022 by the James Beard Foundation for his unique interpretation of contemporary and traditional Mexican dishes.

Duck and Sweet Potato Enmoladas

The menu states that mole is a sauce of complex flavors that usually includes toasted and ground spices, seeds, nuts, chocolate and chile. Many mole recipes contain more than thirty ingredients and some recipes have five varieties of chile alone. Moles can be defined by their color such as rojo, verde, and negro; the town they are from such as Puebla, Oaxaca, Michoacan; and social class, such as pobres and ricos.

Not only does the Chef offer a tasting of his unique moles at the restaurant, he also sells them online so we can enjoy them at home!

Enmoladas Recipe

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For Your Next Party: The Black Course

the black course:
negra modelo beer braised beef short rib with chile de arbol
wrapped in a grape leaf with oaxacan black mole sauce
black mission figs, shiitake mushrooms
crispy grape leaf chip, sesame ash, black sesame seed, cacao nibs

Of the seven courses we served at our fundraiser dinner, the black course is my creative favorite. I looked to Mexican cuisine experts – Chefs Rick Bayless, Patricia Quintana, and Javier Plascencia for inspiration. I learned about making sesame ash while Guest-Chef-for-the-Day at Moto Restaurant in Chicago last January and had been wanting to try Chef Homaro Cantu’s modernist technique in a dish ever since. What appears to be ash is black sesame seed oil converted into a powder. It serves visual interest as well as a flavor complement to the sesame seed in the mole.

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