Mole Negro

Mole Negro

Mole Sauce is the national dish of Mexico. I have spent months to study this sauce and how it is made before trying myself. There is no one way to do it. And there are many kinds. There is not one recipe. All do it their own personal way. So from looking at recipes and watching films on youtube on how it is done from private people to masterchefs, at home and in restaurants, in the city, in the countryside, in the most simple way to the most complex way, from the modern to the traditional; I have put together the hardest way of making it, like it would be done in the village somewhere in Mexico from scratch and by the most authentic old tradition and style.

When studying this dish I thought the ingredients didn´t make sense at all. It seemed to me like I would have taken everything I could find in my cupboard when I do not have anything to eat and I would be mixing it. It is about 30 ingredients that do not go together in any recipe I have ever come upon.

So after a while I tried to find out where it comes from. I found this legend that tells its creation takes place at the Convent of Santa Clara in Puebla early in the colonial period. Upon hearing that the archbishop was going to visit, the convent nuns panicked because they were poor and had almost nothing to prepare. The nuns prayed and brought together the little bits of what they did have, including chili peppers, spices, day-old  bread , nuts, and a little chocolate. They killed an old turkey, cooked it and put the sauce on top; the archbishop loved it. When one of the nuns was asked the name of the dish, she replied, "I made a mole." Mole was the ancient word for mix; now this word mostly refers to the dish, and is rarely used to signify other kinds of mixes in Spanish.

Ingredients:

Oil as needed

2 ½ yellow onions

8 garlic cloves

2 red onion

3 red tomatoes

10 tomatillos

2 red peppers

1 yellow pepper1 green pepper

30 g sesame seeds

100 g walnuts

100 g almonds

100 g groundnuts

100 g raisins

100g prunes 

1 plantain sliced into 1cm pieces

1 tsp ground coriander seeds

1 tsp ground star anis2 bay leaves

1 (10cm) cinnamon stick, ground

1/2 tsp dry ginger

2 tsp dry thyme

1 tbs dry oregano

100 g stale croissant, cut in pieces

100 g biscuits (marie-biscuit)

30 mulatto chillies

16 ancho chillies

6 pasilla chillies

1 chipotle chillies

225 g Mexican chocolate, chopped

50 g palmsugar

1, 42 ltr chicken stock, plus 1, 9 ltr

Directions:

Prepare ingredients to make the sauce

Since I did not have dried chilis I had to dry them myself. I did that in the oven a week before making the sauce. If you have dried chilis at hand you can skip this step.

Drying chilis in the oven

Preheat your oven to 175 degrees Fahrenheit (79 degrees Celsius). For a fan-forced oven, the temperature should be 40ºC. Place the chilis onto a cookie sheet. Only place them down in a single layer.  Cook the chilies for around six to eight hours. You can choose to turn them once during the cooking process if you like, but it is not required. Keep the oven door a little open by putting a wooded sleeve in between the opening hey start turning b. When browning, they are dried. Be aware that drying time depends very much on the size of the chilis, so it could shorter or longer time.

Roasting ingredients in oven

Roast tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic in a pan in the oven for about 20 minutes. Cut them in halves and place in the pan. Roast at 400°F (200 Celsius degrees) for about 20 minutes.

Roasting the ingredients in a frying pan or wokpan

Roast all chilis moving them frequently until they release their aromas and become darker in color. Remove from heat and set aside.

Roast sesame seeds until they darken slightly and begin to pop. Remove from heat and set aside.

Roast raisins and prunes until they begin to darken and swell. Remove from heat and set aside.

Roast the almonds, walnuts, groundnuts berries, cloves, cinnamon, and ginger, all at once, moving frequently. Remove from heat and set aside once they begin to release their aromas. 

Roast the sliced plantain and set aside

Roast the biscuit and set aside

Roast the bread and set aside

Quickly roast grinded coriander seeds, ground star anise, cinnamon stick grounded, bay leaves and set aside.

Soak roasted ingredients

Soak roasted chilis in hot water for 5 minutes, then discard water.

Soak raisins and prunes in hot water for 20 minutes and discard water.

Mix ingredients in a foodblender

Mix softened chilis with other toasted/roasted ingredients, except for bay leaves.

Working in batches, blend all the ingredients until very smooth. If necessary, add a small amount of chicken broth to get the blender going.

Cook the sauce

Prepare a large pot over medium-high heat. Add oil until it becomes very hot.

Add chili mixture to pot and fry, stirring frequently as it thickens for approximately 10 minutes. 

Add 2 cups chicken broth, and bay leaves, sugar, and salt. Bring to a boil for 5 minutes. Add mixture of all the blended ingredients to chili mixture, and lower to medium heat. 

Add the rest of the chicken broth to wished thickness of the sauce. Reduce heat and simmer for 40 minutes stirring occasionally.

Sieve the sauce

Sieve the sauce through a sieve and pour the sieved sauce back in a pan on the oven. Add the chocolate and cook for some minutes. Taste and adjust the sauce to your liking.

Serving 

This sauce is popular with enchiladas and shows up in chicken, turkey or pork tamales. But the age-old way of eating Molé Negro is with boiled turkey. Use turkey parts like wings or drumsticks and simmer for 35 to 40 minutes in a small amount of stock, then finish cooking in the sauce for another 30 to 40 minutes. 

Please note that when served in this manner with poultry or other meats, the sauce should be thinned to a light consistency. When it is used as a filling, it must be dense and thick.

Serve over a piece of chicken or turkey with a side of rice. Sprinkle roasted sesame seeds on top. You can also serve the sauce in a taco.