I’ve been procrastinating on this, but acquired all of the ingredients for Rick Bayless’ Black Mole recipe a while ago and finally decided to make it in advance of Thanksgiving.
Recipe for the Unitiated
I’ll spoiler the ingredients because otherwise it will give you nightmares worse than a certain OU cheerleader.
Toasting the chilis…
Ready for rehydration..
Post blending…
Skipping ahead 12 hours (including the destruction of my kitchen because making mole is fucking messy)…
It is, in fact, a good bit darker in person. Just added salt and sugar per the recipe and it’s amazing. I’m going to let it cool, refrigerate, then bring it to temp on Thanksgiving, adding more salt and sugar as needed (Bayless says it’ll need more of both as the flavors meld).
If anyone is inspired, the hardest part is that it’s labor intensive, particularly toasting the chilis (though they are more forgiving than a roux). The Bayless recipe also says it’ll produce 2-3 quarts but this is an 8 quart pot and I’d guess there is 6-7 quarts in there and it’s pretty thick.