The Heart of Darkness

I love mole. I mean I REALLY love mole. I love all kinds of mole - red, yellow, black, sweet, savory, spicy whatever. I would consider bathing in mole if possible. I bet it would be great for the skin, if you didn't mind being slightly orange I mean.

As with most things in my life, I prefer not to settle when it comes to my mole. I'll give most restaurant's "mole" a try once, sure. But I'm not going back for seconds if it doesn't pass muster. When it came down to what to have for my birthday dinner I knew it was going to be mole, and I knew I was going to have to make it myself.



I have made mole only once before and it required a small army of assistants and an ENTIRE day. It has taken almost 5 years to take it on again, not necessarily because I was intimidated, but because if a sauce, not even a whole dish but a sauce, takes that much effort you need a pretty good reason to make it. I think my own birthday is reason enough, and this time I am older, I am wiser, and I have a lot more practice. With Chef Rick Bayless behind me I decided I was ready, and this time I was going to be going it alone.

I am not going to lie, this is by no means a "simple" recipe. This isn't even the REALLY involved Oaxacan black mole (some with upwards of 28-30 ingredients), it is only a mole rojo - a comparatively "easy" variety with only 18-20 ingredients. It is not, however, a very difficult recipe. Time consuming, maybe, but not difficult. I promise if you read it through, break it down, and take it slow, it can be done.

And it will be worth it.



Mole Rojo Clasico
Classic Red Mole
Adapted from Rick Bayless' Mexico One Plate at a Time

10 ounces (5 medium or 3 large) tomatillos, husked and rinsed
1 1/3 cup (about 6 1/2 ounces) sesame seeds
1 cup rich-tasting pork lard or vegetable oil, plus a little more if necessary
6 ounces dried mulato chiles, stemmed, seeded and torn into large flat pieces
8 ounces dried pasilla-ancho chiles, stemmed, seeded and torn into large flat pieces
8 garlic cloves, peeled
1 1/4 cup (about 5 ounces) whole almonds, with skin
1 cup (about 4 ounces) raisins
1 teaspoon Mexican canela, or regular cinnamon, ground
1/2 teaspoon black pepper, ground
1/2 teaspoon anise seed
1/4 teaspoon cloves, ground
1 bolillo or firm white roll, darkly toasted and broken into several pieces
2 ounces (about 2/3 of a 3.3-ounce tablet) Mexican chocolate
3 quarts chicken or vegetable broth (I only used 2, but good to have the full amount)
Salt
1/3 to 1/2 cup brown sugar

Prep the Ingredients
1) Measure out and prepare all your ingredients. I cannot stress this enough.

2) Stem and deseed the chiles and tear into large pieces if not already complete.

3) On a rimmed baking sheet or small baking pan lined with foil, roast the tomatillos 4 inches below a very hot broiler until splotchy black and thoroughly soft, about 5-10 minutes per side depending on size and broiler temp. Scrape into a large bowl.

4) In a dry skillet over medium heat, toast the sesame seeds, stirringly continuously, until golden, about 5 minutes. Scrape half of them in with the tomatillos. Reserve the remainder for sprinkling on the chicken.

Brown and Soak the chiles
Turn on an exhaust fan or open a kitchen door or window for this part.

5) Fill a kettle with water to its highest level and put on to heat.

6) In a very large soup pot (I used a 7-quart enamel cast iron pot), heat your fat over medium.

7) When the oil is hot, fry the chiles, three or four pieces at a time, flipping them nearly constantly with tongs until their interior side has changed to a lighter color, about 20 or 30 seconds total frying time. Don’t toast so darkly that they begin to smoke—that would make the mole bitter.

8) As they’re done, remove them to a large bowl (not the tomatillo bowl), being careful to drain as much fat as possible back into the pot. Cover the toasted chiles with hot water from the kettle and let rehydrate 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to insure even soaking.

Brown the Other Ingredients
9) Remove any stray chile 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.

10) 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 of the fat as possible back into the pot, and add to the tomatillos.

-Set the pan aside off the heat.

11) To the tomatillo mixture, add the cinnamon, black pepper, anise, cloves, bread and chocolate. Add 2 cups water and stir to combine.

Blend, strain, cook
12) Into a large measuring cup, small stockpot, or pitcher, tip off the chiles’ soaking liquid. Taste the liquid: if it’s not bitter, reserve about 6 cups of the liquid. (if you’re short, add water to make up the shortfall). If bitter, pour it out and measure 6 cups water.

13) Scoop half of the chiles into a blender jar, pour in half of the soaking liquid (or water) and blend to a smooth puree. Press through a medium-mesh strainer into a large bowl; discard the bits of skin and seeds that don’t pass through the strainer. Repeat with the remaining chiles.

14) Return the pot to medium heat. When hot again, pour in the chile puree—it should sizzle sharply and, if the pan is sufficiently hot, the mixture should never stop boiling. Stir every couple of minutes until the chile puree has darkened and reduced to the consistency of tomato paste, about a half hour.

15) In two batches, blend the tomatillo mixture as smoothly as possible (you may need an extra 1/2 cup water to keep everything moving through the blades), then strain it in to the large bowl that contained the pureed chiles.

16) When the chile paste has reduced, add the tomatillo mixture to the pot and cook, stirring every few minutes until darker and thicker, 15 to 20 minutes.

Simmer
17) When the chile/tomatillo mixture has reduced, add the broth to the pot until it is the thickness of “cream soup.” Briskly simmer the mixture over medium to medium-low heat for about 2 hours for all the flavors to come together and mellow.

-If the mole thickens beyond the consistency of soup, add in more broth. If more liquid is needed to retain consistency, add water.

18) Taste and season the mole with salt (usually about 4 teaspoons) and the sugar.

Serve
Pour over cooked chicken or turkey (I used shredded chicken to make it more party friendly/taco ready) or you can cool, cover and refrigerate until you're ready to use. When you're ready to use the mole, rewarm over medium-medium-low heat.

*This recipe can easily be adapted to be vegan/vegetarian by using vegetable oil/vegetable broth. Serve over Tofu, seitan, or your protein of choice.

**Rick suggests using a splatter screen to prevent some of the clean-up. I don’t have one, but I can heartily agree with his suggestion – I am still finding errant splatters of chile more than a week later.