Mole Coloradito Conventual

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Volcanic stone metate with tejolote
• •Cast iron comal or heavy dry skillet
• •12-inch Oaxacan barro rojo cazuela or heavy Dutch oven
• •Wooden spoon with a flat edge for scraping the bottom
• •Medium-mesh sieve
• •High-powered blender, only if no metate is available

Instructions

1. 1

   Sort the chiles

   Wipe the chilhuacle rojo, ancho, guajillo, and pasilla with a barely damp cloth. Pull off the stems and shake out the seeds. Save one teaspoon of seeds if you want the older convent bitterness, but do not use more. Coloradito is not mole negro. Its depth should be brick-red and rounded, not black and severe.

2. 2

   Toast the chiles

   Heat a dry comal over medium-low. Toast each chile separately, pressing it flat for a few seconds per side with a spatula. The chilhuacle rojo takes about 20 seconds per side, the ancho a little less, the guajillo faster, and the pasilla fastest of all. They should puff, shine, and smell like dried fruit and warm tobacco. If a chile blackens, throw it away. Burned chile makes bitter mole and there is no fixing it later.

   Do not crowd the comal. Different chiles burn at different speeds. A serious mole begins with watching the comal, not with the blender.
3. 3

   Soak the chiles

   Put the toasted chiles in a bowl and cover with hot water, not boiling water. Weight them with a small plate and let them soften for 25 minutes. Drain them and taste a spoonful of the soaking liquid. If it tastes bitter, discard it. If it tastes clean and fruity, save 1/2 cup for grinding. The chile flesh should be soft enough to smear between your fingers.

4. 4

   Roast the vegetables

   On the same comal, roast the tomatoes, tomatillos, onion, and unpeeled garlic. Turn them as they blister. The tomatoes should collapse at the edges, the tomatillos should turn olive with black freckles, the onion should char at the corners, and the garlic should soften inside its skin. Peel the garlic once it is cool enough to handle.

5. 5

   Fry the thickeners

   Melt 1/4 cup of the lard in a small cazo or heavy skillet over medium. Fry the almonds until pale gold, then lift them out. Fry the raisins just until they swell. Fry the plantain slices until amber at the edges. Fry the torn bolillo and tortillas until firm and golden. Add the sesame seeds last and stir for 30 to 45 seconds, just until nutty. Keep each ingredient separate as it comes out. The convent cooks understood order. You should too.

6. 6

   Toast the spices

   Wipe out the skillet. Toast the canela, cloves, allspice, peppercorns, cumin, oregano, thyme, and marjoram over low heat until fragrant, about 45 seconds. If you kept chile seeds, toast them now only until amber, never black. Spices are small and arrogant. Look away and they punish the whole cazuela.

7. 7

   Grind the paste

   Work on the metate in stages. Grind the spices first with the sesame and almonds until fine. Add the soaked chiles and work them into a thick red paste. Add the roasted tomatoes, tomatillos, onion, garlic, raisins, plantain, bread, and tortillas, grinding until the paste is heavy, smooth, and brick-colored. If you must use a blender, blend in small batches with just enough hot stock or saved soaking liquid to move the blades, then pass the mixture through a medium sieve. That is the compromise. El metate es la regla.

   Do not drown the blender. A loose puree fries badly. You want a paste that mounds on a spoon.
8. 8

   Rest overnight

   Scrape the mole paste into a nonreactive bowl, press a piece of parchment or plastic directly on the surface, and refrigerate overnight. This is not dead time. The chiles, nuts, fruit, bread, and spices settle into each other. Convent cooking was planned cooking. A baroque sauce is not a quick project.

9. 9

   Fry the base

   The next day, heat the remaining 3/4 cup lard in a wide barro rojo cazuela or heavy Dutch oven over medium. Add the mole paste carefully. It will sputter, so use a long wooden spoon and stand back from the first jump. Fry 25 to 35 minutes, stirring constantly across the bottom, until the paste darkens, smells toasted rather than raw, and the lard begins to separate at the edges. La manteca es el sabor.

10. 10

    Simmer for hours

    Add 6 cups hot stock slowly, one ladle at a time, stirring until each addition is absorbed before adding the next. Once the sauce loosens, reduce the heat to low and simmer uncovered for 2 1/2 to 3 hours, stirring every few minutes so the bottom does not catch. Add more stock as needed. The sauce should move like heavy cream and coat the spoon in a red-brown layer.

11. 11

    Finish the mole

    Stir in the chopped Oaxacan chocolate, piloncillo, jerez, and salt. Simmer 20 minutes more. Taste with a warm tortilla, not with a metal spoon. You should taste chile first, then almond and sesame, then the warmth of canela and clove, with the jerez sitting quietly in the back. If it tastes sweet before it tastes like chile, you used too much sugar. Correct with salt and a longer simmer.

12. 12

    Hold and serve

    Keep the mole warm in the cazuela and finish with the reserved toasted sesame seeds only when the sauce goes to the table. This sauce dresses poached turkey, chicken, pork, vegetables, tamales, or enchiladas, but those dishes live elsewhere. Do not bury the coloradito under garnishes. Let the sauce speak. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •Ask for chilhuacle rojo from Oaxaca, especially from the Canada around Cuicatlan. If the chile vendor hands you guajillo and says it is the same, find another vendor. Si no conoces el mercado, no conoces la cocina.
• •If you cannot find chilhuacle rojo, use 3 extra anchos and 3 extra guajillos. The color will be decent, but the flavor will be narrower. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
• •Use fresh lard from a carniceria or render your own. Shelf-stable hydrogenated lard tastes flat and leaves a waxy finish. La manteca es el sabor, but only when the manteca is good.
• •Dry jerez matters. Do not use sweet cooking wine. If you cannot buy a drinkable dry sherry, leave it out and balance the sauce with a little extra stock and salt.
• •The metate gives the mole body a blender cannot copy. A blender makes the work possible in a modern kitchen, and I use one when I must, but strain the puree and fry it hard. Do not leave chile skins floating in a conventual sauce.
• •This is a sauce from the criollo-conventual register, not a finished plate. Use it to dress the main dish at the table or in the cazuela, but do not turn it into a pile of toppings. Cada estado, su propia cocina.

Advance Preparation

• •Make the chile paste one day ahead and refrigerate it overnight. This is part of the method, not a delay.
• •Finished mole keeps 5 days in the refrigerator. The flavor deepens after the first night.
• •Freeze the finished sauce for up to 3 months without the sesame finish. Thaw overnight and reheat slowly with hot stock, stirring until the texture returns.
• •If the sauce thickens too much while waiting for the table, loosen it with hot unsalted stock, one ladle at a time. Do not thin it with water unless you want a tired mole.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 225g)