Pork loin with Mole Sauce and Nopales

Pork Loin in mole and nopales/ or Nopales y puerco en mole

 

 

This recipe came about when I use to make my dad’s and my favorite dish, which is Nopales en molito con tortas de huachal. I would make the favorite dish but my hubby suggested it needed meat. So instead of the tortas I made this with pork loin.

 

So what the hell are nopales you may be asking…. Nopales = Cactus! Yup that sums it up. I will admit as a child I was not a fan, but fuck are they good.

 

Alright so lets get to cooking…..

 

For the Mole/Sauce(a very basic sauce)

7/8 chile guajillo (for more pics of dried peppers refer to enchilada recipe)

5 or so chile de arbol (use less to none if you are not a fan of the level of heat)

1 garlic clove

Salt – I eyeball amount. I lose the dam tsp/tbs measuring things all the time

Flour – about 2 tablespoons

 

For the rest:

About a pound of pork loin

4 nopales

 

Get your mole going first by de-stemming/deseeding the peppers.

Add enough water to cover peppers and garlic. Bring to a boil, let simmer. I will blend the peppers before adding to meat. Done:

 

Next the pork:

You can sub for costillas de Puerco, which will be awesome but I opted for the easier to eat cut of meat here. So then I cut the meat into about 1 inch pieces. Heat up about 3 tablespoons of oil and add meat. Season meat with your choice of seasoning. I used Goya Adobo Sazon. Sear meat till brown. Enjoy the aroma!!!!

Its getting there! Still browning....

 

Finally lets work on those nopales:

 

Nopales have these spike like things on them that need to be removed.

So I just get a knife and start sliding knife on top of nopales to remove them.

Next I trim the edge of the nopales. Be very careful when doing this! Some Mexican grocery stores may already have these ready to cook, de-spiked and all. And you may even see canned/jarred nopales but I prefer fresh. Last I chop the nopales to desired size.

 
So by now the meat should be nice and brown. I remove meat from pan and add in nopales to sauté. Sauté the nopales for about a minute. You do not want to over sauté the nopales. They cook fast.

Once slightly cooked I add back the pork.

 

Time to blend the peppers! I add the flour, salt, peppers, garlic and some of the water used to cook peppers in to the blender and blend. I then pour the mole using a colander over the meat/nopales and let simmer.

 

Serve with rice/beans or just eat it with tortillas! Enjoy!!!

Also try with sopa de fideo, which is what I prefer but didn’t have fideo. You can also add chopped onion to nopales when cooking.