Cooking in Pink Pyjamas: Mole Enchiladas

I continue to disappoint myself by forgetting to take pictures of certain meals. For this particular meal, I have no excuse: I photographed most of the process, popped the enchiladas in the oven, served them up, and greedily ate them, without even a thought for the camera that was sitting, sad and alone, right next to where the food was served up. So you're going to have to make do with the pre-oven picture, which is still a nice picture.

Mole is a Mexican sauce which I thought was basically a savoury dark chocolate sauce. (Oh, and it's not pronounced like the animal, but with an é.) I was quite wrong, as this recipe shows. I toned down the recipe a bit but still ended up with enough sauce to freeze for another meal. I served it with a slightly modified version of my enchiladas - modified in that no salsa was made, but the necessary flavourings just added to the meat instead - and really enjoyed it. The mole sauce feels earthy. There's no other way to describe it. Despite the excess amounts of spice added, it wasn't burn-your-mouth spicy, which I liked but Tom didn't.

Mole Enchiladas

(Printable Recipe)

Serves 2, with enough sauce for 4

Enchiladas:

1/2 onion

1 garlic clove

250g minced pork (or beef, or chicken)

2 cups tomato sauce

1 tablespoon mayonnaise

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

Chilli powder

1 tin kidney beans

4 tortilla wraps

1/2 cup grated cheese

Seasoning

Mole Sauce:

1/2 onion

2 garlic cloves

2 large green chillies

1 cup tomato sauce

1 cup chicken stock

2 tablespoons peanut butter

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

2 squares dark chocolate (mine was 56% cocoa)

1 teaspoon hot sauce or ssamjang

Chilli powder

Seasoning

Chop half the onion and 1 clove garlic and fry over a low flame with the mince until browned.

Very roughly chop the other half of the onion and the two garlic cloves. Pulse in the blender until it forms a liquidy paste. Deseed the chillies if necessary, and add to the mix. Blend until everything is finely chopped.

Heat some oil in a second pan and fry this mixture for a minute or so.

Add the tomato sauce and chicken broth to the mole pan. Turn the heat up to medium and reduce a little.

Add the peanut butter and cinnamon. Allow the sauce to cook for about five minutes on a medium-low flame, turning the heat up if you want to reduce it further. Season with salt, pepper, and chilli powder to taste, remembering that more hot sauce will be added soon.

In the meantime, add the tomato sauce, mayonnaise and turmeric to the mince. This picture was taken without the flash: the turmeric turns the mixture almost neon orange. It's both transfixing and disgusting. Add chilli powder to taste.

This is the mole sauce bubbling, before chocolate is added.

Shortly before you are ready to use the sauce, turn the heat down to its lowest setting and add the chocolate and hot sauce or ssamjang. Stir through to melt the chocolate. Taste again and season if necessary.