Pato en Mole de la Ribera

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy clay cazuela or 7-quart Dutch oven
• •Comal de leña or heavy cast iron comal
• •High-powered blender
• •Fine-mesh strainer
• •Tongs for toasting chiles

Instructions

1. 1

   Season the duck

   Pat the duck pieces dry and season them with the salt. If you are using wild duck from the lago, inspect every piece carefully for shot. That is not fussiness, that is being a responsible cook. Let the duck sit while you prepare the comal and the vegetables.

2. 2

   Brown the duck

   Heat the manteca de cerdo in a heavy cazuela over medium heat. Add the duck pieces skin side down and brown them slowly, 6 to 8 minutes per side, until the skin gives up fat and turns deep gold. Do this in batches. Crowding the pot makes the duck stew before it browns. La manteca es el sabor, and here it works with the duck's own fat.

3. 3

   Make the broth

   Return all the browned duck to the cazuela. Add the whole half onion, the halved garlic head, 2 sprigs of epazote, the nurite if you have it, and enough water to cover by one inch. Bring to a gentle simmer, then lower the heat. Cook until the legs are nearly tender, 1 hour 45 minutes to 2 hours for farm duck, longer for wild duck. The broth should taste like lago and fat, not like plain water.

4. 4

   Toast the chiles

   Heat a dry comal over medium, over leña if your kitchen allows it. Toast the ancho, guajillo, and pasilla separately, about 20 to 30 seconds per side, pressing them flat with tongs. They should darken, puff, and smell deep, never burned. Burned chile makes bitter mole. No me vengas con atajos.

   The pasilla burns fastest because it is thin. Keep it moving. If a chile turns black in patches, throw it away and toast another.
5. 5

   Soak the chiles

   Put the toasted chiles in a bowl and cover with hot water. Hot, not boiling. Let them soften for 20 minutes. Boiling water toughens the skins and pulls bitterness forward. Drain the chiles and discard the soaking water.

6. 6

   Roast the vegetables

   On the same comal, roast the jitomates, tomatillos, and sliced half onion until the skins blister and blacken in spots. The milpa gives the tomato, tomatillo, corn, and pepita. The monte gives the herbs. The lago gives the duck. Keep those three sources in your head and the dish starts to make sense.

7. 7

   Toast the pepitas

   Toast the pepitas in a dry skillet until they puff slightly and smell nutty, 3 to 4 minutes. Toast the torn tortillas until dry and spotted brown. The pepitas give body without making this taste like a Puebla mole. The tortilla and masa thicken the sauce the way an atapakua should be thickened.

8. 8

   Blend the mole

   Transfer the softened chiles, roasted jitomates, tomatillos, roasted onion, toasted pepitas, toasted tortillas, fresh nixtamal masa, xoconostle if using, peppercorns, oregano, and 2 cups of the duck broth to a blender. Blend until completely smooth. Work in batches if needed. A grainy mole is unfinished work.

9. 9

   Fry the sauce

   Lift the duck pieces from the broth and strain the broth. Wipe the cazuela if there are browned bits that look black. Add 2 tablespoons of the duck fat from the surface of the broth back to the cazuela. Pour in the blended mole carefully. It will sputter. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the sauce darkens from brick red to deep chestnut and the fat begins to shine at the edges.

10. 10

    Braise in mole

    Add 3 more cups of strained duck broth and stir until the mole loosens into a pourable sauce. Return the duck pieces to the cazuela, nestling them skin side up. Simmer gently, uncovered, 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the meat is tender and the sauce clings to the spoon. Add more broth if it gets too thick before the duck is done.

11. 11

    Finish the seasoning

    Taste for salt. Add the remaining sprig of epazote for the last 5 minutes, then remove it. The sauce should be deep, earthy, and lightly acidic from the tomatillo or xoconostle. It should not taste sweet and it should not taste like chocolate. Mole is not chocolate sauce. Así se hace y punto.

12. 12

    Serve from clay

    Carry the cazuela to the table and serve the duck in generous pieces with plenty of mole spooned over it. Put warm corn tortillas and corundas beside it. This is celebration food, not individual plating. A ribera table feeds the family first, then talks about whose sauce was darker.

Chef Tips

• •Use legally hunted wild duck only when it is in season and properly cleaned. Outside the ribera, a mature farm duck is the honest choice. Boneless duck breast is not the same dish. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
• •Fresh nixtamal masa is the right thickener. Masa harina works only if you have no tortilleria nearby, and even then you should hydrate it fully before blending. The sauce should have body, not a dusty taste.
• •Nurite is difficult to find outside P'urhepecha markets. Ask the women at the market first. If you cannot find it, use epazote and understand what you are missing: nurite has a mountain-herb perfume that epazote does not replace.
• •This mole is not supposed to be fiery. The chiles give depth, color, and structure. People who think all Mexican food must burn have not paid attention. This is a 32-state cuisine.
• •The sauce is better the next day. Fiesta cooks know this, which is why the mole is often made ahead and the duck finished before the table is set.

Advance Preparation

• •The duck can be browned and simmered one day ahead. Strain and refrigerate the broth, keeping the duck pieces covered. The fat that rises to the top is useful for frying the mole.
• •The mole base can be blended and fried one day ahead. Refrigerate it separately, then loosen with duck broth and braise the duck in it before serving.
• •Warm the tortillas and corundas at the last moment. Cold masa beside a serious mole is bad planning.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 590g)