Ranch-Style Mole

Recipe from doña Higinia Márquez Ramírez.

Ingredients:

· 1 kg pork backbone (espinazo)

· 10 to 12 guajillo chiles

· 150 grams all-purpose flour

· 1 pinch of cumin

· 1 allspice berry

· 2 large garlic cloves

· Oil, as needed

· 1/2 onion for cooking the meat

· The nopales are cooked with cilantro, onion, and garlic — do not skip the cilantro.

Step 2: Bring the meat to a boil in plenty of water with the onion and salt. Make sure enough broth is produced. Once the meat is fully cooked, remove it from the broth and set aside.

Step 3: In a saucepan, heat a little oil and lightly brown the guajillo chiles — if you prefer more heat, add two morita chiles. Be careful: if you leave them too long or they burn, the mole will turn bitter. Place the chiles in a blender with a little broth, the cumin, allspice, and garlic, and blend until completely smooth. If any seeds or bits of skin remain, strain the sauce — though personally I never did. Doña Higinia always said the chiles should go in with their little seeds.

Step 4: Place a wide enough pot over the heat to prepare the mole and add a generous amount of oil, roughly proportional to the amount of flour. Once the oil is very hot, add the flour, lower the heat, and stir continuously until the flour turns a light golden color. At that point, add the chile mixture — large clumps of flour will form at first. Stir patiently, adding broth little by little until all the clumps have dissolved completely. Without leaving the stove, season the mole over low heat for approximately 10 minutes. Once it is well seasoned, add the nopales and meat and carefully fold everything together. Let it simmer for another 10 minutes.

Mamá Ginia also made this with tender purslane (verdolagas), green beans, or nopales, and I also saw her substitute the flour with fresh masa or ground bolillo rolls — because, she used to say, on the ranch they made do with what they had. Another interesting fact: this is the main dish served at the town festivals of San Miguel el Alto, Jalisco.

This recipe is a contribution from Eleodoro Delgadillo / Mexico City