The Technical Bases of Mole and Curry
Published September 27, 2008 by Rachel Laudan
A very knowledgeable Indian correspondent, V. Gautam, sent me this comment.
“When an Indian looks at a mole, we see, deconstructed, the following parts to the gravy: 1) a garam masala, the sweet spice paste 2) the chile/chile seed paste + any chocolate 3) nut/bread/plantain paste thickener, raisin 4) fried onion base, thickener [optional] 5) any tomato or other souring + liquid agent
So the construction seems very familiar, its origins pre-Arabic, Indo-Iranian in fact, with the onion base + sesame/nut paste thickener+sweet spices. Brought by Arabs to the Mediterranean, this became a fried bread +nut paste thickener so loved in Spain. The complex chiles and chile seeds and nightshades are Mexico’s very own contribution, not just to moles but back to Indian cookery as well! Mexico had its own “nut thickener” in the form of pepitas, though! Almonds provide an extra touch. Try some lightly roasted cashews, almonds, sesame, in your mole paste and see what texture and taste you get. But be careful: anything with cashew paste will stick and scorch easily, so use non-stick and keep it moving. If you use garlic, fry it in big cubes earlier and paste it.”
This analysis of basic sauce-making techniques is right up my historian’s alley. I have lots of thoughts which I’ll save for later. Meanwhile, any comments?
Filed under Food History,Mole and the Like,Oddities and Things that Don't Fit
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I think that this is an excellent breakdown. One think that occurs to be with my background is that now there is a useful basis for comparison of the two groups of dishes, now is the time to start breaking different elements into possible shared descent and other shared mechanisms like parallel development (in other words the independent development of the same technique because it is the best solution to a particular technical issue).
I would think that the use of nuts or seeds as a thickening is a good candidate for a parallel development in Curry and Mole. At the back of my head is some historic reference to a priest making a reference to stews thickened with pumpkin seeds very early in the conquest.
What is interesting about parallel developments in food is that as they a represent elements that are recognizable between different cultures they are more open to reinterpretation then say a a completely alien element.
So if after the colonial period the pumpkin seed thickening agent is replaced with New World almonds, is it an adaption of a pre-existing technique or is it an adaption of a Old World technique? Actually it is both. And this is what is I think an important point as there is a tendency in some food-history articles to adapt the history of a dish into a sort of Darwinian biological model, where the weight is given to either one alternative of decent or the other. Perhaps it is the limitation of the language, but so often this thinking seems to result in a polarized response. Mole is pre-colonial or Mole is an adapted Old World dish.
And in this I have only considered one element of the Mole, imagine the complications when the other elements are broken down and examined and then weighted against each other. How does one compare the relative contributions to the what makes a dish. Seed/nut thickening agent (possibly parallel development and cross-over in the post-colonial period) compared to frying (Old World technique) compared to the use of Chillies (New World)?
I was just passing thru Blooger.com to see how others did it and fell upon your site.
Great idea to track food thur its history. I’m sure they’d be a lot more understanding if we all recogonized our cullinary connectedness. The one I know is here in England – THE English dish is ‘Fish and Chips’ – the fried potatoes come from Ireland and the fried fish from East Europe Jews – yet it’s THE English dish!
Nice blog.
This is very interesting. I always wondered how mole originated, in the sense of, who would think of that combination of ingredients? It sounds like your correspondant is saying that there was an accretion (is that the right word?) of ingredients until, voila, there was mole. I’ll be interested to read your follow-up posts about this.
My personal favorite origin story for fish and chips is that it was introduced by Italian immigrants to the U.K. with frutti di mare.
Hi Jay, Great to have you here. As I am sure you know the origins of fish and chips has been the subject of a good bit of research. For those who are new to this interesting topic, here’s a link to the classic book
http://www.amazon.com/Chips-British-Working-Class-1870-1940/dp/071852120X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226281791&sr=8-1