What else can i use besides plantains when making mexican mole?!

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The word Mole comes from Nahuatl mulli or molli, "sauce" or "concoction". There are many different regions of Mexico have their own recipes of Mole, but the Poblano is the most popular.

If there is a fiesta or celebration you can bet there will be Mole served!
Mole Poblano

Serves 12

Ingredients

1 chicken or turkey
11 ancho chiles
6 mulatto chiles
3 chiles chipotles adobados
3 tablespoons chile seed
5 pasilla chiles
4oz. almonds
4oz. peanuts
8oz. sesame seeds
2oz. pumpkin seeds
1 bar dark chocolate
6 allspice
6 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
A pinch aniseed
4 tomatoes
10 green tomatillos
3 cloves garlic
1 medium onion
3 tortillas
1 stale white bread roll
1/2 lb.lard
2 tablespoons vinegar

Clean, wash and boil the chicken or turkey. Cook and cut into pieces, and then fry them in lard. Puree the tomatoes and the chipotle chiles and add to the chicken. When cooked through, add one quart of chicken broth.

Mole sauce: toast the sesame seeds on a griddle. Fry the bread and remove from pan; fry the tortillas.
Fry the chile together with the pumpkin seeds, peanuts, almonds, cloves, allspice aniseed, and cinnamon. Grind them together with little water. Add the toasted and peeled tomatillos, onion and garlic. Continue blending, return to heat and slowly mix in one quart stock. Thicken over a low heat, stirring continually to prevent sticking.

Add the mole sauce to the turkey or chicken and tomato purse. Be sure to stir well. Grind the chocolate to a powder and sprinkle over sauce. Mix well. Bring to a boil and thicken. Remove from heat and add the vinegar and one tablespoon hot lard.
Serve a piece of chicken on each plate with a helping of mole and sprinkle over the toasted sesame seeds.
http://www.inside-mexico.com/cocina.htm
C4 9/11V***********************
Red Mole – the king of Mexican sauces

275g (5 medium) tomatillos, husked and rinsed
70g sesame seeds
140ml rich-tasting pork lard or vegetable oil, plus a little more if necessary
175g (about 12 medium) dried mulato chillies, stemmed, seeded and torn into large flat pieces
75g (about 6 medium) dried ancho chillies, stemmed, seeded and torn into large flat pieces
75g (about 10 medium) dried pasilla chillies, stemmed, seeded and torn into large flat pieces
8 garlic cloves, peeled
110g unskinned almonds
110g raisins
1 tsp cinnamon, preferably freshly ground Mexican canela
half a tsp black pepper, preferably freshly ground
half a tsp anise, preferably freshly ground
quarter of a tsp cloves, preferably freshly ground
2 slices firm white bread, darkly toasted and broken into several pieces
50g Mexican chocolate, roughly chopped
1.2 litres chicken broth
salt
20-25g sugar

DIRECTIONS

This is a slightly simpler recipe than the black mole.

On a rimmed baking sheet, roast the tomatillos 10cm below a very hot grill until splotchy black and thoroughly soft, about 5 minutes per side. Scrape into a large bowl. In a dry skillet over medium heat, toast the sesame seeds, stirring nearly constantly, until golden, about 5 minutes. Scrape half of them in with the tomatillos. Reserve the remainder for sprinkling on the chicken.

Brown other mole ingredients. Turn on the fan or open a kitchen door or window. In a very large soup pot (I typically use a 11.5 litre stainless-steel stock pot or a medium-large Mexican earthenware cazuela), heat the lard or oil over medium. When quite hot, fry the chillies, three or four pieces at a time, flipping them nearly constantly with tongs until their interior side has changed to a lighter colour, about 20 or 30 seconds total frying time. Don't toast them so darkly that they begin to smoke – that would make the mole bitter. As they're done, remove them to a large bowl, being careful to drain as much fat as possible back into the pot. Cover the toasted chillies with hot tap water and allow to rehydrate 30 minutes, stirring frequently to ensure even soaking.

Remove any stray seeds left in the fat. With the pot still over medium heat, fry the garlic and almonds, stirring regularly, until browned (the garlic should be soft), about 5 minutes. With a slotted spoon, remove to the tomatillo bowl, draining as much fat as possible back into the pot.

Add the raisins to the hot pot. Stir for 20 or 30 seconds, until they've puffed and browned slightly. Scoop them out, draining as much fat as possible back into the pot, and add to the tomatillos. Set the pan aside off the heat.

To the tomatillo mixture, add the cinnamon, black pepper, anise, cloves, bread and chocolate. Add 480ml water and stir to combine.

Blend, strain, cook. Into a large measuring cup, tip off the chillies' soaking liquid. Taste the liquid: if it's not bitter, discard all but 1.4 litres of the liquid. (if you're short, add water to make up the shortfall). If bitter, pour it out and measure 1.4 litres of water. Scoop half of the chillies into a blender jar, pour in half of the soaking liquid (or water) and blend to a smooth purée. Press through a medium-mesh sieve into a large bowl; discard the bits of skin and seeds that don't pass through the sieve. Repeat with the remaining chillies.

Return the soup pot or cazuela to medium heat. When quite hot, pour in the chilli purée – it should sizzle sharply and, if the pan is sufficiently hot, the mixture should never stop boiling. Stir every couple of minutes until the chilli purée has darkened and reduced to the consistency of tomato paste, about a half hour. (I find it useful to cover the pot with an inexpensive spatter screen to catch any spattering chilli.)

In two batches, blend the tomatillo mixture as smoothly as possible (you may need an extra 120ml water to keep everything moving through the blades), then strain it in to the large bowl that contained the chillies. When the chilli paste has reduced, add the tomatillo mixture to the pot and cook, stirring every few minutes until considerably darker and thicker, 15 to 20 minutes. (Again, a spatter screen saves a lot of cleaning up.)

Simmer. Add the broth to the pot and briskly simmer the mixture over medium to medium-low heat for about 2 hours for all the flavours to come together and mellow. If the mole has thickened beyond the consistency of a cream soup, stir in a little water. Taste and season with salt (usually about 4 teaspoons) and the sugar.

You can cool, cover and refrigerate the mole until you're ready to use it.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2…
C4 9/11 V**************************

There are dozens or maybe hundreds of types of mole. A mole is basically a blend of chiles and spices and often, seeds and fruits.

You don't mention which mole you're making, but there really isn't a substitute for the taste of plantains in food. They're far starchier than regular bananas.

Many people outside of Mexico mistakenly think that mole is Mole Poblano, which doesn't usually have plantains in it, though there are also many variations of the above.

If you're looking just to thicken it, you can use bits of corn tortillas or masa harina as another person has suggested.

personal experience.

To what end/purpose? Plantains aren't a required ingredient in the first place, so I'm sure you're fine to go on without them. If you need a thickening agent, you can use a little bit of masa (or leftover tortilla).

Edit: Do you mean "besides plantains" or "instead of plantains"? Because that totally changes the question. If the question is "besides," then I guess the answer is: mole ingredients (of which there are MANY, but plantains aren't necessarily one of them).

During college, one of my roommates was Mexican. He mentioned that making mole was a labor and an ingredient intensive project. His dad used raisins, nuts, dried chiles, chocolate and a bunch of other stuff that I don't remember.

chocolate (like chocolate abuelita)

nuts

and toasted bread to give it a thicker texture

u can add sesame seeds, but thats more for looks than for taste

mexican