One of my favourite dishes is mole, complex, a dish with almost infinite variations and always delicious.
Mole is originally thought to have been created in Mexico's Oaxaca or Puebla regions. The actual origin of the word can be traced back to the Nahuatl word "mulli," which translates as "sauce". It traces a long history to pre-Colomian times and is a dish that has put Mexican cuisine on the world map. There are seven master moles, but in reality, the dish has thousands of variations, making it a truly "infinitesimal cuisine" as defined by Diana Kennedy.
The soul of a mole is the complexity of chillies, spices, herbs, and nuts. There are simpler 5-6 ingredient moles like the green mole, but the more complex versions have 20+ ingredients, including bitter chocolate. These moles are transformative. The flavour is an explosion on your palate, not necessarily spicy but a sum of all the ingredients in perfect harmony.
This recipe is no exception. The sauce is thick and sweet-pungent. The complexity is beautiful and addictive. Given the standards of how moles are made, this is a relatively simple mole. The four chillies come together in perfect harmony: sweet, spicy, and aromatic. The pork is soft and shreds easily, and the fats have cooked into the sauce. You can serve this in a number of ways, stuffed into tacos or quesadillas or wrapped into a burrito. This is an amazing dish, one I make repeatedly!
For more recipes from Bon Appetit magazine, click here.
Ingredients: Red Sauce and Filling
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
2 tablespoons cumin seeds
14 guajillo chiles, seeds removed
4 ancho chiles, seeds removed
3 morita chiles
4 cups homemade chicken stock or low-sodium chicken broth
8 garlic cloves, peeled
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon crushed Mexican or Italian oregano
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 pound boneless pork shoulder (Boston butt), fat trimmed
Kosher salt
2 bay leaves
Assembly
1 cup vegetable oil
8 6-inch white corn tortillas
10 ounces queso fresco, crumbled, plus more for serving
1 avocado
2 tablespoons sour cream
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
Kosher salt
½ onion, sliced into thin rings
Lime wedges (for serving)
RECIPE PREPARATION Sauce and Filling
Toast coriander seeds in a small skillet over medium heat, swirling pan often and adding cumin seeds during the last 30 seconds of cooking, until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Let cool, then finely grind in a spice mill or with mortar and pestle.
Bring guajillo, ancho, and morita chiles and stock to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Cover, remove from heat, and let sit 30 minutes to let chiles soften.
Transfer the chile mixture to a blender. Add the toasted spices, garlic, tomato paste, and oregano, and purée until smooth, about 2 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 250°. Heat oil in a medium-heavy pot over medium-high. Season pork with salt and cook, turning occasionally, until browned on all sides, 10–12 minutes. Pour off excess oil and add chile purée and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, cover, and transfer to the oven. Braise pork until the meat is very tender and shreds easily, 1 ½–2 hours; season with salt.
Skim excess fat from chile sauce; discard bay leaves. Transfer pork to a large bowl. Let it cool slightly, then shred it with 2 forks. Mix ½ cup of chile sauce into pork; season with salt. Set the remaining sauce aside.
Do Ahead: Pork can be braised 3 days ahead. Let cool in chile sauce (do not shred); cover and chill.
Assembly
Preheat the oven to 425°. Heat oil in a medium skillet over medium-high until it bubbles immediately when the edge of the tortilla touches the surface. Working one at a time, fry the tortillas until just starting to brown and crisp, about 10 seconds per side (they should still be somewhat pliable). Transfer to paper towels to drain.
Dip both sides of each tortilla in chile sauce to coat, then transfer to a rimmed baking sheet. Spread 1 cup sauce down the length of a 13x9" baking dish. Spoon ¼ cup pork mixture across the centre of a tortilla, fold one side over the filling, then continue to roll up the tortilla. Place seam side down in prepared baking dish. Repeat with more sauce and remaining tortillas (enchiladas should be nestled right up against each other in pan). Top with cheese and remaining sauce. Bake until sauce is bubbling and cheese begins to brown, 15–20 minutes. Let sit 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, purée avocado, sour cream, lime juice, and ¼ cup water in a food processor, adding more water to thin as needed, until smooth and creamy; season with salt.
Top enchiladas with onion slices and drizzle with avocado cream. Serve with lime wedges for squeezing over.
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