Mole de Garambullo de la Sierra Gorda Queretana

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Dry comal, preferably cast iron or clay, for toasting chiles
• •12-inch clay cazuela or heavy Dutch oven
• •Molcajete or spice grinder
• •High-powered blender
• •Fine-mesh sieve

Instructions

1. 1

   Season the meat

   Season the rabbit or chicken with the salt and let it sit while you prepare the chiles. Rabbit is closer to the Sierra Gorda table, but chicken thighs work if your market does not sell rabbit. Do not use boneless breast. It dries out and gives the broth nothing.

2. 2

   Toast the chiles

   Heat a dry comal over medium. Toast the guajillo, pasilla, and chile de arbol separately, about 20 to 30 seconds per side, just until the skins darken slightly and smell deep. They should stay red-brown, not black. Burned guajillo turns bitter and then the whole mole pays for your impatience.

   The chile de arbol is optional. This mole is acidic, earthy, and floral before it is hot. Not all Mexican food is trying to punish you.
3. 3

   Soak the chiles

   Put the toasted chiles in a bowl and cover with hot water, not boiling water. Let them soften for 20 minutes. Boiling water toughens the skins and pulls bitterness into the sauce. Hot water softens the flesh cleanly.

4. 4

   Toast the seeds

   On the same comal, toast the pepitas until they puff and pop in little jumps. Toast the sesame until pale gold. Toast the torn tortilla until dry and spotted. Set them aside. These give body to the mole, but they should not taste scorched.

5. 5

   Char the aromatics

   Place the unpeeled garlic cloves, the whole onion half, and the chopped xoconostle on the comal. Turn them until the garlic skins are blackened in spots, the onion has browned edges, and the xoconostle softens. Xoconostle is not sweet tuna fruit. It is sour, clean, and serious. That acidity belongs here.

6. 6

   Grind the spices

   Grind the cumin seed, cloves, peppercorns, canela, oregano, and chilcuague in a molcajete or spice grinder. Use a light hand with chilcuague. It has a warm, tingling bite from the Bajio and the Huasteca edges. Too much and it bullies the garambullo flowers.

7. 7

   Blend the mole

   Drain the soaked chiles and put them in a blender with the peeled charred garlic, charred onion, xoconostle, toasted pepitas, sesame, tortilla, ground spices, and 2 cups of stock. Blend until completely smooth. Strain through a fine sieve if your blender leaves chile skin behind. A mole can be rustic in spirit and still smooth in the mouth.

8. 8

   Brown the meat

   Melt the manteca de cerdo in a wide clay cazuela or heavy Dutch oven over medium heat. Brown the rabbit or chicken in batches, skin side down if using chicken, until the edges take color. Remove to a plate. Leave the fat in the cazuela. That fat now carries meat flavor, chile flavor, and the beginning of the sauce.

9. 9

   Fry the sauce

   Add the chopped onion to the cazuela and cook until translucent. Pour in the blended mole carefully. It will sputter. Stir with a wooden spoon for 8 to 10 minutes, until the sauce darkens from brick red to a deeper clay red and the fat begins to shine at the edges. Frying the paste is not a decorative step. It cooks the raw chile and wakes the seeds. Asi se hace y punto.

10. 10

    Simmer the stew

    Return the browned meat to the cazuela. Add the remaining 2 cups of stock and the epazote. Bring to a gentle simmer, cover partly, and cook 45 minutes for chicken or 1 hour 15 minutes for rabbit, until the meat is tender but still holding to the bone. Stir now and then so the pepita and masa do not catch on the bottom.

11. 11

    Add garambullo flowers

    Fold in the cleaned garambullo flowers. Simmer uncovered for 12 to 15 minutes, just until the flowers soften and release their slight cactus body into the sauce. Do not cook them to death. You should still see pale petals and green tips in the mole.

12. 12

    Thicken with masa

    Whisk the cacahuazintle masa with 1/2 cup warm water until smooth. Stir it into the cazuela in a thin stream. Simmer 8 to 10 minutes more, until the mole coats the spoon but still moves like a stew. Taste for salt. If the xoconostle is very sharp, give it five more minutes. Time rounds acidity better than sugar.

13. 13

    Serve from cazuela

    Serve the mole in shallow clay bowls with warm corn tortillas from the comal. If using queso ranchero, crumble a little at the table, not a snowfall. The cheese should answer the acidity, not cover the mole. Put the cazuela on the table and let people see the flowers. This is food from the Sierra Gorda, and it should look like it.

Chef Tips

• •Garambullo flowers are seasonal. In Queretaro you look for them in spring, especially around Cadereyta, Toliman, Penamiller, and the Sierra Gorda markets. If the market is not selling them, do not pretend canned nopalitos are the same thing. Use dried garambullo flowers if you can find them, or wait for the season.
• •Chilcuague is the root that tells you this mole belongs to the Bajio and the semi-desert edges, not to Puebla. Buy it from a Mexican herb vendor who knows what it is. If the vendor shrugs, pregúntale a las señoras del mercado.
• •Xoconostle matters because this mole needs acidity without tomato taking over. Tomato makes it familiar. Xoconostle makes it regional.
• •Use manteca de cerdo. Lard is lard. The sauce fries properly in it and the flavor carries through the cazuela. Vegetable oil will cook the ingredients, yes, but it will not give the same depth. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
• •Rabbit is traditional in many semi-desert kitchens because that is what the land gave. Chicken is practical for a city kitchen. Both work if you keep the bone in.

Advance Preparation

• •The chile paste can be blended one day ahead and refrigerated. Fry it in lard only when you are ready to cook the mole.
• •The full mole improves after one night in the refrigerator. Reheat gently in a cazuela with a splash of stock, stirring so the masa does not stick.
• •Clean fresh garambullo flowers the day you buy them. Remove tough stems and any insects, rinse briefly, and dry on a clean towel. Do not soak them for hours or they lose their clean cactus flavor.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 360g)