Mole Verde Con Espinazo

Recipes from Oaxaca 
Alvin Starkman, M.A., LL.B. (Article archive)

Mole Verde Con Espinazo Recipe
(Pork Spine)

(Recipe courtesy of the late Esperanza Chavarria Blando, who owned Restaurante Quickly, and represented Oaxaca at national cooking expos, for three decades)

INGREDIENTS

• ½ kilo Frijol Blanco
(small while beans)
• 1 Garlic Clove
• ¼ Onion
• 2 tsp Salt

• 1 kilo Espinazo De Puerco (pork spine)
• ½ kilo Other Pork Meat
• 2 large Garlic Cloves
• ¼ large Onion
• 2 tsp Salt

• 2 large Garlic Cloves
• ¼ large Onion

• ½ kilo Masa

Herbs
• 3 leaves of Hierba Santa
• 12 leaves of Epazote
• 1 bunch Cilantro
• 1 small bunch Parsley

Spices
• 3 Cloves
• 3 Whole Peppercorns
• 12 Green Tomatoes (approx)
• 9  Serrano Chilies (approx)*
*Buy several extra.  Their strength depends on the time of year they’re harvested…cooler weather means less potent!

DIRECTIONS
Beans:  
Clean beans while checking for little stones. 
Soak overnight and cook with the garlic, onion and salt the following day until beans are soft, or cook in a pressure cooker for ¾ to one hour without soaking.

Meat:
Cook the meat in water with the garlic, onion and salt, covered, for about 20 minutes or until soft.

While meat and bean are cooking, grill on a griddle or bbq the garlic cloves and onion and then put aside.

Spice Mixture:
Mix in blender the cloves, peppercorns, halved green tomatos, serrano chilies and the grilled garlic and onion, with about ½ cup water.  Blend thoroughly. 

Strain the mixture into a large deep pan already well heated with oil. 

Go back to the blender, add about a cup of water and reblend in order to completely empty the blender jar, and then strain this final mixture into the pan as well.  Allow this green mixture to simmer 10 to 15 minutes. 

Add about 2 cups of the pork broth into the above green mixture, and continue simmering.

Masa:
Mix half of the masa with ¾ cup of water in  blender. 

Add this masa mixture through a strainer to the green simmering mixture.  Stir so the masa doesn’t form balls.

If you want to make the green mixture thicker, mix more masa with water in the blender and add through a strainer.

Herbs:
Put the herbs in blender with enough water to blend, and blend well.

Add the meat (without the onion and garlic) to the green sauce, then the strained beans, and finally the blended herbs.

Add salt to taste.

Note:
Because leaf size varies, you may notice that sometimes the verde doesn’t look very green.  When this happens, simply blend a small amount of herbs and add to the final sauce.


Recipe provided by Alvin Starkman, of Casa Machaya Oaxaca Bed & Breakfast (http://www.oaxacadream.com).