Mole Rojo for what ails
My internal bandwidth is barely hanging on this week so I’d rather just get right to it. This mole is the first savory recipe I’m sharing on the blog; it is also the first time I’ve made mole on my own. Having mole on hand to eat throughout this week proved to be very smart of me.
This is a relatively small batch of mole, although it will still feed about 6 people. It’s also a relatively “quick” recipe, compared to most traditional moles. The mole is delicious on the day you make it, and only gets more depth in flavor on subsequent days. I adapted this recipe from two sources: Rick Martinez and my sister. I used Rick's method of frying the chiles, nuts, golden raisins and spices in lard to bring out flavor before adding the water or vegetable stock (you can sub out both for chicken stock if you’re not trying to keep the mole vegetarian). My sister’s recipe uses four kinds of nuts and a La Abuelita chocolate disc; I swapped out her use of peanuts for pecans and the chocolate disc for two ounces of Guittard chocolate I had in my cupboard from another project.
Picture my sister texted me of her mole recipe.
You can char the onion along with the tomato in a cast iron skillet or on a comal if you have one; I chose to roast/char these ingredients in my oven at a high temperature, the same way I do when I’m making roasted salsa. Remove the onion/tomato/garlic from the oven as soon as the onion begins to char. This should take around 45 minutes at 450F, but your oven may vary. Just keep an eye on the garlic to make sure it doesn’t burn as it’s roasting. To help with this, I like to nestle the garlic cloves on top of the quartered tomatoes and onion.
Feel free to swap out golden raisins for the regular brown variety, although I find that golden raisins taste fruitier and a bit sweeter. If you go with the regular variety of raisin, you may need to adjust the dark brown sugar or piloncillo (raw, pure cane sugar commonly used in Mexican cooking) to 2 tablespoons but definitely taste your mole before adding more sugar (or salt). Chile de arbol, an ingredient not typically found in most moles but I had some I wanted to use, makes the mole pretty spicy but everything balances out very nicely. I used masa flour to help thicken the mole, which lended a really, subtle nice corn flavor. We remove the seeds from the Anchos because they can be quite fibrous; the seeds from the Guajillo and chile de arbol can remain if you wish. There are at least seven but likely many more varieties of mole throughout Mexico; I believe this recipe is closest to mole rojo. There is leaf lard in this recipe, so again, if you’re wanting to keep the mole vegetarian you can use a vegetable oil or another neutral oil.
You can really eat mole with just about anything. This week I mostly ate it with cheese quesadillas and Mexican rice — another savory recipe that I’m working on for the blog. Tomorrow is Saturday and I may fry some eggs, ladle over some mole and eat it all with warm tortillas. I was going to add this mole to a sweet application next week — likely a cake — but we’ll see if there are any leftovers. However you decide to eat this mole, I hope it is as comforting and warm to you as it was to me.
Mole Rojo
Yield: about 6 cups or 6 servings
Cook time: about 1 hour, 30 minutes
2 ounces (about 4) dried Ancho chiles
2 ounces (about 6) dried Guajillo chiles
5 grams (about 6) dried chile de arbol
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 medium tomatoes (about 8.5 ounces; 225 grams), stemmed and quartered
1/2 yellow onion (about 140 grams), halved
5 large garlic cloves, peeled
4 tablespoons leaf lard or neutral oil, such as vegetable oil, divided
64 grams (about 1/2 cup) golden raisins
21 grams (2 tablespoons) sliced almonds
25 grams (2 tablespoons) pepitas
50 grams (about 2 tablespoons) pecans
22 grams (2 tablespoons) sesame seeds
2 teaspoons dried Mexican oregano
7 grams (about 2 teaspoons) whole black peppercorns
2 whole cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1.5 ounces (39 grams) masa flour, such as Maseca brand
4 cups water or vegetable stock
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar or piloncillo
2 tablespoons kosher salt
2 ounces bittersweet (around 70%) chocolate, roughly chopped
To make the mole:
Preheat oven to 450F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil and drizzle the vegetable oil over the quartered tomatoes, halved onion, garlic cloves, and toss. Nestle the garlic cloves on top of the tomato quarters and/or onion halves to help prevent them from burning. Roast until the onion has charred in a few places and the tomatoes have softened, about 45 minutes. Set aside in a heat-proof bowl.
Remove the stems from all chiles, and the seeds from just the anchos (you can remove the seeds from all the chiles if you want).
In either a large saucepan or a dutch oven set over medium-high heat add 3 tablespoons of the leaf lard or vegetable oil and heat until very hot, about 1 minute. Add the chiles and toss them in the fat, making sure they’re fully coated. Fry chiles for about 2 minutes. Remove from the pot and set chiles aside in the same heat-proof bowl as the onions/tomatoes/garlic.
In the same saucepan or dutch oven, add the golden raisins, sliced almonds, pepitas, sesame seeds, Mexican oregano, black peppercorns, whole cloves, and cinnamon stick. Toss to coat the nuts and spices in the fat. Stir frequently to help prevent the spices from burning. Fry the ingredients until the nuts are fragrant and the golden raisins have plumped up a bit, about 5 minutes.
Add the chiles, roasted onions, tomatoes, garlic, and masa flour to the pot and stir. Let ingredients fry in the pot for a good 5 minutes, stirring frequently to help incorporate the masa flour.
Pour in the water or vegetable stock if using, reduce heat to medium and let simmer for 30 minutes.
Turn off the flame and let mixture cool for about 15 minutes before blending. Fish out the cinnamon stick and discard. Working in small batches, transfer the chile mixture to a blender (I used a soup ladle to do this) and blend on high until smooth. (I transfer the blended mole to a large bowl once it’s reached the consistency I want, just to free up room in the blender.) You can let the blender run for a good few minutes to achieve a velvety consistency; you can also pass the mole through a fine-mesh strainer but this is not necessary.
Once all the mole has been blended, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon leaf lard or vegetable oil over medium-high heat until very hot, about 1 minute.
Pour the blended mole back into the pot (stand back, as the mole will likely sputter when it interacts with the fat). Add the salt and brown sugar to the mole and stir. Reduce heat to medium-low and let mole simmer about 15 minutes, stirring frequently.
Remove mole from the heat and stir in the chocolate until it has fulled melted and been incorporated. Taste your mole and add more salt and/or dark brown sugar if need be.
Eat mole served over enchiladas and quesadillas; over roasted chicken or simply a bowl of Mexican rice with tortillas to mop everything up with.
To store the mole:
I store my mole in plastic quart containers where the mole will keep in the fridge for about a week, or in the freeze for much longer (although I have not yet tested exactly how long it will keep in the freezer, according to Guelaguetza, it’s about 6 months).