Mole de Olla

The one eaten with a spoon — a thin chilli broth with beef and corn still on the cob.

Beef. Not vegetarian — contains beef.

Ingredients

the broth

• 1.2 kg beef shin, on the bone
• 2.5 litres water
• 4 guajillo chillies, stalks and seeds removed
• 2 pasilla chillies, stalks and seeds removed
• 3 cloves garlic
• ½ onion
• 300 g tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon salt

the vegetables

• 3 corn cobs, each cut into 3 rounds
• 2 courgettes, in thick chunks
• 200 g green beans, topped and tailed
• 2 carrots, in thick chunks
• 2 xoconostles, peeled and quartered, or 1 unripe plum
• a large sprig of epazote

to serve

• lime wedges
• 1 white onion, finely chopped
• corn tortillas, as on their own page

Method

1. IT IS A BROTH AND NEVER A PASTE, AND THE CORN GOES IN ON THE COB. That is what puts this in the mole family by name and nowhere near it in practice. There is no grinding of seeds, no thickener, no reduction to a sauce; the chillies are blended into two and a half litres of beef broth and stay thin enough to drink. And the corn is cut into rounds with the cob still in them, so each person gets a piece to pick up and gnaw, and the cob gives up starch and sweetness into the broth over an hour, which is most of why the liquid tastes the way it does. Kernels cut off the cob would be a different and much flatter soup.
2. THE VEGETABLES GO IN IN ORDER OF HOW LONG THEY TAKE, which sounds obvious and is routinely ignored in a one-pot dish. Corn and carrot first with twenty-five minutes to go; green beans at fifteen; courgette at eight. All in together and the courgette is a grey slick by the time the corn is ready.
3. THE BEEF IS SIMMERED PLAIN FOR TWO HOURS BEFORE ANY CHILLI GOES IN. The broth is the dish and it has to be built first. Chilli in from the start would cook for two hours and go flat and slightly bitter; blended in at the end it stays bright, and the beef has already given everything it has to the water.
4. THE XOCONOSTLE IS THE SOUR NOTE AND SOMETHING MUST DO ITS JOB. It is a sour prickly pear and it goes in whole, quartered, and softens into the broth without disappearing. In a rich beef and chilli broth with sweet corn in it, there is otherwise nothing sharp at all. An unripe plum is the honest substitute and is not the same thing; a good squeeze of lime at the table is the fallback.
5. THE EPAZOTE GOES IN LATE AND COMES OUT. One sprig, in for the last ten minutes only, lifted out before serving. An hour in the pot and it takes over a broth this delicate.
6. The beef put in a large pot with the 2.5 litres of water and 1 tablespoon salt, brought to the boil and SKIMMED.
7. Simmered 2 HOURS until tender, uncovered, topped up with boiling water to keep it at 2.5 litres.
8. The chillies toasted on a dry pan 30 seconds a side, soaked in hot water 20 minutes and DRAINED.
9. Blended with the garlic, onion, tomatoes and a ladle of the beef broth, then STRAINED into the pot.
10. Simmered 10 minutes. The broth should stay THIN -- it is not reduced.
11. The corn ROUNDS, carrot and xoconostle added and simmered 10 MINUTES.
12. The green beans added and simmered 7 MINUTES more.
13. The courgette and the epazote sprig added and simmered 8 MINUTES.
14. The epazote LIFTED OUT. Tasted and salted.
15. Ladled into deep bowls with a piece of corn and a piece of beef in each, with lime, chopped onion and tortillas.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Mexico · All recipes