Go to the Recipe: 30-Minute Mole
First comment! yay! Holy Mole
How long will it keep in the fridge, vacuum packed?
I don't think it would last longer then two days because it's sooo good...... But seriously, if handled correctly it should last up to weeks in your fridge.
How much do the peanuts contribute to the flavor here and would there be a substitute such as cashew to keep close to the taste?
Hi Eddy, you can cut on the peanuts, I would actually change 'em for almonds, mole almendrado (almond mole) its a thing down here, another step you can add is Frying the sauce, down here we heat a stock pot, add lard and when its smoking hot throw in the sauce and let it boil for a bit, technically only a layer of the sauce gets the hot oil treatment, but still that and the incorporation of lard makes flavors more complex, back in a restaurant where i used to work, they fried the mole 5 times before sending it to service.
Any suggestions on how to do this without a pressure cooker? Thanks chefs!
Any suggestions on where to source the ingredients economically and reliably? (Many of these items are just not readily available here in WV and those that are seem to only be sold in large quantities.
Also, I haven't moved from measuring by weight instead of volume yet. What's a good choice for a kitchen scale? Thanks for this, too!
Hi Allan, here's a guide to some scales we like: http://www.chefsteps.com/activities/choosing-a-scale
And here's a pretty darn accurate, but inexpensive, one that a lot of us have at home: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002UEZ2FC/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B002UEZ2FC&linkCode=as2&tag=delvkitc-20
Ignorant home cook here! Is mole traditionally heated before serving?
This looks fabulous, and I'm absolutely gonna make it.
I've been pretty happy with the dried chilies I've bought on Amazon. I'm not sure that all the varieties used in this recipe are available, but I am quite sure that you can make a great mole with pretty much any dried chilies.
Yum. Interesting ingredients (butter? sweet onion? caraway?)-- nice, deep, complex flavor.
Just in time for Cinco de Mayo (and vegetarian) too!
Makes for a nice snack with a few tortillas while waiting for everything else to finish cooking-- it's crazy to think you can make a mole this good in less time than it takes to cook beans!
Frying a sauce like that is such a great technique for developing flavor. Never thought to do it more than once though- great idea!!!
Is there a brand or type of chocolate you'd recommend? There seems to be a lot of 70% on the market. Thanks!
Need to get this closer to the sweet Mole Negro Oaxaqueno used at La Carta de Oaxaca in Ballard!
Yes, this is pretty close add more bitter chocolate and you'll be there.
We use Valrona, but you can really use any chocolate that you want.
Yes, it is usually served hot.
This looks awesome, I will have to compare this way to make Mole to the traditional one. One question though, why butter and not the traditional lard?
We decided to use butter because of flavor and ease of sourcing.
Here is what I would do. Tare your scale then place a pot on it. Add all the ingredients and then note the total weight of the pot and it's contents. Now add 1000 more grams of water to the pot (this is for the evaporation). Now simmer the mole for about 2-3 hours to blend the flavors and soften the peppers. The goal is to cook until 1000g of water has evaporated from the mole resulting in the starting weight of the recipe. Blend and serve.
Ohh, it was gooood!
We Danes are not used to mole, but we like our chilies. I made this recipe and served it Mexican style with sous-vide pork and tacos, but fun thing was that both adults and children loved it, and although rather spicy, a large quantity was consumed.
I added a little brown sugar though, to balance it a little better.
I made this the other night, so so delicious! I live in Beirut and it took a special request to a friend traveling to the US to assemble all the chiles, but so worth it. I braised beef in it, and still have enough left over to make another meal or two. Thanks for the great recipe!
Is it just me or does the mole look "broken" in the top picture? Maybe it's just the lighting? Do we need to worry about losing emulsification?
It was just a tiny bit "broken"-looking when I made it. Not really in a bad way though (like they said, it's rustic). I found that stirring in a just a little liquid (especially when reheating) smoothed it out.
Thanks for the tip on almonds -- worked out great.Also happy to report it turned out well with goose fat instead of butter.
What is the size/length of the cinnamon sticks?
The mole is not a sauce is a principal ingredient, almost the ingredients like chiken o turkey (pavito) are garnitures. we dont use butter, tomato paste and valrhona chocolate :P we use tomato guajillo, pork fat (manteca) and fatless chocolate ( chocolate de mesa molido a metate marca abuelita ! ) try this recipe please,100% satisfaction guaranteed or your money back !!!
4 piezas Chile mulato
100 gr Almendra
1/2 Plátano macho
60 gr Cacahuate crudo limpio
60 gr Pasas
300 gr Jitomate guajillo
Anís entero
Canela en raja
Clavo entero de olor
Semillas de cilantro
1 Tortilla de maíz quemada
50 gr Chocolate de mesa
1 p Cebolla blanca
1 diente de Ajo
Manteca de cerdo
30 gr Ajonjolí
10 gr Sal
10 gr Azúcar blanca
Fondo de pollo
4 piezas Chile pasilla
4 piezas Chile ancho
As a Mexican. The recipe was short by a few ingredients. And we will never rush when we make mole sauce. Low and slow. That is the way. And never ever use ground peppers.
Do you use whole or ground cloves? If whole do you remove before blending? Could you provide a weight for cinnamon next time you make it? Any recommendation on type of cinnamon?
I am actually quite disappointed with this mole - far too much spice and you cannot taste other flavors over that. Thoughts on how to balance this out? I was thinking some stock and maybe raisins and more nuts? It was an expensive undertaking and I do not want it to go to waste!!
