This is how I spent Wednesday. It was a long, productive, satisfying day in the kitchen, and it only happens quite like this once a year. Photos Ahoy! yes, I played with the photos again.
The frying starts. See the shiny fried dried chiles!

Chiles and seeds and nuts and raisins and tortillas and bread fried. Onions and garlic and tomatoes and tomatillos still to go.

Red, green, and white – good Mexican colors.

Chiles soaked and drained, ready to grind and strain. All the rest with chicken broth ready to grind and strain.

Grinding. I do not use the traditional molcajete to grind everything, nor do I use the current traditional blender. I need less liquid with the food processor than with our old blender. And I use the food mill instead of a mesh colander and rubber spatula to strain and press everything. The mess is very traditional. The photo does not adequately capture the mess.

Colando chile. Looks like chocolate, doesn’t it? Just chiles guajillos and pasillas/anchos, fried, soaked, and ground.

El chile ya colado. That was three or four batches through the food mill. Ow. Still looks like chocolate, maybe a rich dark chocolate frosting. Smells and tastes fruity and a little sharp, mostly raw.

Colando everything else. Colando los chiles gets rid of the little bits of skin that stick between your teeth and are impossible to grind down to nothing, despite my husband’s hopes in the past that more soaking would do the trick. Nope, must colar. Colando the ground nuts, seeds, fruit/vegetables, spices, bread, tortillas is more like making a very flavorful peanut butter or hummus. Sort of. So I put it all through the food mill, then dumped the stuff that didn’t go through back in the food processor, and back through the food mill again to get as much as possible. I bet if I used a molcajete, it would be smooth to start with. Probably five batches through the food mill. Ow. Ow. Ow.

Molido y colado. Tastes raw, the flavors diluted after adding the bread, tortillas, and broth.

The ground chile fried. Now it’s an even more luscious color and texture. If a roux isn’t cooked enough, the flour tastes raw. Bleagh. If the chile isn’t fried, the flavor is raw and sharp, even a little weak. Boring, bleagh.

The ground nuts etc mixing into the chile.

So happy together… Starting to simmer.

It’s grainy chocolate, not like the smooth stuff we’re used to here. Full of sugar and a bit of cinnamon. I love gnawing on it, but it’s too sweet as hot chocolate for my taste. Not too sweet for the Kid’s taste.

Look! Chocolate in the mole! (and I was so excited, I blurred the photo!)

Simmered, salt and sugar to taste, and we have mole rojo! Nearly 5 quarts, enough to freeze for Xmas.

Can I rest now?
No. I made a double batch of dough for dinner rolls.

Now?
I know there aren’t 20 here. I think only 17 made it to the morning.
Now?
Yes, now.
So Much Work, but worth every minute of it. That’s some good mole.













