Whole Foods is opening a store in Ogden! Finally!

 Mole Coloradito Oaxaqueño

(Respectfully…Ripped off from Seasons Of My Heart: A Culinary Journey Through Oaxaca by Susana Trilling (Ballantine Books, 1999). Copyright 1999 by Susana Trilling.
(who has to be one of the coolest people I’ve met. Great cook, incredible cookbook. She’s one of those people that went to check it out and ‘went native’…blows your mind at every turn.)

8 servings
I learned to make this flavorful combination of chiles and spices from my friend and teacher Carlota Santos. She has a little restaurant in her home where my husband Eric used to eat quite often before I came to live in Oaxaca. She always joked that she lost her best customer when I started to cook here, but gained a friend in me when she taught me the dishes she knew he liked to eat! I spent hours in her kitchen learning about this mole and the tamales and enchiladas you can make with the leftovers.
Seasoning ingredients:
2 large onions, each studded with a whole clove
4 celery ribs with leaves
2 small heads garlic
4 carrots, peeled and thickly sliced
2 bay leaves
2 chiles de arbol
6 black peppercorns
2 sprigs fresh thyme or 2 pinches dried
2 whole allspice
2 tablespoons salt
1 1/2 chickens (about 4 1/2 pounds), cut into 8 servings, reserving the back and neck for stock
18 chiles anchos (about 9 ounces), stemmed and seeded
21 chiles guajillos (about 4 1/2 ounces), stemmed and seeded
2 black peppercorns
2 whole cloves
1 whole allspice
1 piece of Mexican cinnamon, about 1 inch long
1/2 small head of garlic, cloves separated
1 small white onion, quartered
1 pound ripe tomatoes (2 medium-large round or 8-10 plum), quartered
1 sprig marjoram or Oaxacan oregano, or ½ teaspoon dried
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon sunflower or vegetable oil
1/2 ripe plantain, sliced
1/2 bolillo or French roll, sliced
1 tablespoon raisins
5 whole, unpeeled almonds
3 tablespoons lard, sunflower oil, or vegetable oil
1/2 cup sesame seeds
2 bars Mexican chocolate (3 ounces each), or to taste
Salt to taste
In a heavy 7-quart stockpot, heat 6 quarts water and the seasoning ingredients to a boil. Add the chicken pieces and lower heat to a simmer. Cover and cook the chicken for about 35 to 45 minutes or until the meat is tender and the juices run clear when the dark meat is pierced with a fork. Remove the chicken, strain, and reserve the stock.
Bring 2 quarts of water to a boil. On a 10-inch dry comal, griddle, or in a cast-iron frying pan over low heat, toast the chiles on both sides for about 10 minutes, toasting the chiles anchos a bit slower and longer than the chiles guajillos because of their thicker skins. Toast them on both sides until their skins start to blister and they give off their aroma. Remove the chiles from the comal or pan, place them in a medium bowl, and cover with the hot water. Soak the chiles for 20 minutes, turning to soften them. Puree in a blender, using as little of the chile water as possible, about 1 cup. Pass the puree through a sieve or food mill to remove the skins.
On the comal, toast the peppercorns, cloves, allspice, and cinnamon stick. Quickly grill the garlic and onion, turning them often until they become translucent. Cool them, then puree the spices, onion, and garlic in a blender with ½ cup of the reserved stock. Set aside.
In an 8-inch cast-iron frying pan over medium heat, cook tomato pieces and marjoram or oregano with no oil until condensed, 10 to 15 minutes. First they will give off their juices, then they will dry out. Puree the tomato mixture in a blender then pass the mixture through a sieve or food mill.
In a medium frying pan, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil over medium heat and fry the plantain and bread slices until brown, about 12 minutes. Remove from the pan. Add more oil (if needed) and fry the raisins until they are plump, about 3 minutes. Remove them from the pan. Fry the almonds until light brown, about 4 minutes. Remove from the pan. Place the plantain, bolillo, raisins, and almonds in a blender with 1-1/2 cups of the reserved broth and blend until smooth. Wipe out the frying pan and put over low heat. Add 1 teaspoon of oil and the sesame seeds and fry until brown, about 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Cool the seeds and grind in a molcajete or spice grinder.
In a heavy 6-quart stockpot, heat 1 tablespoon of lard over high heat until smoking. Add the chile puree a little at a time, stirring constantly. It will splatter about a bit, but keep stirring. Lower heat to medium and after about 20 minutes, or when chile puree is thick, add the tomato mixture and continue to cook, about 15 minutes, stirring to keep the mole from sticking or burning. Add the onion and ground spice mixture and stir well. Add the pureed plantain mixture and ground sesame seeds, stirring constantly, about 10 minutes. Add 4-1/2 to 5 cups of the reserved broth to thin the sauce, then add the chocolate, stirring constantly. When the chocolate dissolves, add the salt. Let it cook down for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. The more time it has to cook, the better.
Return the chicken pieces to the broth and heat through. Add more broth to the mole if needed. The mole should be thick enough to just coat a spoon, no more. Place a piece of chicken on a serving plate and ladle a large spoonful of mole on top. It should completely cover the meat. Serve with corn tortillas.
Hint: You can use turkey or pork instead of chicken. If you want to make it less picante, use half the amount of chiles and the same amount of the other ingredients.

