Rick Bayless Beginner's Mole

[Music] hey welcome to my kitchen everyone thank you so much for watching i've got a really big deal for you today i'm going to make mole with you but i'm going to make mole what i call the beginner's mole now this isn't if you've seen a recipe that i've done before that's called the the peanut mole that's more like a pipian and super super simple and very delicious i have to say i turn to that recipe all the time but if you want to really tackle an honest mole like the classic mole poblano with three different dried chilies in it and so forth well you know you really have to go through certain steps but i've sort of truncated some of those steps to make it really easy so if you've always been intimidated by making a real mole i'm going to make a small batch with you that's one of the big things because usually people make mole in huge huge batches so i'm going to make a small batch that honest to goodness you can tackle anyone can tackle so let's talk about the ingredients first okay so we have three different dried chilies here so we have uh this is an a mulatto chili and this is the ancho chili now they look kind of different in size but lots of times they look almost exactly the same in size the mulatto chili is always darker and the ancho chili is redder some places in the world they will call just this mulatto and ancho negro like a black ancho because that's kind of what it is when they're fresh both of these are poblano chiles just different varieties of poblano chilies okay so we've got the mulatto and the ancho chile and then we've got the other really dark chili this is the pastilla chili or sometimes called pasia negro or pasia largo long so it's either black pasia or it is called the long passia so you have to know those kinds of things because when you go to the mexican grocery store or you order online you're likely going to find some differences in names if i were you i would probably order these things online but if you want the adventure then go into your mexican grocery store and talk to them say i'm looking for ancho mulatto pacia to make mole everybody will know what you're talking about because this is really the star dish in the mexican kitchen first step is to clean these guys so we're going to pull this stem and the seed pod out like that and tear them open now i'll let all of the seeds fall out and then if you want to make it a little less spicy you pull out the veins i never do that but a lot of people will tell you that that's what you should be doing and then we're going to tear every chili into four pieces like that okay that was five pieces okay i've got my work cut out for me here now i'm going to just take a moment to deseed and stem all of these chilis and get them ready for the next stage of cooking which will be and what we call an oil toasting okay so these are the chilies all torn up right now and i suggest that you make this in a big dutch oven or a heavy pot you're going to need something that basically is six to eight quarts and the heavier the better in mexico traditional kitchens it would be in earthenware coswell they heat up very very slowly but then they hold and distribute the heat incredibly evenly and for a really long time now this looks like a mexican casual but it's actually enamel coated cast iron i'm lucky enough to have a couple of these really cool looking pieces but any kind of a dutch oven will will work i turned on the heat underneath this right when i started doing the chilis so that it could heat up and be uniformly hot the next thing you have to choose is how you're going to cook these what you're going to cook these oil toasted chilies in it could be a vegetable oil it could be olive oil but i think it's a waste of olive oil and it really doesn't give you a flavor that's harmonious with anything in this dish the opposite end of the spectrum from vegetable oil would be fresh rendered pork lard and if you want the really traditional flavor then that's what you could use and this is what we get from one of our local farmers or you could find it in the mexican grocery store back near the meat counter and um this is not the stuff that comes in little bricks that is hydrogenated that stuff doesn't have flavor you want to get fresh rendered pork lard or use vegetable oil now all the way through this for those of you that are vegetarian or vegan i'm going to tell you all of the things that you can do to keep this thing on a track that will go all the way to vegan and it's delicious so don't think that you're scrimping and and doing something that's going to turn out a lesser product okay so i'm going to put about three tablespoons i'm going to cook it in the real traditional way with the fresh rendered pork lard and we're going to need to keep adding fat to this pan as we go through all the different steps but the first step will be with about three tablespoons i'm not measuring exactly here because i just need enough to coat the bottom of this pot really nicely we are going to toast these chilies in the fat along with a little bit of onion and garlic i'm just sort of truncating steps here so that we don't have to do the onion and garlic separately because the truth the matter is they'll cook in just about the same amount of time so i've got the melted lard now you can hear the crackle sizzle i've got two cloves of garlic that was just like a half of a small onion the garlic's peeled but it's hold because that's what we really want here is to the time that it's going to to um brown okay so now i've got the chili's in on top and i'm going to use a wooden spatula just because i think it works really well here and i am literally gonna stand here now for five minutes as these guys toast and the onion and the garlic soften and lightly brown now this toasting step is really really important and i'm going to show you what the inside of this looks like it's a lighter