Seeking the perfect sauce or something that’s ready for the change? Check out this Mole Poblano recipe that’s always apt to amaze!

Mole poblano is sauce, originated from the Mexican sovereign city of Puebla and became the torch bearer not just all the “mole”s, which simply means “sauce” but the Spanish cuisine as a whole.

The word in its original Spanish meaning translates to villager or peasant but in Mexico, poblanos are those who are from Puebla. Hence mole poblano is just a way of saying Sauce from Puebla.

The mole poblano though, is far from being isolated to Central Mexico. Mexican natives, like the Aztecs have been long used various sauces for their cooking which included chocolate-based sauces.

In fact, the original chocolate was a far cry from the sugar pumped milk powder smoothed thing we are addicted to nowadays. Chocolate in its original form was something similar to water diluted cocoa powder with an additional chili pepper or two.

It took some time until the Europeans could acquire a taste for it which was later eased by adding milk and honey to the cocoa drink, further advance its unavailability to the common people of the era.

The Aztecs held cocoa in high esteem and the beans were even used as currency, but similar to mole they couldn’t live in isolation and the change of wind brought not just new cultures to Mexico but new spices and herbs too.

Although Spaniards left their marks deepest in the land that can be felt not just through culture, language or architecture, but other immigrants through the centuries brought their own twist to the cuisine of Mexico, introducing variety of new flavors to known dishes.

Garlic, cinnamon, almonds, raisins have all arrived to Mexico at a different time in history and became part of cuisine and with the Mexican life as we know it today.

How long this sauce will stay among us, we can’t predict but to survive, it needs to change. Luckily, if mole poblano is perfect at one thing then that is change, so never expect it to be the same.

Ingredients

6 pieces / 60g Ancho chilies
4 pieces / 60g Guajillo chilies
6 pieces / 45g Pasilla chilies
4 tablespoons / 30g Sesame seed
1 teaspoon / 1g Star anise
½ teaspoon / 1.5g Black pepper
½ teaspoon / 0.3g Marjoram (dried)
1 teaspoon / 0.3g Thyme (or a fresh sprig)
½ teaspoon / 1g Cloves (whole)
1 piece / 3g Cinnamon
2 cups / 500ml Cooking oil (about half will be absorbed by the ingredients)
8 cups / 2000g Water
½ cup / 75g Almonds
½ cup / 75g Peanuts
½ cup / 50g Pumpkin seeds
⅓ cup / 40g Raisins
2 slices / 50g Stale bread and/or Corn tortilla
10 cloves / 30g Garlic
1 medium / 150g Onion
1 medium / 150 Tomato
1 cup / 150g Baking chocolate
2 tablespoons / 30g Salt
Optional
- Tomatillo
- Bay leaf
- Coriander
- Oregano
- Canola

How to make Mole poblano

Cut the chilies horizontally and remove the seeds and stem.
Heat a skillet to medium high then roast the chili and sesame seeds until golden brown, about 3 – 5 minutes.
Remove from heat then add Star anise, black pepper, marjoram, thyme, cloves, cinnamon and any other optional spices.
Grind them into a fine powder. Do it in batches if necessary.
Heat oil in high walled frying pan to high then add the chilies.
Fry them until their skin bubbles, about 30 sec. Do it in batches if necessary.
Add almonds then peanuts, pumpkin seeds, finally raisins into the oil in that particular order waiting about 20-30 sec between each. Optionally just do it one after the another.
Fry them until the seeds and nuts get some golden brown color and the raisins swell about 1 minute.
Add quartered onion and tomato then the garlic. Fry until the onion gets glassy / translucent look and to tomato start to change color, about 1 minute.
Finally add the bread to soak up some tasty oil and fry until it gets a golden brown color.
Add all the ingredients into a food processor and puree them.
Do it in batches, adding water as necessary. We’ll need about 8 cups / 2l water for the mole.
If our food processor doesn’t do a good job at cutting up the ingredients, using a sieve to get rid of uncomfortable pieces can be a useful thing to do.
Add the pureed mole into a big enough pot.
Bring the mole into boil while stirring continuously. We should have a pretty solid sauce now but don’t worry if its too thin either.
Add the baking chocolate in. It will darken as it cooks and cools but if the color doesn’t seem dark enough, just add a tablespoon of cocoa.
Lower the heat to gentle simmer, place the lid on half way then cook until the flavors come together and we have the desired color and consistency, about an hour.