the first mole (poblano)

it's been a weekend of high fevers, pain, and cooking.  looking at the sunday looming large before me, i foresee much of the same, with the exciting addition of some mopping and bathroom scrubbing.

i made my first mole sauce yesterday, an undertaking that probably has fever as a prerequisite.  a mole poblano, to be precise.  it never would have happened had not fred made several trips to the store, and had i not weaseled one or two more ingredients out of each journey.  a stickler for accuracy, he was going back to straighten out some check-out discrepancies.  anyway, it was my lucky break.

the thing is, i don't know if my mole sauce turned out as it ought to have -- not having ever tasted a mole sauce, myself -- though i suspect i've had it in such things as chicken enchiladas.

ah, but no matter, for i've surely entered the pantheon of cooking deities, never having heard of anyone else  using their first ever mole poblano as the base for a beef stew!  

that's right, about a cup of the mole sauce, along with a half-cup of brewed coffee, and some hits of nice cold fresh water.  the stew was finished with a splash of balsamic vinegar.  

this was maybe the third or fourth time i've ever used the slow cooker thingy and it proved ideal, that slow-and-low style.  

i was afraid it would turn out too sweet but instead the result was complex, smooth, and fruity, with a really cool viscosity, a bodacious body -- the criticism would be that it was too strong and almost overpowered the many tasty vegetables in the dish.  it was, though, a perfect pairing for the tender cubes of beef.  

of course, cooking beef is not something i am used to, either, since i've been a vegetarian most of my life.  when i began to eat meat, beef and pork were, and are, difficult to accomodate without major nose-wrinkling.  i cannot touch raw beef or pork -- i use utensils as i work with them.  it's a near phobia.  

so... to my untrained beef palate, it tasted rich, very detailed, peppery, spicy, smooth, with a final salvo of chocolate.

a whole lot of work for something that disappeared so quickly!

my hands went numb pretty early on in all the roasting, mincing, chopping, measuring, reconstituting, and mixing -- but after clearing the immediate area of cats, divas, and sleepy partners, i just forged ahead, approximating grips that seemed fierce and unbreakable.  i only dropped knives twice, and didn't cut myself even once.  ha!

fred behaved wonderfully well -- so very red-blooded, so very archetypal.  he settled in the bed, managing his resource of pouffy pillows with aplomb.  he scarfed down two big bowls of stew, grunting things that sounded approving, and watched ufc 138 (yawn).  as he was drifting off to his happy sleepy place, he had the nerve to inquire whether i had made an apple pie...

it's difficult to say, but i think he snickered right before falling into the dream arms of one of the octagon girls -- arianny, if his goofy mutterings are to be believed.  (the only thing i've ever admired about the octagon women?  they wear sneakers.)

anyway... one day?  i'd love to tackle rick bayless' oaxacan black mole -- check out how thick it looks, how smooth, how shiny, how beautiful!

is there an apple pie in fred's somnolent future?  

maybe.

probably.

okay, yes.  yes, i am gonna bake the man a pie.  

you wanna make something of it?  huh, do ya? 

(seriously, would you like to be in charge of pastry?  i don't think i can manage much dough-rolling today.  it's either go "rustic" or go "frozen pie shell.")  

most likely, it's jacques pépin to the rescue.   so stop back by late this afternoon and have a piece with us.  we can watch the sun set over the moat...