Mole de Olla – Hearty Mexican Stew Infused with Fiery Chile Heat
I recently learned to make authentic mole de olla, a hearty, chile-infused Mexican stew, while working at an Italian restaurant here in New York. Wait what? Mexican stew at an Italian restaurant? How does that work?
Well, the restaurant kitchen here in New York is mostly a mix of two very different cultures. Guys like me who like to cook, and guys from Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia, and other countries who might view cooking like factory work (although a lot of them do a really good job at it). So I was working in the West Village at a neighborhood Italian place, picking up pasta skills and having fun, and for a long time I was the only American cook working there. My last couple months there, the hot line consisted of me and two Mexican guys, and we did all the cooking for the entire week. Friday and Saturday, we all three worked together, and the rest of the week it was just two of us. Working this close together, we made close friendships that I don’t think would have ever happened, outside of the restaurant.
So since we were all cool, we looked out for each other. We also cooked for ourselves and the rest of the back-of-the-house guys. So one time we decided we would make mole. The week before, a few of us (the sous chef, another cook, a food runner, and me) went to a Mexican place in Queens after work, and I had the green mole, and it was so good, I wanted to know how to make it. This little hole-in-the-wall restaurant gave me a big bowl of soup full of jalapenos and cilantro, with tender-as-hell short ribs sliding right off the bone, potatoes, corn on the cob, and tortillas. This was definitely something we wanted to make.
So back in our restaurant, we put together our mole on a slow Sunday night, when there wasn’t much to do. Everbody put down something: I brought some short ribs, the sous chef brought more short ribs, the dishwasher brought tortillas, a food runner brought tomatoes and jalapenos, etc. We were making the other type of mole de olla, the red one. The main difference is green mole gets its color from jalapenos and a lot of cilantro, and red mole gets its color from red chiles like Arbol, and from tomatoes.
So the first thing we did was get the ribs going, because they need to cook for a good few hours until they’re tender. The other cook I was working with took charge of the project and gave me some prep tasks to take care of: snipping green beans, soaking dried chiles, blending the salsa roja, etc. When it was all finished, we had a BIG stock pot full of mole. I took 15 minutes to just sit on a milk crate in the middle of the kitchen, eat my big bowl of mole, and not think about anything else.
Here’s a general recipe for our mole de olla. This is Puebla style, because that’s where a lot of the Mexicans in New York kitchens are from. Different regions of Mexico have their own version though.
Heat & Knives
The Recipe
4 pounds beef short ribs (about 8 ribs)
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 carrot, roughly chopped
1 celery stalk, roughly chopped
Some dried Arbol and Guajillo chiles. The Arbol add heat and the Guajillo add a deep earthy flavor. The number of each you use depends on how spicy you like it. The chiles are the main flavoring for this soup though, so don’t go light.
A few tomatoes, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
3 or 4 garlic cloves, chopped
2 cloves
Some corn on the cob, each one cut into 3 pieces
A few potatoes, cut into chunks
A handful or two of string beans, trimmed and cut into 2 or 3 pieces
One or two zucchini, cut into 1/2″ x 1 1/2″ strips. Or roughly cut into chunks.
One bunch of cilantro
For serving:
Tortillas, grilled or heated in oven
Lime wedges
Sliced Radishes
Chopped onion
Chopped cilantro, optional
Simmer the short ribs in water to cover with the onion, carrot, and celery.
While the ribs are cooking, make the salsa roja. Place the dried chiles in hot water for a few minutes, to reconstitute them a little. Remove from water and place in a blender with the tomatoes, the chopped 1/2 onion, the garlic, and the two cloves. Blend until smooth.
After the ribs have cooked for about two hours, add the salsa roja to the pot with the ribs.
Simmer for another 1/2 hour or so, then add the corn and the potatoes to the pot. When they’re about half cooked, add the string beans. Then after a little bit, add the zucchini and cilantro. It doesn’t matter so much when you add each vegetable, as long as none of them overcook.
Taste the stew, and adjust seasoning. If it’s not spicy enough, soak and puree more dried chiles, and stir it in. If the stew tastes bland, add salt. If it’s spicy enough but not balanced, add some lime juice; the citric acid will lift the flavors.
To serve, ladle the stew into bowls. Serve the tortillas on side plates with a couple lime wedges, some chopped onion, and radish slices, and maybe some chopped cilantro.
The best way to eat mole is to cut off some short rib meat with a spoon, wrap it in a tortilla with some onion and radish, and dip the whole in the soup to moisten it with the fiery flavor.
Enjoy!
