Maria is a professional culinary instructor in Oaxaca and taught us how to make mole coloradito, tortillas, and horchata. Mole coloradito is known for its sweeter flavor profile and Maria said a lot of people want to cut down or omit the sugar for health reasons, but in her eyes, this would ruin the authenticity of mole coloradito. However, she does use less oil than traditional recipes to save on fat calories because this doesn't affect the integrity of the mole sauce.
Making Tortillas
Above, Maria is putting calcium hydroxide (lime) into boiling water. Whole, dried, corn kernels get added, boiled for an hour, and then this mixture is left to soak overnight. We took a corn mixture that was made the day before to the molino to get turned into masa.
Corn mixture getting ground into masa at the molino.
Mole mixture before grinding.
Ingredients
10 guajillo chiles
5 ancho chiles
1 head garlic, roasted
1/2 c leaf oregano
1 T dried thyme
2 cloves
1 c sesame seeds
25 allspice berries
2 T cinnamon, or 2 (3") cinnamon sticks
*Above ingredients were ground at the molino.
6 medium tomatoes, boiled, puréed
3/4 c sugar (I would prefer to omit, even if it makes it slightly less authentic)
1 T salt
1/4 c oil
10 pieces of chicken (Cooked in 3 L of water with 5 garlic cloves, half an onion, and 2 1/2 T salt. Save this broth for use in the mole sauce.)
Mole mixture getting ground at the molino.
We also made a home-blended version of mole, which was darker in color because a lot of the sesame seeds got stuck in the strainer. I would recommend grinding the sesame seeds in a spice grinder before adding to the blender to prevent this from happening.
We dry roasted the garlic on these outdoor furnaces. It was a VERY hot day, so we all tried to avoid getting close to these pieces of equipment because those coals emitted a LOT of heat!
Mole coloradito con pollo after several hours of labor.
After eating some of the mole plain with rice and freshly made tortillas, we learned how to make enchiladas, a typical preparation for the second day of eating mole.
Enchiladas Oaxaqueñas
Directions: quickly fry a tortilla in a shallow pan with a thin coating of oil, fold into quarters, then dunk in mole that has been simmering. Remove to a platter, top with veggies if desired (e.g steamed green beans), then chopped parsley, crumbled queso fresco, minced raw onion, and sour cream. I noticed that the sour cream in Oaxaca is thicker and squeezed out of a plastic bag.
We ended the evening with a round of drinks on the terrace of one of the restaurants by Santo Domingo and watched the sun set. I loved watching the sky slowly change colors while sipping this very refreshing mint mojito.
I am a big fan of the rooftop restaurant option in Oaxaca. The views you get in the evening are quite spectacular!
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