Don't believe that you have to put scads of hard-to-find ingredients into a mole before it amounts to anything.
Nothing could be eaiser than Mexico City chef Daniel Ovadía's mole carretera (at the top). It has just two main ingredients, aside from meat--plantains and ancho chiles. And only common seasonings such as onion, garlic, cinnamon, cumin and oregano.
This fruity, aromatic mole comes from the state of Veracruz. The name means "highway mole," which sounds like rough and ready food for truck drivers.
"Some people in Veraruz call it an adobo or sauce," Ovadía (right) said when he demonstrated the dish at the recent Food & Wine magazine festival at Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo. "But it's a fruit mole."
At his restaurant Paxia in Mexico City, Ovadía serves the sauce with duck, but he switched to beef at the festival.
Hardly road food, it's what you would expect from an upscale Mexico City restaurant. Ovadía poured the sauce over a single portion of beef filet, topped this with crisp, fine shreds of potato, leek and plantain and swirled a golden puree of sweet potato and guava on the side.
My adaptation of his recipe (above) uses a heartier cut of beef and leaves out the garnishes. Despite its simplicity, the sauce has extraordinarily good flavor.
It should be made with a plantain, not the sort of banana that you eat raw. If the plantain you buy is green or yellow, let it stand until the skin turns black. Then it will be ripe and sweet enough for the mole.
MOLE CARRETERA
Adapted from a recipe by Daniel Ovadía
1 pound boneless chuck steak
Pork lard or oil
4 cups water
1 slice onion
1 clove garlic
Salt
6 black peppercorns
3 dried red ancho chiles
1/2 medium onion, sliced
1 very ripe plantain, sliced
1 1/2 inches stick cinnamon
Dash ground cumin
Dash dried oregano
3 cups beef broth, more if needed
Sesame seeds
Cut the steak into chunks, removing any excess fat.
Heat 2 tablespoons lard or oil in a heavy skillet. Add the beef and sear on all sides.
Place the beef in a deep saucepan. Add the water, onion slice, garlic, salt to taste and peppercorns. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, 30 minutes. When cooked, strain off the broth.
Rinse the chiles. Roast them in any fat remaining in the skillet until fragrant. Remove them and discard the stems and seeds.
Add more lard or oil if needed. Add the sliced medium onion half and cook until tender. Add the sliced plantain and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.
Combine the onion and plantain in a large saucepan. Add the chiles, the cinnamon stick, cumin, oregano and 2 cups broth from the beef. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer until the chiles are softened, 10 minutes.
Cool 15 minutes, then puree in a blender. Return to the saucepan. Rinse out the blender with another 1 cup beef broth and add to the saucepan.
Bring to a boil, add the beef and simmer gently 20 minutes. If the sauce becomes too thick, dilute with additional broth.
Serve sprinkled lightly with sesame seeds.
Makes 4 servings.
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