There’s no telling how we scored the lodgings because the apartment was killer…came with a pitcher of fresh water and a large clean porcelain bowl on the nightstand…this was not like the first trip…O this is going in style…this is nice accommodations, clean water to wash your face, nice bedroom…traveling with Susan and Mary Sue, well, now, the secret’s out. Clean cool sheets, beautiful cloudy sky…probably they bought the weather too. Everyone has her/his own room. Mine is above the street. Directly across the street is the governor’s compound…gives it some cache. The traffic sounds…the cars…it’s comforting…the girls are amazing though as much as we love Mexico we can’t wait to get back to L.A./L.V. and take a shower with our water…Only in America…late at night, we hit some secret food spots, side streets, eat charred and aciento laden empanadas with chunks of cerdo in mole colorado…and sleep for a couple a hours in the early morning. This shot might be at sundown or sunup…can’t remember…too much food…far, far too much greasy foreign food…all top notch stuff, eaten in the middle of the street and/or crouched up against a set a stairs with 3 dozen of men near a raging fire…me, 5 ladies and this young man with the glasses from Los Angeles…in the dark of the dark

Pre-cell phone days, as these were…Constantino, our driver wasn’t exactly available, as one might define available today, in this decade…waiting for a text or call, preoccupied with being at attention, trying to keep someone else safe and happy, even to the point of O lets say, dependent upon us, paralyzed with need…he was a grown-up…plus we’d been paying him in advance…plying him with bills…no, Constantino had gone home, had family dinner…he came back to get us…we’d already arranged a meeting time and place when he’d return; after the sun finished dropping out. After the bowl of the sky turned from violet to pink and red, then to black …cell phones still don’t work at Monte Alban anyway…we come strolling down from the landing site, he is waiting at the location when we arrive, leaning against his car, toothpick in his mouth…we haven’t seen any little green men nor any mythical ancient Aztecs save for the Danzantes carved in the rock slabs…just icons…nothing actually still breathing.
We jump in the vehicle and he drives us down to Zaachila. There is very little light pollution here. You look up at night and you see stars. We go to the nicest restaurant in town. He waits for us on the sidewalk…he is already stuffed. His wife, he says, she makes the finest food in town…we go through the front door. A waiter escorts us to a courtyard. We eat a fascinating stuffed crab dish…the crab’s shell is stuffed with crabmeat, topped with hollandaise and a little cheese on top and baked under bread crumbs…it’s not unlike oysters Rockefeller except, of course that it’s crab and it’s served with saltine crackers and lime wedges…we devour chile rellenos, empanadas con hongos and flor de calabasa.…we roll out of the place. He is standing respectfully, talking with another man. He smiles greatly at me. How was everything?
Incredible!
Good, where would you like to go, my friend?  The night is just started. Down to the zocolo? Have a brandy, a coffee? A postre?
Yeah…let’s go do that…go downtown.
Do you like to do shopping?
At night? Here?
Many good shops downtown…I take you.

