Pork Loin and Mole Negro

With an ardent love for all moles, and a love (maybe not ardent) for Rick Bayless (especially after Top Chef Masters), I decided today to try and make Bayless' recipe for Puerco en Mole Negro from his restaurant Topolobampo in Chicago. I think, if I'm not mistaken, this is the fabled recipe Bayless used to secure his spot as the Top Chef Master . . . he claimed in took him 20 years to make a satisfactory mole—hopefully I can do his recipe (at least) some justice.

I started out by walking to Vallarta, a Mexican supermakret just a few blocks from my house, to pick up most of the ingredients. The list was long and extensive, taking me to parts of the market I'd never been to (see recipe for complete list).

All the ingredients in place, time to get cooking. . . .

First step: making the marinade for the pork loin. The marinade is fairly straight-forward. Blend a bunch of ingredients together and let the pork marinade overnight. To make the marinade, I used one can of Chipoltle peppers in adobo sauce, reserving 3 tablespoons of the liquid they were in (in the can). I then combined corn oil, apple cider vinegar, dried oregano, ancho chili powder, and honey. All of these ingredients were then blended thoroughly, poured into a bag I had already set the bag into, which I then put in the refrigerator.

So far so good.

Next step: roast onion, tomatillo, and tomato mixture, then set aside. Then de-stem and de-seed 6 dried pasilla peppers, roast, and set aside.

Now comes the difficult part: making the mole. Before I began the process, I had this feeling that mole isn't something easily translated into words, both hard to describe how to make and what it tastes like. I figured it would be one of this dishes that eludes me for some time, like a great paella, until finally, one day, after 10 or more average attempts, something just clicks and mole becomes my go-to dish. But you have to start somewhere with these things, right? I mean, if it took Rick Bayless 20 years I'd be happy to accomplish it in my lifetime.

First step: fry bananas? Then add sesame seeds and peanuts? Stir everything frequently until evenly browned? Ok . . . I feel like this is the mole's soul, its sofrito, and I feel a little out of sync with what it's exactly supposed to be like. I mean, I've never really tasted these three ingredients in mole before. Nevertheless, I cook until browned, then add the rest of the ingredients, not sure if I browned them enough, too much . . . who knows?

The next step is too add the rest of the ingredients: raisins, oregano, dried and roasted pasilla peppers, tomatillo mixture, chocolate, chicken stock . . . Let all of this come to a boil, then remove from heat.

Now, after coming to a boil, the mixture smells like mole although it doesn't look like it yet. I can already see that my mole isn't quite as dark as ones I've had before. But, I pressed on, pureeing the mole in batches in a food processor. I blended each batch for about 5 minutes, but the mole still did not look completely smooth or pureed. I think I should have strained it at this point, but the instructions didn't say to do so, and I didn't want to mess with the recipe the first time through. After pureeing all of the mole, I poured it back into the pan, and whisked it for about 5 minutes over medium heat, until it thickened slightly.

Within a half hour or so the pork was fully cooked and the mole ready to go . . . sante.

Recipe