I had wanted to try this very special Mexican Mole sauce for a very long time - not least because it contains chocolate. One of my 'total escape' films is Chocolat - what woman doesn't adore Juliet Binoches costume not to mention her feisty attitude! I love the birthday dinner they prepare for Judi Dench's character -every course containing chocolate and with johnny Depp serving ....aaahhh (sigh) -my idea of heaven. Usually this dish is only eaten on celebratory occasions and well we were definitely celebrating - T.O.D.S.C. was 1 year old this month. You will have to online order the special chilies it contains -unless you live in London or Dublin where they can be purchased. Plantain is another ingredient you might find difficult to get your hands on, but I think you could go ahead without it. I served this for my most recent event the Good Friday Supper, as it was close to Easter I wanted to pay homage to chocolate and so came the Mole. I made the sauce a few days before hand allowing the flavours to mingle. I ordered the pork from the wonderful Ennis Butchers in Rialto -more often than not my meat for supper events comes through them - definitely worth checking out if you're in the area. The pork is free range and comes from Salters farm in Carlow, the pigs are a mix of heritage breeds and very, very tasty they are too!!

Holy Mole Sauce

What you need;

A 4/5 kg shoulder of pork
225g sugar
225g salt
Rapeseed oil

What you need to do;

Get your shoulder of pork -bone in
Cure for 6 hours or overnight by rubbing in the mixture of salt and sugar, cover with cling
Pour off the juice that is extracted, turn oven on to 150'F / Gas 2
Scrape off any excess salt/sugar rub, drizzle over some oil and cook for 5/6 hours or until the meat is falling off the bone

Salters Free Range Pork Shoulder

For the Mole sauce - I used this recipe Mexican Mole Recipe -it worked really well. I managed to get the chillies dried in Fallon & Byrne they are packed by the Cool Chile Co. I shortened the cooking by using ground almonds, peanut butter and not bothering to saute the raisins, also I didn't have pecans so I just threw in some hazelnuts....I don't think this made a huge difference flavour wise. The sauce freezes really well so you may as well make a large quantity and try it again another day with chicken or some roast sweet potato & squash.

Provechito amigos!!

A little clip of the party preparations from Chocolat.