Mole! Mole! Mole!

Pine nut mole for sale at the Feria de Mole in San Pedro Atocpan, Mexico City. Photo: Alejandro Linares García for Wikimedia Commons

Time and a little special shopping, not skill, is all that is needed to make this transcendent mole.

Note: I made this vegetarian, but you could use chicken or beef stock instead. If so, bring stock to a boil in the first step and soak chilies in that, and then omit the addition of veggie stock concentrate that I use later in the recipe. 

Toast 50 grams dried Ancho chilies in broiler about 2 minutes, turning to blacken all sides. Careful - it gets smoky! Then soak in about 2 quarts of boiling water for 30 min.

Combine in a bowl 26 oz chopped tomatoes (I used canned), 2 large pinches each of Mexican oregano and epazote.

Grind in a coffee/spice grinder: 1tsp cumin seeds, 1tsp fennel seeds, ½ tsp cinnamon stick, ½ tsp black peppercorns, ½ tsp cloves, 6 allspice berries.

Mix 1/8 cup each of pecans, walnuts, almonds, sunflower seeds and sunflower seeds and toast in a pan until darkening and fragrant, then add spice blend and toast for another 10 sec or so.

Heat about 3 T EVOO in a pan and add 2 roughly chopped onions, cook for 10 minutes until transparent. Season liberally with salt. Add 2 cloves of rough chopped garlic, 1/8 tsp of fresh thyme, freshly ground nutmeg, 4 tsp paprika, a squeeze of liquid smoke (hickory) if you have it handy, and 5 grams of peeled and chopped ginger (about 1 inch), 140 grams dark raisins, 100 grams plain panko bread crumbs. Cook for another 10 minutes. 

Drain your chilies but reserve all the liquid, remove seeds and stems, roughly chop and add to pan, along with the tomato mixture. Cook another 10 min. 

Mix 400 ml of chili soaking water with 2 tsp of Seasoned Vegetable Base (Better then Bullion brand) and add to pan. Cook 10 more minutes.

Roughy chop 100 grams of Taza Chocolate Mexicano Chocolate Disc, Guajillo Chili flavor, and add to mixture, heating it through. Season with salt to taste (probably at least 2 T)

Blend (may take 2 batches) until smooth.

MOLE MOLE MOLE!