Mole coloradito
- Sauce
- Medium
- 30
- 2 hours
PT2H
This smoky, fiery mole coloradito recipe by Nud Dudhia needs a long, slow cooking but is worth the wait. The versatile Mexican sauce can be used as a dip, slathered over roast chicken or used as a base for a vibrant mole rojo sauce.
Ingredients
Mole coloradito
- 125g of dried pasilla chillies
- 125g of dried ancho chillies
- 50g of dried guajillo chillies
- 200g of lard, or oil
- 250g of white onion , roughly chopped into eighths
- 1 1/2 garlic bulbs
- 50g of raisins , prunes or other dried fruit
- 70g of peanuts , skinless
- 70g of almonds , skinless
- 50g of walnuts
- 25g of pumpkin seeds
- 70g of sesame seeds , toasted
- 1 cinnamon stick , about 6cm long
- 5 cloves , bashed
- 6 allspice , bashed
- 1 tbsp of Mexican oregano, or majoram
- 50g of dark chocolate
- 50g of milk chocolate
- 70g of brown sugar, or piloncillo (raw cane sugar)
- sea salt
Equipment
- High-power blender
- Fine sieve
Method
1
To begin, toast the chillies in a hot, dry frying pan until fragrant and slightly charred for about 3–4 minutes. Allow to cool, then depending on how hot you want it, crack open and discard the stalks and seeds
2
Grind the chillies to a powder in a spice grinder or good blender (a well-ventilated room is advised whenever processing chillies, so open the window and make sure your extractor fan is on if you have one)
3
Use the same pan to toast the peanuts and almonds until the oil just starts to be released from the nuts, giving them a nice glossy appearance
4
Remove from the pan then toast the walnuts until they start to crackle. Repeat with the seeds (take the time to toast all the different nuts and seeds separately as they each have different cooking times). Transfer all the nuts and seeds to a blender, blitz to a powder and set aside
5
Using the same pan again, toast the cinnamon, cloves and allspice until fragrant. Allow to cool then grind to a powder
6
Roughly break up the garlic into cloves and toast in the hot pan until the skins are blackened. Allow to cool, then peel
7
In a large pan, heat up 3 tbsp lard until melted. Add the roughly chopped onion and cook on a medium-high heat until they start to brown and soften. Add the peeled garlic and dried fruit
8
Once soft, blend together with the ground nuts, seeds, spices and oregano to a textured paste
9
Return the pan to the heat and add 5 tbsp of lard. Once scorching hot, add the paste (be careful, it will spit), turn down the heat and cook the paste out for 5 minutes. Keep stirring and scraping the bottom of the pan to avoid burning
10
Add the ground chillies, chocolate and sugar and cook out for a further 5 minutes, adding more lard if required. As the chocolate melts it will start to give the mole a nice sheen
11
Add 1.5l water, give the bottom of the pan a good scrape and a stir and bring the mixture to the boil. Turn the heat down and slowly simmer for 1 hour. Taste and season with sea salt
12
If the mixture gets too thick, add some more water – the end result should be dry, shiny and the consistency of yoghurt. If you want a really smooth mole, you can pass the mixture through a fine sieve at this stage. Otherwise, portion in freezer bags, or it will keep in the fridge for around 10 days
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Mole coloradito