Any class in the works for pressure cookers? This is an excellent example and I would love to have a few more ideas as a springboard for more recipes. Thanks! You guys kick ass!
Never mind... I found it already on your site.
I have been looking at pressure cookers most seem to cook at 1 bar when at high, your recipe states 2 bars I believe. How much longer would I need to cook it?
A different way to cook mole, I have never though about to use the pressure cooker, Great idea!!! In mine I will probably remove the cumin (very weird coming as a mexican been alergic to that spice), you can have better flavor if you change sugared peanuts, an slice of bread and a corn tortilla if this is the Queretaro version (part of my grandma version).
If you are curious about the different varieties of it you can check https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_sauce#Varieties .
Btw awesome site I love it
Technically, whenever you cook something in a pot, not a pressure cooker, you're already cooking at 1 bar of pressure. That is earth's regular atmospheric pressure, with subtle variations depending on your elevation. When you use a pressure cooker, what the food is experiencing inside the pressure cooker is 2 bars of pressure: the first is the regular old atmospheric pressure, and the second is the added pressure the you get by using the pressure cooker. You can find pressure canners which have a pressure guage on top, so you can try to over pressurize if you want to, however, this is extremely dangerous, which can destroy your stove, kitchen, and lead to serious bodily injury, including death. Using your regular pressure cooker, which will bump it up to 15 psi extra, and you should be good to go. Good luck.
While I think for a quick mole, the flavors are pretty well developed, as others have mentioned, this mole has some problems with breaking. I fixed this using an old trick to save a breaking bearnaise, adding a little bit of hot water while whisking furiously. I also added a tiny bit of xanthan in hopes that it wont break later.
Also Ecsali Primo scale is a great buy. they're affordable and accurate to the gram. I've used lots of scales and these work best in our professional kitchens.
Hi Guys,
how long if cooking in a pot? Also, need for it to be dairy-free, so EVOO or macadamia oil???
tia.
Andrea
Hi Andrea, you could definitely substitute with either of those. We haven't tried cooking it in a pot, but Chef Nick's guess would be 2-4 hours in a covered pot. You will also need to mix every so often so the bottom does not scorch and add a little moisture throughout the cooking process to make up for what you lose in evaporation.
Since it is a pressure cooker recipe anyway, could I do it jars in a pressure canner for long term storage? It would awesome to have it on the shelf in half pints.
I still didn't tried yet, but as far as I can see is veeeeeery unbalanced to the cinnamon side. For this amount of water, I would never use more than 1-2 sticks (2 when thinking on the spiced side), or it risks to kill any other flavor. Are you sure about the number nine???
Even more, when watching the video, it seems to me that those aren't cinamon sticks, but cassia ones.Here in Spain, we call cassia "false cinnamon", maybe it's why you use so many sticks?
Hi Pilo, you are correct! We do use cassia in this recipe but you are more than welcome to try using true cinnamon. We haven't done trials with this, but please let us know how it turns out if you do try it!
Hi Dan, because you're cooking it all together and then blending, doing it in jars (while technically possible), you may run into problems distributing all the ingredients evenly throughout each jar. If you'd like to store it in jars though, you could first make the sauce and then store it in jars afterward.
So reheating it to sterilize in the jars won't be a large negative for the flavor? I take it that vitamixing it before cooking really is a bad idea? Thanks for the answers!
Not at all satisfied with the butter. I will keep the lard, as its resulting flavor is much superior. I have toasted the ingredients instead of frying them also, to make it lighter, and it partly works, even though a bit of fat is still required.. I find it weird to cite sourcing issues for the lard, when many recipes include quasi-impossible ingredients to find. (BTW, i erroneously erased the post). I also will use less chocolate and another chile choice. I would definitely go for Chilhuacle for mole negro oaxaqueño.
I noticed you dont toast any of the ingredients listed which fro me is integral to mole and i think you would usually use abuelita chocolate which can be found at any latin american grocer also the addition of stale bread and tortillas. i also thought maybe after you cook it in the pressure cooker you could pour that into a hot pan and reduce it a little while stirring. i will try today
Let us know how it goes!
I had the same issue the first time I made this. When using ceylon (true) cinnamon, you only need one or two
Just made this - turned out great! I prefer a little more sweetness and a liiiiittle bit more acid, so i blended in a teaspoon or so of agave at the end + a little bit of extra tomato paste and it was PERFECT! my advice: don't be afraid to taste and make a few changes at the end while blending everything together in order to meet your preferences. i used Chilhuacle chiles too because i had them on hand.
How long do you think this will keep when refrigerated? Do you think making this in advance with enhance the flavors at all?
Any suggestions for getting a darker mole? More in the style of mole negro with lots of burnt notes?
In Mexico, they grow the cassia. It's more authentic to use the cassia.
http://www.mexgrocer.com/
The super secret ingredient for the classic Mexican Mole Negro is Burnt Corn Tortillas. Literally just burn those tortillas crack them up and add that to the mole. Obviously its a whole new recipe but thats the main deal. Play with this recipe and I'm sure you'll come up with something cool.
This recipe is too cinnamon heavy. I suspected as much, so used six instead instead of nine, and it was still too heavy on the cinnamon.
Excatly my experience. I added some brown sugar and lime. After that it was nice. Also next time I would go a bit easy on the cinnamon.
yeah raisins would round it off nicely and add some acid using lime. Worked for me. Next time I am going to add some garam masala!
