How to use pre-fab Mole sauce?

I bought a container of Mole from the local Mexican grocery. Mole de Oaxaca. It wasn't what I expected, when I opened it it was kind of hard and dry, you had to dig out a spoonful. Obviously there is some prep work involved, this has to be mixed with something liquid, but what? I tried water, wasn't crazy about the result. They sell Mexican "Crema" -- not sure what that is, either a kind of creme fraiche or cream mixed with something? It occurs to me that maybe that is what I should be mixing with this very concentrated stuff.

I just thought maybe someone here has used this exact stuff???

I also bought a ball of queso de oaxaca which is wonderful. It is a like a hybrid between fresh mozzarella and string cheese, you can peel off these long satisfying ropes of cheese. Tom says that is the cheese that they use for their "Tortas" -- which in that part of Mexico means a big sandwich on soft bread.

Thanks in advance

[Jenise]

I've simply melted it into chicken broth, Frank. Though 'hard and dry' is not the experience I've had--more like an almost solid paste. I wonder if freshness is an issue there.

Almost solid paste is a better way of saying it. I was having expression problems this morning. Oxycodone for my oral surgery. Feeling lots better now.

I also googled around and got the same answer -- a couple of tablespoons of paste mixed with a whole can of chicken broth and some sugar.

Of course my son doesn't eat chickens, as a general rule... And I bought it partly to cook for him when he visits.

It's fun to shop at the Mexican store, I am always discovering something new.

[Jenise]

Does your Mexican market have Mexican pastries? Because they tend to be plainer and only lightly sweet, I'm infatuated with them. I was amazed to find that there's a good panaderia up here, though with all the agricultural land that attracts itinerant workers, I shouldn't have been.

Don't you just love ethnic markets, period?

Finally got around to doing this. We threw some chicken thighs in the crockpot -- and in a pan stirred a glop of molé paste into a can of chicken broth and stirred. I had also bought a disk of Mexican Chocolate from Murray's Cheese shop and I cut an edge off that and melted it into the sauce. Chopped some onion and garlic and one of those long mildly hot peppers and threw them in. The sauce looked really dark and rich when I poured it in over the chicken thighs. It will simmer all day and then we will presumably have chicken molé!

I normally "cook Mexican" for my son's girlfriend but as I said, we run into vegetarian issues with the chicken.

I also bought Masa and was thinking of steaming some tamales, but the recipe is something like 2 parts masa to one part lard!!! Whew. Never realized tamales were so fatty, you don't exactly taste it.

[Jenise]

I also bought Masa and was thinking of steaming some tamales, but the recipe is something like 2 parts masa to one part lard!!! Whew. Never realized tamales were so fatty, you don't exactly taste it.

I use more like 3:1 masa to lard and stretch it with chicken broth so that not ALL the moisture comes from fat. Pretty hard to cut back any further than that, though!

Came out really good, I shredded the chicken with forks and separated the sauce off and reduced and skimmed and thickened with flour and butter.

Sides were Elote, Guacamole, Pico de Gallo, and Arroz Amarillo. Nice meal.

To answer your question Janise -- I have not seen pastries at my MX grocery. But I have noticed that I am blind to things I am not specifically looking for. I suspect that our Mexican community is big enough that there are bakeries somewhere and that they don't sell breads at the market I shop at.

[Jenise]

Glad it worked out! Chicken en mole is fantastic. So is that sauce tossed with stir fried pork, lightly prepared with corn starch like you would for Chinese food.

Came out really good, I shredded the chicken with forks and separated the sauce off and reduced and skimmed and thickened with flour and butter.

Sides were Elote, Guacamole, Pico de Gallo, and Arroz Amarillo. Nice meal.

To answer your question Janise -- I have not seen pastries at my MX grocery. But I have noticed that I am blind to things I am not specifically looking for. I suspect that our Mexican community is big enough that there are bakeries somewhere and that they don't sell breads at the market I shop at.

You're almost certainly right, Frank. Even in our small burg, we have a Mexican panaderia selling pandulces that send me right back to childhood to smell. The way you dealt with the canned mole paste is exactly the way I deal with the mole paste I make myself. No doubt I'm preaching to the choir, but the most classic meat to use in a mole rojo or mole Poblano is turkey, that indigenous bird. I must also confess that the first time I made mole paste myself from a Mark Miller recipe I did what you did, too: I used it without diluting it with brother and found it way too thick. Silly me!

Mark Lipton