In his car, we hear the radio, Zaachila radio. He gives us the monologue…it’s radical, political, some kind of peace movement..nobody likes the government here…some violence…the soldiers will come, he says….it’s easy to see…you look out the window, you see stars.

Ah yes, uh… last time I posted the bit about a hollandaise recipe, I got caught up writing about getting fired from some hotel circle San Diego job about 20 years ago. So caught up in fact, that I failed to actually include a recipe for the sauce, so here it is. It’s really quite easy to do…great on eggs, for eggs benedict…

3 egg yolks
2 teaspoon water
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Directions
Pour 1-inch of water into a large saucepan; over medium heat, bring to a simmer. Once simmering, reduce the heat to low.
Place egg yolks and 1-teaspoon water in a medium mixing bowl and whisk until mixture lightens in color, approximately 1 to 2 minutes.
Place the mixture over the simmering water and whisk constantly for 3 to 5 minutes, or until there is a clear line that is drawn in the mixture when you pull your whisk through, or the mixture coats the back of a spoon.
Remove the bowl from over the pan and gradually add the butter, 1 piece at a time, and whisk until all of the butter is incorporated. Place the bowl back over the simmering water occasionally so that it will be warm enough the melt the butter. Add the salt, lemon juice, and cayenne pepper. Serve immediately or hold in a thermos to keep warm.

Susan Feniger, celebrity chef stands near a meat cart eating pickled spicy pig hocks at midnight in the middle of one of Oaxaca city’s unlit side streets. The rest of the party is confused.
What do we do now?
I’m not eatin that stuff.
This area is like death, Susan….
Mary Sue just sneers at her. The shops have rolled their metal grates down. Dangerous part of some little Mexican city.
Look at the temperature of that stuff…who wants some poison?
Susan’s like O come on. Please you guys, be real…Chris…eat this…
Seriously? Chef. Chris. Don’t, says the photographer…there’s a writer with us too…I can’t remember her name.
I really don’t care. I’m already sick from food, but whatever, I don’t mind what happens.
Mary Sue as usual says nothing. I never know what’s her trip…she can put on the smile of sarcasm…O she’s a hater. Definitely didn’t have no holes in her shoes when she was a kid…certainly thinks she’s something special.
Alright….ah, tastes good. Yeah that’s Ok, it’s kind of tepid…it’s in the bacteria ‘danger zone’ if you will…the danger zone…crap well, if there’s enough jalapenos in this it should kill everything anyway
Susan says, O lighten up. She’s sticking the 80 degree greasy pork meat in her mouth. In my mouth, tries to get some in Liz’s mouth…Liz is like O nope. That’s sick.
The dangerous neighborhood is crawling with zombies. Susan’s wrists are jangling with silver jewelry. Always with the silver bracelets w/fobs and bells and little iconic doodads…Nose ring, earrings like I don’t know 12 of em or more…

Downtown Ogden’s only Community Garden, The Oasis is located between 24th and 25th and between Monroe and Madison…it’s not super well known yet…it’s by that 7-11 where all the Ogden PD are always hanging out…the neighborhood has fallen into disrepair, to say the least, and those of us who live in the community want to be part of bringing that area back to life. The Sonora Grill and Rickenbacker’s employees went to the Oasis Saturday morning and did some maintenance …shoveled some mulch, picked up some trash, pulled weeds…left no garbage behind…If you want to do something to satisfy your soul, hit the Oasis, bring a friend and a Frisbee…volunteer a little time to checking in on the place. Bring the kids…It’s fun, free and easy.

