Mole Base (The Dried Chilli Paste — Before Adding Chocolate)

Mole is Mexico's most complex and most misunderstood preparation — not a single sauce but a family of entirely distinct preparations (negro, rojo, verde, coloradito, amarillo, chichilo, manchamanteles, and more) that share only the principle of combining dried chillies with a complex array of secondary ingredients. The most famous, mole negro from Oaxaca, contains 30 or more ingredients including multiple dried chillies, charred onion, plantain, raisins, chocolate, spices, day-old bread, and toasted sesame seeds — but chocolate is a late addition and in many moles, it is absent entirely. The foundation of every dark mole is the dried chilli paste — a careful combination of different dried chillies, each contributing different qualities: mulato for earthiness and richness, ancho for fruitiness and mild heat, chipotle for smoke, pasilla negro for dark intensity, and dried cascabel for nuttiness. Each is toasted briefly over a dry comal (too much and it becomes bitter), soaked in hot water, then blended. The soaking water is sometimes used sparingly in the sauce for additional depth. The charring of aromatics is the signature technique of dark moles: onion and garlic are blackened directly in a flame or on a comal until the exteriors are charred; the char contributes a bitter complexity that is essential to the finished sauce's character. Plantain, raisins, and pumpkin seeds are each toasted separately in fat. Stale bread or tortilla is fried until golden and also added. Every component is prepared separately then blended in stages and fried in lard or oil — this frying stage, called 'matando el mole,' is essential for developing the sauce's body. Chocolate — the final addition in mole negro — is small in quantity (it is the seasoning, not the flavour) and functions to deepen and round the sauce, not to sweeten it.