From Chocolat · 2000 · Reconstructed
Wild Hare in Mole Poblano
Serve when
Bring it to the table as the second of the feast's dark chocolate mains — the dish that says out loud what Vianne only hints at: that chocolate began as something wild, savage, and savoury.
Before you start
The mole itself takes real time to build and fry before the hare even goes in for its hour-and-a-half braise — make the whole dish ahead and just rewarm to serve.
Cook-along start: before the movie
In the movie
Theatrical
- ~01:29:00 Armande's birthday dinner: the kitchen montage catches Vianne frying chiles and bananas and scoring chestnuts for the feast's mole — the most literal expression of her ancient-chocolate heritage. It lands on the long candlelit table as the meal's savory-chocolate centerpiece.
This is the dish where Vianne's inheritance is most naked. Her mother's people took chocolate the old way — unsweetened, spiced, savage — and here it darkens a mole over wild game rather than sweetening anything at all. The birthday feast is the film's answer to Babette's Feast, a table of the town's outcasts eating their way to joy while Lent scowls outside; the mole is the plate that carries the oldest magic in it, chocolate as the Maya meant it before Europe stirred in the sugar.
Ingredients
- For the hare:
- For the mole poblano:
Method
- Season the hare and brown it hard in the lard, in batches, until deeply coloured. Set aside — it finishes in the sauce.
- In the same fat, fry the chiles for a few seconds each until they puff and smell toasty; lift them into a bowl of hot water to soak. Take care not to scorch them, or the mole turns bitter.
- Fry the plantain, almonds, chestnuts, and sesame in the same pan until golden, then char the tomatoes, onion, and garlic until blackened in spots.
- Blend the drained chiles with the fried things, the tomatoes, the torn tortilla, the cinnamon and cloves, and enough stock to make a smooth, thick mole.
- Fry the mole paste in a heavy pot, stirring constantly as it darkens and thickens — about 15 minutes — then melt in the chocolate and loosen with the rest of the stock.
- Settle the browned hare into the mole and simmer gently, covered, until the meat is fork-tender, about 1½ hours. Serve under a heavy cloak of sauce, with sesame scattered over.
Substitutions
- Wild hare: rabbit is the closest and easiest swap; bone-in chicken thighs work too and only need about 45 minutes in the sauce.
- The mole: a good jarred mole poblano paste, loosened with stock and finished with a little chocolate, turns this into a weeknight dish — no shame in it.
- Mexican chocolate: 70% dark plus a pinch of cinnamon stands in perfectly.
Beyond the recipe
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