This week's recipe: Mole Pablano sauce

We love Mexican food and we were given some new tacos to try by a chef recently and Lynne wanted to use those Pasillo and Californian dried smoked chillies she bought recently at Wild Peacock.  She made a spicy mince, some guacamole, the refried beans did NOT work as the pan boiled dry while she was working in the study (Note, we need more tinned beans!) and she decided to make some Mole sauce (pronounced Mo-lay) to go with the dish. This is a rich chilli and chocolate sauce that the Mexicans normally use to accompany chicken and stewed meat but she wanted to see what it was like and it did go very well with the mince.  There are some surprise ingredients and there is almost no cooking involved. The left over sauce keeps well in the fridge and freezes well.

Mole Pablano sauce

3 or 4 dried Pasilla and or California dried smoked chilli peppers -1 T olive or canola oil - 1 small chopped onions - 1 cloves garlic, minced -3/4 cup hot chicken stock - 1 T peanuts - 1 teaspoon fresh oregano, chopped - 35g 85% dark unsweetened chocolate, chopped - salt and freshly ground pepper

Remove the stems and seeds from the chillies. Soak them in a little hot water for about 15 to 30 minutes.  Fry the onion in the oil until it is golden but not browning. Add the garlic to the onions and stir briefly, do not burn it. Make your chicken stock and when hot pour it over the chocolate in a deep mixing bowl or in the jug of your stick blender. It will start to melt.  Add the peanuts, the onions and garlic, the oregano and season.  Drain the chillies but keep back the water in case the sauce is too thick. Add the soaked chillies to the bowl and blitz with your stick blender until you have a thick chocolaty sauce to serve with or on top of your meat or chicken.  Don't forget to season it.

There are no substitutes for the chillies. The  peanuts are essential, they help to thicken the sauce. You can however use almonds.  Mexicans add sugar and raisins and lots and lots of different dry spices like cinnamon, coriander, cumin - the list is very long and we will be experimenting in future.  But we don't like a sweet sauce and loved the rich dark bitter chocolate combined with the slightly smoky and sweet chillies.  They are not at all hot, they just give a tiny buzz. Tonight we will have the remainder over chicken. 

A reminder:  1T - 1 Tablespoon  &  1t = 1 teaspoon