Abuelita hot chocolate - heat milk in a saucepan with one chunk of the chocolate and stir until combined well. Take off the heat and now break out your molinillo -a traditional Mexican chocolate stirrer -it is as fun as it looks. You twizzle it madly between the palms of your hands to mix the chocolate and warmed milk together -giving the same effect as if you'd used a blender (but that is sheer laziness and therefore cheating).
Some traditional uses of chocolate in Mexico:
Tejate - A speciality from Oaxaca. An interesting cold drink made of dark chocolate, corn masa, cocoa flowers, then marinated and frothed.
Mole (moh-lay) -A very traditional sauce that varies in content depending on the region. The traditional red mole (mole rojo) contains chilies, garlic, nuts, tomato, spices and chocolate. They say that a mole has 17 plus ingredients in it. It is important to note that the amount of chocolate is very small and enhances but does not overpower the sauce. The sauce is served (not exclusively) with beef, turkey or chicken. Mole does not use the Mexican flavored chocolate but instead a dark bitter, unspiced version. I like the green mole using beef (mole verde con carne), preferably made by Luli.
Champurrado -A special hot chocolate thickened with masa* and flavored with piloncillo** and aniseed.
*Masa is a traditional Mexican flour used to make tortillas -if you don't fancy making it from scratch (er hello?), or if you can't find any fresh supplies already made, you can buy masa harina which is a dried version of masa that can be rehydrated and used like fresh.
**Piloncillo is a Mexican dark brown sugar
Note: when I first encountered mole on a menu, there was no acute accent on the e... believed the restaurant was serving smoked small rodent-like furries. The reason there is no accent in this post is because I can't work out how to put it there...