brown color remember when we did all of the d seeding and stemming it was all dark on the inside but once they have toasted on the inside they will have that lighter color what we're doing here is to develop flavor without developing flavor that way the mola is very one note okay i'm going to take all of these what we have in here and put it into the blender jar directly into the blender jar you know what i think would help me the most here is a pair of tongs i was quite careful about getting all of the chili seeds out of the the chilis usually i'm not that careful but i want to use this pan for the next step without washing it out because we're going to go into another kind of toasting step so i just wanted it to not have be covered with all those seeds i'm turning that down just a little bit let's go over to the blender jar put that on top i have some chicken stock here six cups total for this recipe and i'm going to put about a cup and a half of it in here again you're not seeing me measure i just want enough to go to help blend these chilies uh so i'm gonna put about a cup and a half in there we can always add more if we need to when it's blending if they get stuck going through the blender blades we're just gonna leave that to soak for a few minutes while we do the next step now the definition of a mole the way that i think of it is that it typically is a sauce that really features the the flavor of chilies most people think of it as an ancient recipe though this particular recipe or the base of this recipe a mole poblano has half ingredients that came from outside of mexico and half indigenous recipes from mexico but they're almost always thickened with nuts seeds or corn this one is nuts and seeds so look what we have here in the second step we have some almonds and some sesame seeds and then there's always some sort of a sweet element that naturally is in the mole and it usually comes from dried fruit we're going to start off by putting in these almonds into the pan here so i'm going to first stir these guys for about a minute or two and then i'm going to add to the pan the little bits of sesame seeds and you'll see how those start to toast instantly so these are untoasted sesame seeds i'm just pulling out something that was a little dark there that i don't want to be in the mole that could burn but we're already seeing a little bit of browning going on here with the almonds okay so you can see it now there's just enough fat to kind of coat the bottom of the pan nicely so in we'll go these raisins that seems like a weird thing to toast i know but what you'll see is that they'll immediately start to kind of puff up and lighten in color and the same thing will happen when i put in or not the same thing but i was you'll see it starting to toast immediately when i put the sesame seeds in there and we're just going to stir this again you're going to stir it constantly until everything is toasted beautifully here now we're not going to through that whole toasting soaking blending straining well blending we're going to do for sure but we're not doing the toasting soaking we're doing what i call just a really fast soak directly in the blender jar that's what's going to save you a lot of time now i'll say when you finish seeing me go through all of these steps i will tell you that within an hour you could have a very traditional pot of mole done and especially for those of you that have looked at traditional recipes for mole poblano and i've written many of them and you know that it's going to take you four or five hours to accomplish it i don't want you to only have mole once in your lifetime and that's what a lot of you have told me it's like oh i made the mole that was quite an endeavor i'm glad i did it once well i'm going to give you a mole that you could do much more frequently than that and it will be i think it will be a back pocket recipe for you because you will love being able to make this and it's so easy to make in a in compared to the traditional ones that you can just make some enchiladas with it okay we'll talk about other things that you could use it on later but we have to look in here because we are ready to move now you can see that the little raisins have puffed up and lightened in color the we've got a gorgeous golden hue to the sesame seeds and to the the almonds there and then i'm going to just take these guys i'm going to move it off over here because i don't want it to toast anymore and i'm going to scrape this stuff into a bowl so this we're going to need this for for cooking down the chilies here in a second so i'm going to scrape all of this now into this bowl and then when i finish with that i'm going to rinse this out and put it back on the fire okay we've got the pan wiped out now so all the little straight sesame seeds have gotten out of it i put it back onto the medium to medium high heat at this point i'm going to film the bottom of it with another spoonful of the fresh rendered pork lard that we're working with here but you could use oil if that's your choice um and let that melt in there and get ready while we blend these chilies now i'm working quickly here and i have a high speed blender so within a minute or so i can get these chilies into an absolutely smooth paste now if i was working in just a regular standard issue blender i would want to strain this mixture because probably some of those chili skins wouldn't get blended and it would probably take me two or three minutes to get it really really to the point of being velvety like this i mean just look at that it looks like just like melted chocolate that's kind of what i always think about with this stuff but i don't have to strain it i'm going to put it into here you should hear a sizzle when it goes in there like that all of it will be scraped out and in here and we're going to stir this until it is reduced and thicker and darker in color that should take