My wanderings through Encarnación Pinedo's book, El cocinero español,
have lead me to an interesting section titled "Clamoles."
At first I could not find out what a clamole was, although the recipe read like what is called a "mole". I found someone online who showed me that the modern spelling is "clemole". From there, I learned that it's base word is "tlemole" and it is a stew or broth with meat and vegetables, strongly flavored with chiles, onions, garlic, and more.
This particular recipe, the "Palace Clamole" (page 67), has no vegetables. It is strongly flavored with chiles, cacao, and cinnamon in a tomato base. I think it is called "palace" because of the specialty flavors and the three different meats, making it fit for royalty.
I made this twice. Notice there is Redaction #1 and also Redaction #2.
Clamole de Palacio.
Se desvenan y se tuestan tres libras de chile pasilla: á esto se pondrá media libra de cacao colorado, otra media de almendras, ambas cosas bien tostadas, y media onza de canela: se muele el chile con tomates asados y pelados, y en seguida el cacao, la canela y las almendras: todo se frei en manteca y se deshace en agua caliente sin que se corte. La fritura deberá, hacerse juntamente con la carne y chorizos ó butifarras. Se sazona con un terrón de azúcar. La sal se le pone despues que haya hervido bien el clamole para quo no se corte.
Palace Clamole.
Three pounds
of pasilla chiles are deveined and toasted: to this you will put half a pound
of red cacao,
another half of almonds, both well toasted, and half an ounce of cinnamon: the
chile is ground with toasted and peeled tomatoes, and then the cacao, the cinnamon
and the almonds: everything is fried in fat and breaks down in hot water
without being removed. The frying should be done together with the meat and chorizo
or butifarras. It is seasoned with a sugar cube. The salt is added after the
clamole has boiled well so that it does not curdle.
1 ounce ancho pasilla and California chiles, toasted, deseeded, and soaked
14 ounces plum tomatoes, toasted and peeled
3 ounces slivered almonds, toasted
3 ounces cocoa powder
1 teaspoon (about 1/8 ounce) cinnamon
olive oil, as needed
10 ounces longaniza sausage, cooked and cut into chunks
2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
Toast the dried chiles until blistered. Allow to cool then remove stem, veins, and seeds. Soak in hot water for at least 20 minutes.
 |
| The pasilla chiles are really wrinkled. |
Toast the tomatoes on a hot skillet or over a low flame until the skin cracks and blisters.
Then let them cool enough to handle and remove the skin. Cut out the core end, too.
Cut them into big pieces and blend them with the soaked chiles until smooth. Add the toasted almonds, cocoa powder, and cinnamon. Blend well, adding water as needed to keep the mixture moving in the blender.
Remove the casing from the longaniza, break into pieces, and cook in the Dutch oven until firmed. Use olive oil as needed to keep the sausage from sticking.
Add chicken thighs and brown them a little.
Add the sauce and a little water. Stir, bring to a simmer, and allow to cook slowly over very low heat until the chicken is tender and can be shredded with two forks.
Add sugar and salt near the end.
Shred the chicken in the pan using two forks to pull the meat apart.
My Notes
Instead of butifarra sausages, I used longaniza. That is what I could find at the store.
I tried to toast the tomatoes on a hot skillet but it was taking a long time, so I moved them over the fire on the stove, using tongs to turn them often to blister them all over.
The sauce was so thick in the blender that I added the water the chiles soaked in to help everything blend. Adding the cocoa powder made it even thicker, so I kept adding water, but I didn't want to make it too thin. You can see in the pictures that the whole dish looked thick, but it did simmer.
The Verdict
I served the clamole in bowls and had warmed flour tortillas on the side. It was garnished with sliced almonds.
It was very tasty, although my critique was:
- The sauce was too thick
- The chocolate was too strong; it was hard to taste anything else
- It needed more salt
It takes a lot to get me to say that there was too much chocolate in the flavor, but it wasn't balanced at all. I loved the chocolate, but I wanted to have other flavors, too.
There was only a little heat from the chiles; it could have been more and we would have still enjoyed it.
We really liked scooping some of the clamole into the torn pieces of tortillas and eating them. The chicken was a nice chewy part and the longaniza added a different texture and flavor to its bites.
But I wanted to do it again. I kept thinking the sauce should be much wetter, like a simmer sauce. So here is the second attempt:
My Redaction #2
2 ounces pasilla and California chiles, toasted, cleaned, and soaked
6 ounces whole almonds, toasted
9 ounces pork chorizo
5 ounces pork longaniza
4 1/4 pounds tomatoes, toasted, skinned, and with the core removed
3 ounces cocoa powder
1 tablespoon cinnamon
4 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
2 tablespoons sugar
3 teaspoons salt
My Notes
Basically, I doubled the original recipe but used four times the amount of tomatoes, the same amount of chiles and cocoa powder, three times the amount of cinnamon and six times the amount of salt.
I followed roughly the same procedure, although I didn't brown the thighs.
I had to puree the tomatoes and chiles in batches, and I added all the water the chiles soaked in. The almonds were whole this time and I had to grind them in batches with the tomato puree so they didn't get too thick. I mixed the cinnamon and cocoa into the sauce in the Dutch oven instead of trying to mix them in the blender.
The chicken, sausages, and sauce nearly filled my 6 quart (5.7 liter) Dutch oven! I was cooking a great quantity.
Everything simmered over a very low heat for about one hour, then I took the chicken out, added the salt and sugar to the sauce, shredded the chicken, and added it back in. It then simmered for another hour.
After it cooled a bit, I put it in the refrigerator to be served the next day.
The Verdict
I served it garnished with sliced almonds and a small sprinkling of cacao nibs. Flour tortillas on the side.
This was much better.
- The sauce was not too thick; just right, really.
- The salt was about spot on; it was the eater's choice to add a little more or not.
- The chocolate level was better. You could taste it but it didn't blot out everything else and it was balanced well with the cinnamon.
- One of my guest tasters wanted more heat, the other was fine with it as it was, and I was ambivalent. I used up the chiles I had on hand and I don't think it would hurt to put in more.
- The longaniza could have been cut into smaller pieces and there should have been more of it. The chorizo dissolves into the sauce so it adds flavor but not bites.
You don't have to make such a huge batch (I plan on freezing some of it). I think the whole redaction #2 could be reduced by half, except you will want to increase the chile quantities and it wouldn't hurt to put in more of the sausages.
Success!
Of the two, I definitely recommend Redaction #2. Play with the chile quantity to suit your tastes. If you can find butifarra sausages, try them and let me know how it tastes.
My Latina friend took some for her family. She thought the clamole was too sweet so she served it like this: a fried corn tortilla first, with Mexican cream on top of that, then the clamole, then her salsa with jalapenos, onion, tomato, and garlic. She said they liked it!
