When my spouse and I went to Oaxaca, we took a cooking class. The class didn’t teach us how to make this mole, but we were given the recipe courtesy of Quinta Brava. What I have here is my attempt to follow their recipe. It still needs some work, so there are more about my notes than something I would share with other people and claim it’s authentic.

Why I struggled: The class we took was led by a gourmet chef who was very good at what he made and taught us about cooking through feeling rather than strict adherence to recipes. This goes hand in hand with my own approach to cooking, though it can unfortunately lead to some vague recipes — which I’m now trying to correct in my own recipes. For this one, I ended up with a lot of questions once I started making it: how much of any given ingredient is appropriate when you don’t know precisely what flavor you’re trying to achieve? What kind of chocolate should be used? Were there some steps that weren’t written down because of the assumption that “everybody know you’re supposed to do that?” What I made was okay-ish, but it was too pale and didn’t have the richness of flavor of what we tasted that day (they had all the moles pre-made for us to sample). I also added a LOT of sugar — the original recipe says to add some at the end but not how much, and I kept adding more and more to counteract a really bitter mixture.

Also, sourcing some peppers can be an issue. I substituted Guajillo peppers can also be substituted for some of the peppers below, but they’re a lot spicier and will make the overall mole a lot hotter. When I made this, I used 7 ancho peppers and 3 mulatos because I couldn’t find the other two kinds in my local specialty store, and I was concerned about the heat index. Since the seeds get removed, the end result wasn’t really spicy so I could have added that last pepper easily.

Since I had dried chiles that already looked practically black, I didn’t fry or toast them as the recipe suggested. I didn’t know if that was already part of the process. In retrospect, I probably should have rehydrated them and tried this, as the end result of the mole wasn’t nearly as dark as it should have been. This might also have improved the flavor. I later saw a video where a chef roasts the dry, de-seeded peppers on a comal to make them smoky, then soaks them in water for 30 minutes. That’s supposed to make the mole creamy and not rough.  I’ve added this step below.

Note on chocolate: I tried using unsweetened baking chocolate, since the original recipe didn’t specify which kind. This could easily use a sweet milk chocolate. I got a really bitter mix that I kept adding more and more sugar to (I don’t know how much I added…at least a cup?) toward the end. I also used a full bar when the original recipe’s amount was just half a bar, because I wasn’t getting hardly any chocolate flavor.

Note on bitterness: some of this might also have been to do with the tomatillos. This was my first time cooking with them, and I’m not sure I knew what to look for when I picked them out. They’re like green tomatoes, and I don’t know if I got ripe ones. (I’ve also never been a fan of green tomatoes, so that might have also influenced my reaction.) Since I didn’t have a comal to sear them on, I roughly chopped the tomatillos, tomatoes, onion, and garlic and sauteed them with a little vegetable oil until they were mushy and brown/on the verge of seared. This might have also changed the flavor profile. Perhaps roasting in the oven would be better.

5 Chilhuacle chilis (can substitute ancho peppers)
3 Mulato chilis
3 Pasilla Mexicano chilis (can substitute ancho peppers)
25 grams pecans
12.5 g. peanuts
12.5 g. almonds
.75 g. sesame seeds
2 pepper seeds
50 g. raisins
4 tomatillos
2 tomatoes
1⁄2 onion
4 garlic cloves
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. thyme
1 tsp. allspice
1 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. cloves
1 cinnamon stick
60 g. chocolate (try a sweet variety)
1 slice of bread
1 plantain
sugar
2 tortillas, burned black
chicken broth
water

Clean the chilis and remove the seeds. Cut into little pieces. Fry or toast them until they are black and smoky (frying and toasting create different flavor profiles, so this is a matter of choice). Soak in water for 30 minutes.

One ingredient at a time, fry the peanuts, pecans, sesame seeds, pepper seeds, plantain, almonds, and raisins.

Toast the tomatoes, tomatillos, onion, and garlic in a pan on high heat in a deep skillet, or roast in the oven. Add all the ingredients together in a saucepan, then bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes, then take off the heat.

Let it cool and then process it in a blender. If you have an immersion/stick blender, you can use it there instead. Bring back to the heat and simmer, tasting for the desired flavor and making adjustments accordingly until you are happy with the flavor/texture.