another something like well it depends on your heat source and again the size of your pan but it should take around four or five minutes now just look at the difference in color that you see here you also notice that it's really shiny that's real critical but most important is the thickness of it basically what we're trying to do here is to sear the flavors and we're going to mellow the flavors of the chili and we're in all of this cooking down the whole thing starts to pull together as one of the most beautiful flavors that you could imagine too little cooking at this stage means you're going to have a harsh mole so don't skimp in this stage at all okay so i'm finished with that we're going to go on to the blending of the second batch of ingredients that go in here i'm just going to actually turn this off right now and come back to it i don't wash the blender for this because it's just got stuff that's already in the pot i'm going to scrape in here this mixture of the sesame almonds and toasted raisins and then we'll talk about the other ingredients that are going to go in here so we have on this last tray in front of us here some some tomatoes usually in a traditional recipe they would ask you to roast some tomatoes this is fire roasted tomatoes in a can it's about three two thirds of a 15 ounce can about a cup of tomatoes and then those are going to go in here a couple slices of bread this is one of the other thickeners that is very common in a classic mole like a mole poblano some people would also put a toasted tortilla in here so you could swap out a couple tortillas for one of those pieces of bread if you wanted to and now we're on to the spices which really is what makes this mole quite unique or makes mole unique and it's black pepper cinnamon stick cloves a bunch of stuff that's sort of tasting like it's baking spices in here and then anise seed and i'm going to crush those in the mexican molcajete here and i'm not going to use all of this cinnamon stick just a piece of the cinnamon stick now this is true cinnamon so it doesn't it's not the cassia bark we usually call cinnamon and it just breaks very easily in your hand and it's got a really lovely flowery aroma to it the black peppercorns it might seem like that this isn't enough spices for such a big pot of mole it's by mole standards it's a small pot of mole but it's they're never overwhelmed by any of these spices so i'm going to crush it rock against rock until i get everything into an absolute powder okay i'm just about there and i tell you when you make this mole you are going to be in heaven right now the smell of the cooked down chilies and these fresh ground spices of course if you don't have a mortar to work with then you're gonna probably use some pre-ground spices but if you do have a mortar take the time to grind them fresh and then they're going to go right into the blender jar we've got some mexican chocolate we'll come back to that in just a little bit onto the blender base now this is all going to go and i'm going to add another about a cup and a half just enough to get all this mixture to go through the blender blades put the top back on here and blend now with a vitamix blender that has taken me about a minute and a half most blenders would take three or four minutes to do it but let me show you what you're looking for here when you take a little bit of this mixture and you rub it between your fingers you should feel no sesame seeds left and so this has got just the tiniest little bit of grit if you're not working with a high speed blender i highly recommend that you pass it through a strainer just a regular strainer nothing fancy not like a sheen water or anything like that but just what i would call a medium mesh strainer with this i'm just going to take the opportunity right now to put this back on the heat and about again about a medium high heat scrape all of this in here and then i'm going to stir it again this is a lot of stirring i understand but it's going to stir it again for about five minutes or so until it's reduced again to about the consistency of tomato paste now we're back to looking like melted chocolate here if your mixture is really well blended that's actually what you should be seeing here i know this is a lot of stirring but i will tell you that it is what makes this thing come together in flavor i brought this spatter screen out to show you some of you may want to do this spatter screen over just to catch any little flying things but if you're stirring it pretty vigorously through the whole thing there should be minimal uh spattering with this thing so okay now the last thing that we're going to do here is to add the rest of our broth to this well let's just look come on in and look at it because you got to see what the consistency of it i said it's as thick as tomato paste again and it's very shiny that's all the fat that's in here starting to separate out fat that comes not only from the oil or lard that you're cooking this in but also from the sesame seeds and the almonds so i'm going to put the rest of our broth in here the whole thing is going to take about six cups and you're gonna end up here with some place over two quarts of mole if that sounds like a lot to you just let me tell you that most recipes for mole making because it's always made for a big fiesta would make many gallons of mole and it would take two or three days of procuring the ingredients doing the prep for the ingredients and doing all of the cooking and then of course mole is typically allowed to simmer for quite a long time and often served the day after because just like with any great stew flavors develop and you can taste more nuance of things when you have it the following day freezes beautifully so any leftovers can go into the freezer what you'll want to do after you've defrosted it is to put it back in the blender and just re-blend and it'll just come right