Mole Verde Oaxaqueño con Espinazo de Puerco

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 8-quart stockpot for the broth
• •Wide 6-quart cazuela or heavy Dutch oven for the mole
• •Cast iron comal or heavy skillet for toasting pepitas
• •High-powered blender
• •Fine-mesh strainer
• •Long-handled wooden spoon

Instructions

1. 1

   Build the pork broth

   Place the espinazo and pork shoulder in a heavy 8-quart pot. Cover with cold water by three inches. Add the halved onion, the halved head of garlic, the bay leaves, and the salt. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat and skim the gray foam that rises in the first twenty minutes. Cold water draws the flavor out of the bones slowly. The espinazo is the cut that gives this mole its weight, so do not rush it.

   Ask your butcher for espinazo de puerco. If he looks at you blankly, find a Mexican carniceria. The bones and the marrow inside them are what separate this mole verde from a vegetable stew with pork on the side.
2. 2

   Simmer until tender

   Lower the heat until the broth shows lazy bubbles every few seconds. Cover partially and cook for one hour and thirty minutes. The meat should pull from the spine easily but still hold together. Lift the pork out with a slotted spoon and set it aside. Strain the broth through a fine-mesh sieve and reserve every drop. You will need about 8 cups. If you have less, add water to make up the difference.

3. 3

   Toast the pepitas

   Heat a dry comal or heavy skillet over medium-low. Add the pepitas in a single layer. Stir constantly. They will start to puff and pop within three to four minutes and turn pale gold. Pull them off the heat the moment they smell nutty and before they brown. Burned pepitas turn the mole bitter and there is no recovering from it later. Spread them on a plate to cool.

   Low heat and patience. The pepitas should sound like soft popcorn, never like cracking glass. If they brown, your mole verde will turn olive instead of green.
4. 4

   Cook the tomatillos and chiles

   In a saucepan, cover the tomatillos, jalapeños, serranos, the chopped onion, and the 4 garlic cloves with water. Bring to a simmer and cook for eight to ten minutes, until the tomatillos turn from bright green to a duller olive-green and feel soft when pressed. Drain, but reserve a cup of the cooking liquid. Cooked tomatillos give this mole its body and a clean acidity. Raw tomatillos would make it sharp in the wrong way.

5. 5

   Blend the green base

   Place the cooked tomatillos, chiles, onion, and garlic in a high-powered blender. Add the toasted pepitas, the hoja santa, half the epazote, all the cilantro, parsley, and the radish leaves. Pour in 2 cups of the reserved pork broth. Blend on high for at least two full minutes, until completely smooth and a vivid jade green. Work in batches if your blender is small. The texture should be like a thick smoothie. If it struggles, add more broth a quarter cup at a time.

6. 6

   Fry the mole

   In a wide cazuela or heavy 6-quart pot, melt the manteca over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Pour the green puree in all at once. It will sputter and hiss. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon for eight to ten minutes. The puree will darken slightly, deepen in flavor, and the fat will start to break at the edges. La manteca es el sabor. This is the step that takes a vegetable juice and turns it into a mole.

   Stand back when you pour. The puree hits hot fat and splatters. A long-handled wooden spoon and a clean apron will save you. No me vengas con atajos: skip this step and your mole will taste raw.
7. 7

   Thicken with masa

   Whisk the masa harina slurry one more time to make sure it is smooth, then pour it slowly into the simmering mole, stirring as you go. Add 4 more cups of the reserved pork broth. The masa is what gives mole verde its silky body, the way it clings to the back of a spoon. Without it, you have a brothy soup. With it, you have mole. Cook at a gentle simmer for ten minutes, stirring often so the masa does not stick to the bottom.

8. 8

   Add the pork and vegetables

   Return the cooked espinazo and pork shoulder to the pot. Add the ejotes and chayote. Tear the remaining epazote leaves and stir them in. Simmer uncovered for twenty to twenty-five minutes, until the green beans are tender but still bright and the chayote yields easily to a knife. Taste and adjust salt now. The mole should taste herbal, faintly sour, and deeply pork. If it tastes flat, more salt. If it tastes thin, simmer five more minutes.

9. 9

   Rest and serve

   Pull the pot off the heat and let it rest, covered, for ten minutes. The mole settles, the masa finishes thickening, and the herbs marry the broth. Ladle into deep bowls, making sure each one gets a piece of espinazo, some shoulder, ejotes, and chayote. Serve with hand-pressed corn tortillas, lime wedges, and diced raw white onion at the table. Asi se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •The pepitas must be raw and hulled, the dark green ones. Roasted, salted snack pepitas will not work and will throw the salt off. Buy them in bulk from a Mexican grocer or a market spice vendor. Toast them yourself.
• •Hoja santa freezes well. If you find good leaves at a Mexican market, buy a stack and freeze what you do not use today, layered between sheets of parchment. The flavor holds for months. The leaf is the difference between mole verde oaxaqueño and a generic green sauce.
• •Mole verde does not keep its color forever. The herbs oxidize after a day in the refrigerator and the green dulls to olive. The flavor stays excellent. If you want it visually bright, eat it the day you make it. If you want it deeper and more married, eat it the next day and accept the color.
• •If you cannot find espinazo, use bone-in country-style ribs and a cup of pig's feet for collagen. It is a compromise, not an upgrade. You will miss the marrow.

Advance Preparation

• •The pork broth and cooked meat can be made one day ahead and refrigerated separately. The flavor deepens overnight.
• •Toast the pepitas up to two days ahead and store airtight at room temperature.
• •The finished mole keeps refrigerated for three days. Reheat gently over low heat. The color will dull but the flavor will marry. Do not freeze. The masa breaks and the herbs lose their character.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 500g)