A Mole in my Kitchen
No, not a spying underground creature, although I got jokes as I was posting process photos when I forgot to put the accent over that e.
The Mole Spy!
I mean the very special Mexican sauce, from toasted dried chilies, seeds, and chocolate. When I hear the term 'slow food' molé is what comes immediately to my mind. I've made it fully from scratch once before, about a decade ago, and in the elapsed time when I did molé, I bought the jarred version at the store. It's a lovely complex flavor, not, as the common misconception seems to hold, a chocolate sauce. The chocolate is in here as a flavor enhancer, not a stand-alone note of it's own. As I did all those years ago, I worked off the foundation of the molé recipe found in Diana Kennedy's The Cuisines of Mexico (Note that my edition is long out of print, this edition combines three of her cookbooks in one cover) with some changes. One change was for safety. I was preparing food for a large gathering of family and friends, and traditional molé contains nuts, which would conflict with severe allergies. Also, store-bought molé contains peanuts, so again... allergies. Which is fine, since it's easy enough to alter the recipe without changing the flavor, here. I also changed up some other things, like the blend of chilies I used, and prunes rather than raisins.
Here is my recipe, and you should start this a day or maybe two before you plan to use it. I made it up over three days, but don't worry! Much of that elapsed time doesn't require your close attention.
Molé Sauce
First, gather your dried chilies. Check out your local supermercado or carniceria if you can't find these elsewhere, and you may be able to get them from Amazon if you can't find them locally.
8 guajillo chilies
5 chilies anchos
6 chilies pasilla
Unless you'd like your sauce to be quite spicy, you'll want to remove the seeds and pith from your dried peppers. Save the seeds aside, they come back into play! The pith can be discarded.
Guajillo, ancho, and pasilla
In a skillet, heat:
1/2 c lard
Quickly fry the chilies, a few at a time. Move quickly! They will burn and suddenly your house will be filled with tear gas. Also, if you burn them, they will be bitter.
Take your fried chilies, which will have soaked up much of that fat, and soak them in water overnight. I used the bowl of my slow cooker, with a plate to weight them down and keep them submerged.
Soaked chilies after a night in a bath.
When you come back to your now-softened chilies, you'll want to puree them in a blender until they are as smooth as possible, adding a little of the soaking water (no more than a cup) to help this process. Once they are pureed, you'll want to push them through a sieve or jelly strainer. Take what's left in the sieve, and puree it again, then sieve it again. Discard anything remaining at this point. Bits of chili skin aren't yummy.
Running the puree through a sieve
In a large skillet or pan, heat:
1/2 c lard
Fry the chili puree in the lard, keeping in mind it's very thick, it will spatter, and if you have a porous countertop (as I do), it can stain that. A spatter screen is nice, but you need to be stirring, as it will stick and burn if you're not careful. Remove from heat, and prepare remaining ingredients. I paused at this point and let it rest overnight before finishing.
Bringing all the seeds & spices together
In a clean, dry skillet, over medium heat, toast these:
3 whole cloves
~20 peppercorns
1/2 stick cinnamon
1/4 tsp whole coriander
1/4 tsp fennel seeds
1 tbsp chili seeds (the ones you set aside at the beginning)
3-4 garlic cloves with the paper still on
Toast separately:
3 tbsp sesame seeds (put these in last, and they pop like popcorn!)
In a spice grinder (or your coffee grinder if you have a cheap one), combine the toasted spices and grind until very fine.
In a blender combine the ground spices, garlic cloves (toasted, then paper removed), sesame seeds, and...
3 med tomatillos
Going back to our skillet, over medium heat again, fry until fragrant:
6 tbsp lard
4-5 prunes
1/2 c sunflower seeds
1 oz pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
1 oz pine nuts
8-10 stale potato chips (double this for gluten-free)
6 stale saltine crackers (or what have you)
Add all of these to the blender. Blend to a smooth paste, adding chicken stock if necessary to make it nice and smooth.
Cook with the chili puree for about 5 minutes, with stirring. Then add:
3 oz dark chocolate (Mexican chocolate if you can find it) in small pieces
Cook this for about ten minutes, then add the final ingredients:
4-5 c chicken (or turkey) stock
salt as needed
Simmer for no less than 40 minutes over low heat, stirring from time to time. At this point, you can use this for sauce over many things! I was making enchiladas filled with a shredded pork, but you could do this with many dishes. Also, it will freeze nicely since this makes a big batch. Try freezing it into an ice cube tray, then pop those into a ziploc bag for easy portions later.
I can see why people call it chocolate sauce, but the color is from the dried chilies.
Making enchiladas is as easy as warming the corn tortillas, coating them in the sauce (drop flat in the pan, flip, then place in the pan or on a plate, roll a couple tablespoonfuls of meat, and go... pour more sauce over just before serving.
Enchiladas molé con cerdo
To be quite authentic, serve your enchiladas with crumbled Cotija Cheese (queso tradicional) and a quick-pickled red onion.
Bonus recipe:
Mexican Pickled Onions
1 red onion
Juice of 4 limes
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp whole coriander seeds
Slice the onion very thinly. Coat it in the lime juice for at least 30 min. Then add the remaining ingredients, pressing it into a container to cover it in the liquid as much as possible, and refrigerate overnight if possible, at least an hour if not.