Mexican Mole Style Gravy

Mole is a long sauce and there is no honest way to make it quick. Real regional moles can run to thirty ingredients and two days of work, and this is not one of those, which is why it is called mole style rather than mole poblano or anything more specific. What it does keep is the method that matters: toast everything separately, soak the chillies, blend, then fry the paste and simmer it for a long time until it stops tasting of parts and starts tasting of one thing. Set aside an afternoon.

Ingredients

Makes about 900ml, enough for eight

• 3 dried ancho chillies, stalks and seeds removed sweet, raisiny and very mild. Sold in most supermarkets now, and in every Mexican and Latin shop such as Cool Chile or Sous Chef online
• 2 dried pasilla chillies darker and more herbal
• 1 dried chipotle or morita chilli for smoke and a little heat
• 3 tbsp lard or rapeseed oil
• 1 large onion, roughly chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, unpeeled
• 2 ripe tomatoes, halved
• 40g (1½oz) blanched almonds
• 2 tbsp sesame seeds plus extra to serve
• 1 tbsp raisins
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• ½ tsp coriander seeds
• 1 small cinnamon stick
• 3 cloves
• 1 slice stale white bread, torn or half a corn tortilla, which is more traditional and makes it gluten free
• 900ml (1½ pints) hot chicken stock
• 30g (1oz) dark chocolate, at least 70 per cent
• 1 tbsp soft brown sugar or to taste
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
• salt

Kit

• Dry frying pan
• Bowl for soaking
• Blender
• Heavy casserole
• Sieve

Method

1. Heat a dry frying pan over a medium heat and toast the chillies flat for about twenty seconds a side, pressing them down. They should smell sweet and smoky and turn slightly pliable. Any bitterness in a mole usually starts here, so pull them the moment they go fragrant and never let them blacken. Soak them in just boiled water for twenty minutes.

2. In the same dry pan, toast the almonds until golden, then the sesame seeds until they pop, then the cumin, coriander, cinnamon and cloves for thirty seconds. Do each separately, because they all colour at different rates, and tip each lot into the blender as it is done.

3. Add a tablespoon of the fat to the pan and fry the onion, unpeeled garlic and halved tomatoes over a medium high heat for about ten minutes, turning, until charred in patches and soft. Squeeze the garlic out of its skins and add everything to the blender with the raisins and torn bread.

4. Lift the chillies out of their soaking water and add them to the blender along with 200ml of the soaking liquid. Taste that liquid first: if it is bitter, use stock instead. Blend for a full three minutes to a completely smooth thick paste, scraping down as you go.

5. Push the paste through a sieve into a bowl, working it with a ladle. This takes a few minutes and removes the last of the chilli skins, which is the difference between a silky mole and a gritty one.

6. Heat the remaining fat in a heavy casserole until quite hot. Add the paste all at once and stand back, as it will spit. Fry it, stirring almost constantly, for eight to ten minutes. It will darken, thicken and start to leave a film on the base of the pan, and this frying is the single most important step for the finished flavour.

7. Whisk in the hot stock a ladle at a time. Bring to the barest simmer, half cover, and cook for a full hour, stirring every ten minutes so it does not catch. It will darken from brick to deep brown and the raw chilli edge will fade into something round and complex. There is no shortcut for this hour.

8. Stir in the chocolate, sugar and vinegar and simmer for a final ten minutes. Season with salt, then taste and balance. It should be savoury and faintly bitter with fruit and smoke behind it, gently sweet, and only mildly hot. Serve over poached chicken or roast turkey with sesame seeds scattered on top.

Tips worth knowing

• This is not an authentic regional mole and it does not pretend to be. Mole poblano, mole negro and mole coloradito are all different sauces with their own long ingredient lists, and every family makes theirs differently. Think of this as the same technique at a manageable scale.
• Bitterness is the usual failure and it nearly always comes from scorched chillies or scorched seeds. Toast everything to fragrant, not to dark, and taste the chilli soaking water before you use it.
• Mole is better on day two and better still on day three. If you can make it ahead, do.
• Frying the blended paste before the stock goes in is not optional. Skipping it gives you a thin, sharp sauce that tastes of raw chilli no matter how long you simmer it afterwards.

Keeping and reheating

Keeps a week in the fridge and freezes brilliantly for six months, which is why many cooks make a large batch and freeze it in portions. Reheat gently with stock, since it thickens a lot on standing.

Questions people ask