No Olé For Mole

My husband is a social meat eater. He's happy to eat vegan at home with me and is generally content to eat vegetarian when he is out (even when I'm not watching him ;-) ). He eats some kind of meat maybe once or twice a month, usually when he is someplace that doesn't have an appealing vegetarian selection. Or when he wants to eat something he loves, but there isn't ever a suitable vegetarian version available. Such has been the case with mole.

Hubby loves mole. And mole doesn't usually come vegetarian in the real world! Not only is there always meat in the broth, but it's most often served on top of more meat. Now, over the past 14 years of being vegan, I've gotten pretty good at veganizing things. I can make a vegan version of anything that I crave. With the exception of a vegan Chik-fil-a sandwich, I miss nothing in life. I have tried to extend this to Hubby as well. I do my best to try and give him home cooked, vegan versions of the foods he likes, so he doesn't have to prowl the streets in search of meat! But I sure never tried to make him mole before, for a simple reason. I hate mole!

I have only eaten mole a couple of times, and only after I became vegan, so I have never eaten "real" mole. The first time was years ago, when I made it at home with my ex. I didn't know I hated it.... but one taste let me know I was no mole fan! I tried it out at a restaurant several years later, thinking maybe we just made it wrong, but I still didn't like it. So, I avoided it at all costs! A couple of months ago, we ate dinner at Border Grill, where I got some kind of vegetarian something. I forget what it was, but I do remember that it came covered in mole! The menu DID NOT indicate mole would be a part of my dinner! So, there I sat, suffering through my $20 entree, annoyed and angry with the world!

At first glance, I thought he was cooking himself in the pot!!!

 Last night, I made Vegan Enchiladas with Rich Mole Sauce. What a project! It took me a good 2 1/2 hours to make! Which is a lot of time to spend cooking something you expect you will hate! And do you guys know what actually goes into mole? Well, I'll tell you. It's the most fucked up conglomeration of bullshit that I have ever seen in any recipe! It starts out so normal, involving all of the usual suspects that you'd expect in an enchilada sauce: onions, garlic, pasilla peppers, ancho chilis, tomatoes, etc. But then, it gets so crazy that I felt like someone was playing a practical joke on me! Where was Alan Funt?!? I mean, raisins, roasted peanuts, crushed tortilla chips, and baking chocolate? In the same recipe with that other stuff? Where I come from, anything with spicy peppers and onions it shouldn't also involve chocolate. It's just plain wrong.

Anyway, after spending the better part of my afternoon making this weirdo recipe, dinner was served. And my husband, mole expert that he is, LOVED it and swore that my mole stood up with with the best of them. He was also excited to have mole served with fake chicken, which he had never experienced before.

I obviously wasn't as impressed with myself. I tasted the mole before I assembled the enchiladas, and I thought it was disgusting. I hoped against all hope that somehow the baking process would miraculously turn it into a good tasting treat. Alas.

I was able to eat my portion. I didn't gag. I didn't like it, but I guess by the end of the meal, I didn't hate it as much as I hated that first taste of the sauce. I take issue with the sweetness of it. I'm accustomed to Mexican sauces being tangy, spicy, garlicky, tomatoey, etc and not tasting of chocolate and raisins, flavors more suitable to a box of Raisinets than to a plate of enchiladas. Regardless, I'll try it again with some of the leftovers and since vegan mole is hard to come by, I guess I'll end up making it again to build up my tolerance. Because I don't ever again have to pout through a $20 entree at a restaurant just because someone decided to slip me some mole!