This weekend visitors to Eat! Vancouver Festival were treated to the first visit by renowned chef , Susana Trilling, appearing in Vancouver as part of the World Culinary Expo. Before the Festival kicked of, a few lucky foodies and culinary media were privy to a private cooking demonstration by the chef, restaurateur, TV Host and instructor at La Mezcaleria on Commercial Drive. As much as Chef Trilling is an expert on her home region of Oaxaca ‘s culinary scene she is also a student, taking the time since moving there in 2000. Known as the ‘land of seven moles’, Oaxaca prides itself on the quality of the local ingredients and care that goes into the making of the mole. Chef Trilling says ‘Mole needs a lot of hands and a lot of time, you should never make mole by yourself”. In Oaxaca state it’s often a family affair or the women of the whole village gather to spend the day, frying, drying, grinding and slow cooking the mole to be used in their fiesta’s meal.
As we didn’t have an entire day to watch the process, Chef Trilling started with a mole paste so she only need to reconstitute the paste to begin her recipe. Assisted by Chef Alejandro Cruz, the pair set about bringing life back to the concentration of ingredients, even in this case the process to cook down plum tomatoes, lard, platano macho (plantains), bread and other ingredients took a over an hour. Only then the Chefs could begin preparing the dish of the afternoon Enchilada Oaxaqueñas, tortillas in mole coloradito (red mole).
Chef Trilling graciously shared her recipes with the guests so we could try our hand at preparing mole coloradito and Enchilada Oaxaqueñas at home.
Both recipes are taken from Chef Trilling’s cookbook “Seasons of My Heart: A Culinary Journey Through Oaxaca, Mexico
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