back together so it's a very very useful thing to have in your repertoire because within an hour or so of now and i do tell you you do need to have all your ingredients out don't be running and looking for things during the preparations always make sure that you measure out all of your ingredients and have them on the countertop to get this to go well because it's a lot of stirring and cooking so you're really busy through this whole thing i would say leave this on to simmer a minimum an hour longer if you can preferably two three four hours put it over a medium low heat and then this is one that um i made yesterday and i refrigerated it overnight because we have to talk about seasonings here you'll notice a little bit of oil separating out on the top you can just bail that off with a ladle if you want to or stir it back in the richness on your palate of a good mole comes from having the right amount of fat in in it so i just like to stir it back in you could use a whisk or a spoon to do that um so if it has gotten thicker then say i i would say like a cream soup consistency some people like their moles thicker than that i like them sort of cream soup consistency but this one's thickened up just a little bit so i'm just going to thin it with just a little bit of water or you could use some stock now as i was telling you before you can make a perfectly delicious vegan mole just using water or ch or vegetable broth through the whole cooking i actually like water in this because i think it allows all of that complexity of the chilies the onions and the garlic the tomatoes all those spices the bread thickening all of that stuff goes together to create one unique mole flavor and i like to highlight that a lot of times so to tell you the truth lots of times i make it with water because i think that would work then you can serve it to your vegan friends and your meat-eating friends just think about having a grilled chicken breast with this mole on it or putting it in some enchiladas that have some roasted vegetables in it or maybe you've just grilled some eggplant and you spoon this over the top of it oh my gosh it would be like one of the most glorious meals of your life but we have to get the seasonings right and this is where a lot of people stumble they don't know how to season it there are two seasonings that go into it salt and sugar and you cannot leave either one of them out it's very essential that you season it first i say first with salt and remember we've got like two and a half quarts of mole here so it's going to take a fair amount of salt just to get it started here so i'm going to start with that part of it i've seasoned a lot of pots of mole in my life and so it's i know kind of where to start but in the recipe that will accompany this video i will let you i will give you the ideas as to how much to start with now that's not going to make the flavors all unified i have to get the sugar in there to do that but i first start with this the salt flavor and and i think i hit it almost exactly right remember if you're working with salted chicken broth or salted vegetable stock you're going to have to be careful because you will already have a dose of salt in this during the the simmering period okay so i think i hit it right and now i'm going to put in some sugar now this will probably take more than what you think and you're not ruining the sauce by putting sugar in it what you're doing is bringing out the elements the fruity elements of the dried chilies remember dried chilies are a dried fruit and you are wanting to bring that forward by the addition of the sugar here for those of you that think sugar is evil yes you could possibly use something like agave syrup or one of the other kinds of sweeteners that you like to use but you have to add a sweet element mole should be slightly sweet and richly salty both of those things sort of on a tight rope back and forth i'm getting really happy now because to me this is one of the most glorious dishes in the entire world and to be able to create it to be able to continue this tradition of making mole and who knows how it all came together over many many centuries but it's something that deserves to be made time and time again and shared all over the world because really this is the crowning glory of mexican food you might want to use it in different ways than what that would traditionally be used in mexico over some poached chicken or some turkey perhaps i love this mole on grilled swordfish so think about things that a rich sauce like this could enhance but it's a robust sauce i love it on pork pork is absolutely delicious if you grill a really beautiful ribeye steak this can be absolutely wonderful on it so you can think outside the box at the same time you're respecting the tradition of making a really world-class mole in in just an hour flat basically so get in the kitchen have this experience fall in love with what is a very traditional flavor that's been been developed by cooks over centuries and centuries have fun cooking chocolate i forgot to talk about chocolate we didn't ever add the chocolate to this pot when you add the last edition of the broth you put chopped mexican chocolate in here a lot of you would know that as sort of abuelita brand or one of the bharara brands or something like that there are a lot of different brands of mexican chocolate but you have to think of it as a seasoning that goes in here this has not become a chocolate sauce even though it is seasoned with just a little bit of chocolate but in its natural state of course chocolate is bitter and it makes this sauce so beautifully complex but never enough of it in there that it's going to make it taste chocolatey just complex

Channel: Rick Bayless

Views: 183,559

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Id: 9nLCrGeaEPE

Length: 28min 1sec (1681 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 07 2021