Mexican Mole Sauce

Go back to your serranos.  They might be useful for the wild goodness about to come your way.

For those of you unfamiliar with mole (MOH-lay), it is a very tasty sauce that can be used in/on burritos or enchiladas.  And while it has some surprising ingredients, the taste is surprisingly awesome.  Full recipe that I tweaked found here.

Put all this in a blender:

4 pasilla peppers (dried, stems and seeds removed)

A few serranos - these will make it spicy if you don't remove the seeds (dried, stems and seeds removed)

1 onion (chopped)

2 garlic cloves (chopped)

2 tomatoes (peeled and seeds removed chopped)

2 tbsps sesame seeds

1/2 cup almonds

1/2 corn tortilla (torn into pieces)

1/4 cup raisins

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground coriander

 Water, as needed

It should come out to this tasty orange/tan color.  It doesn't smell too appetizing yet, but the flavor changes a lot from here.  Put 3 tbsps vegetable oil (or shortening) in a frying pan, heat it up, and add the blended mixture.  Saute for ~10 min.

Next, add 1 cup chicken broth and 1 oz unsweetened chocolate (which I didn't have on-hand, so I added cocoa powder in accordance with substitutions - 3 tbs cocoa powder + 1 tbs water).  This will darken the sauce.  Then cook on low heat for 45 minutes.  The sauce will get darker and thicker, though I made my sauce thinner on purpose this time.  The kitchen will smell wonderful.

And while my finished mole still isn't a pretty color, I am going to note that I have very yellow lighting in my kitchen.  Seriously, it does look pretty when you're done.  And it is very delicious to put it in enchiladas and then pour overtop, and bake for the time that your enchilada recipe requires.  It is difficult to describe the taste, but the little hint of chocolate is what really makes this sauce a staple for me.

Bear with me on the photos!  I'm getting a dSLR for Christmas, but right now I'm working through some fall projects so it might be a while before you see my adventures with the new camera.

Full recipe:

4 pasilla (dried, peppers stems and seeds removed)

4 seeds (dried new mexico chiles stems, removed)

1 onion (chopped)

2 garlic cloves (chopped)

2 tomatoes (peeled and seeds removed chopped)

2 tbsps sesame seeds

1/2 cup almonds

1/2 corn tortilla (torn into pieces)

1/4 cup raisins

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground coriander

water (rum)

3 tbsps vegetable oil (shortening)

1 cup chicken broth

1 oz unsweetened chocolate (square to taste or mexican chocolate or) 

	Combine the chiles, onion, garlic, tomatoes, 1 tablespoon of the sesame seeds, almonds, tortilla, raisins, cloves, cinnamon, and coriander. Puree small amounts of this mixture in a blender until smooth. (I added a small of amount of water or rum each time to make it smooth.).
	Melt the shortening in a skillet and sauté the puree for 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the chicken broth and chocolate and cook over a very low heat for 45 minutes. The sauce should be very thick. The remaining sesame seeds are used as a garnish.