So whats the deal with Monte Alban? Where was that outer space thing going…well, it’s a collection of giant rudimentary pyramids and there’s something in there that we know as a ‘Ball Court’ where the native Zapotecs used to play a dangerous and difficult game of like one-on-one soccer and but the ball was a human skull, or a rounded rock like the size of a human skull and you could only use your shoulders, knees, body, face, whatever, but you couldn’t use your hands and you had to get the ‘ball’ in the Ball Court’s goal, which was quite small and the winner of the game got to live and the loser was killed. Sounds pretty wacko…but at the same time, exciting. But what else were they doing? Not like they had to go to jobs or shovel snow…all these cats were in the business of building these Pyramid structures using technology they learned from The Aliens. And the real big clue to the Zapotecs from Monte Alban/Aliens from Rigel 12 connection is right in your face. Very obviously situated in the middle of the place…one of the stone structures is not in the shape of a pyramid. It is an aberration. It seems like it doesn’t belong there, right in the giant Monte Alban compound. This stone structure, some experts believe looks like a ship. Possibly, it’s supposed to be a rocket or some kind of spaceship from out in the physical universe.
I don’t really know. I mean scientists will tell you that we seem to know all this history about these like ancient ‘rituals’ and stuff and ball courts and things. So why can’t there be space aliens too, right? I figure it’s a 50/50 chance there are aliens. Either there are or there are not…so since you can’t rule out Aliens 100%…you really can’t say for sure they don’t exist…and so anyway, my traveling companion, K and I are discussing this while we watch the sunset and we’re looking down from the pyramid’s stairs at this structure which is even called ‘The Ship’ and I’m saying to K,
Are you hungry? We should go back down into that town we passed and eat some mole.
Zaachila?
Yeah, Zaachila…get some mole, yeah?

It’s awesome here in Ogden today because it’s still quite hot outside. I am a hot weather person. I used to love living and cooking in San Diego. It’s no secret. Cooked for 8 years in Las Vegas as the Executive Chef of the Border Grill inside Mandalay Bay Casino, Hotel and Resort on the Las Vegas Strip…I like it hot. Hot, like Mexico and Mexican food…Las Vegas is trashy though… however, San Diego…I lived there on and off for a couple years, between bouts of San Francisco, learning to cook, losing jobs, you know, on to the next one. But San Diego, there was a truly great city.
There’s a lot of great food there. Some stupid food too…I got fired at one hotel for refusing to make hollandaise sauce from a powdered hollandaise sauce mix.

Every afternoon I put in several prime ribs to roast and I removed a couple of the cooked ones for service…this hotel, we sold tons of it. We served great big deadly slabs of prime ribs and topped it with space-age Hollandaise sauce that we made from a secret yellow powdered chemical mix. Better living through chemistry. Just add water.

I had been told to use it by the sous chef. He would get busted and I would get fired if I didn’t go with the yellow powder but I just couldn’t. I knew what I was supposed to do, but I could make it 10 times better with actual fresh ingredients and it costs less and takes half the time. So every afternoon when the sous chef walked away, I slipped around the corner to the refrigerator, grabbed the eggs and vinegar, clarified some butter and threw together some delicious hollandaise sauce. It takes about a second and a half. No one ever knew…until the fateful afternoon the Executive Chef caught me in the act and insisted that I use the powdered hollandaise sauce mix. I refused.

I said, no I won’t, this powdered sauce is garbage!
He said, in his Swiss accent, O.K. Chris! You must do what I tell you or you get off of my line and don’t come back.
Good! Fine! I’m too good for this kitchen anyway!
And I rolled up all my knives in my knife roll and I split. Of course I needed the job pretty bad, but I had my self-respect. I can be a little stuck-up. A little elitist…Believe me, it’s not that hard to make hollandaise from scratch. And then I was out the door and on to the next one…

K and I were just watching the late afternoon sun go down in the west. We were sitting on a row of stairs going up a pyramid…One of the several pyramids of Monte Alban just outside of the city of Oaxcaca…while were there in the area we had seen so much, done so much, eaten so much…Grasshopper pizza AKA tlayudas con chapulines…seriously…and we had a driver, Constantine. We paid him about 100 bucks and he was glued to us for days. You gotta do that in Oaxaca; get a driver!
Monte Alban is a vast compound on top of a mountain that once, a couple thousand years ago was filled with people who probably thought it was a very spiritual location…it’s a pretty good place to watch a sunset, I can tell you. There is also some speculation about whether or not this is one of the locations where the space ships landed…but it was inevitably colonized by European aliens, not little green men from outer space.