Oaxacan Black Mole Tamales (Tamales Oaxaqueños de Mole Negro)

// SUPPLY LIST

// OPERATIONS

1. 1 Put the chicken in a 6 litre pot with 3 litres cold water, the halved onion, 6 unpeeled garlic cloves and 15 g of the salt. Bring it to 90°C / 194°F, a lazy bubble breaking every second or two and never a rolling boil, which makes the meat stringy and the broth cloudy, skimming the grey foam for the first 10 minutes, then simmer uncovered for 35-40 minutes, until a thigh reads 78°C / 172°F and the meat pulls off the bone under light thumb pressure. Cool the chicken in the broth for 20 minutes, lift it out, strain the broth and keep it all: you want about 2.4 litres, and it is the only liquid in the entire recipe, going into the blender, into the mole and into the masa, so do not throw a drop of it away. Refrigerate the broth overnight along with the mole you are about to make, both because the fat lifts off in a clean sheet and because the masa on day two needs the broth cold.
2. 2 Open a window and turn on the extractor, then dry-toast all the reserved chilli seeds and veins (about 35 g) in a heavy cast-iron pan over medium-high heat for 6-8 minutes, stirring, until they smoke hard and turn completely black, charcoal black rather than brown. This is the whole source of mole negro's colour and its smoky-bitter backbone; stop at brown and you have made a mole coloradito. Tip the black seeds into a bowl, cover with 300 ml just-boiled water, soak 20 minutes, then drain and discard the soaking water, which carries the harshest of the bitterness, and keep the seeds.
3. 3 Wipe the pan out with a dry cloth until no black residue is left, or the chillies will pick up the acrid taste of the burnt seeds, then toast the chillies flat in it over medium heat, pressing them down with a spatula, 20-30 seconds a side, until they puff slightly, turn flexible and smell of raisins and toast; take the chilhuacles one shade further, right to the edge of scorching. If any chilli goes black and brittle, throw it out, because a single burnt chilli turns the entire pot acrid and no amount of chocolate or sugar will pull it back. Cover the toasted chillies with 1.2 litres just-boiled water, weight them under a plate, soak 30 minutes until completely soft, then drain and discard that water too.
4. 4 Heat 120 g of the lard in a 26-28 cm cazuela or heavy casserole over medium-high heat, to about 170°C / 338°F, at which a plantain slice sizzles steadily rather than violently. Fry the plantain 3-4 minutes a side until deep gold and caramelised at the edges, and lift out; fry the almonds and peanuts 3-4 minutes until sandy-gold and nutty-smelling, and lift out; fry the raisins 30-45 seconds until they swell and gloss, and lift out; finally fry the bread and tortilla 2-3 minutes until dark gold and crisp, adding a spoonful more lard if the pan has gone dry, because bread hitting a dry pan scorches instead of frying and carries that burnt note into the finished mole. Keep the pot and any lard left in it.
5. 5 Toast the sesame seeds in a dry pan over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, for 4-6 minutes, until they hop in the pan, turn the colour of pale straw and one crushed between your fingers smells oily and nutty; they scorch in seconds if you walk away. Set 10 g aside for serving and keep 60 g for the mole.
6. 6 On a dry comal or heavy pan over high heat, char the tomatoes, tomatillos, sliced onion and the remaining 6 unpeeled garlic cloves, turning them, for 8-12 minutes, until the tomato skins blister and blacken in patches and collapse, the onion has hard black edges, and the garlic is soft inside a scorched papery skin. Peel the garlic and keep everything else exactly as it is, juices, black bits and all: that char is flavour, not damage, and skinning or rinsing the tomatoes here costs you the smoke.
7. 7 In a dry pan over medium heat, toast the canela, cloves, allspice and peppercorns for 60-90 seconds until fragrant, then the avocado leaves for 15-20 seconds a side until they crackle and smell strongly of anise, adding the oregano and thyme for the last 10 seconds only, off the direct heat, since dried leaf herbs go bitter in under half a minute on a hot pan. Grind the lot to a fine powder in a spice grinder or molcajete, avocado leaves included: whole leaf left in the mole gives it a stringy, papery texture that never disappears.
8. 8 Blend in three separate batches with the cooled broth: first the soaked chillies with the black seeds and 400 ml broth; then the plantain, almonds, peanuts, raisins, fried bread and tortilla and the 60 g sesame with 400 ml broth; then the charred tomatoes, tomatillos, onion, garlic and the ground spices with 200 ml broth. Run each batch on high for a full 2-3 minutes, until it is completely smooth and feels slippery rather than sandy rubbed between finger and thumb, then push every batch through a medium sieve with a ladle; you should be left with less than 3 tablespoons of debris. Gritty mole is the most common home failure and it cannot be repaired later.
9. 9 Heat the 100 g lard reserved for the paste in a wide heavy pot of at least 5 litres over medium-high heat until a drop of purée sizzles on contact, about 180°C / 356°F, then stand back and pour in all the sieved purées at once, holding the lid in front of you as a shield, because it spits hard. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon over medium heat for 12-15 minutes until it darkens, thickens and the spoon leaves a trail across the base that holds for a second; this frying is what turns raw paste into mole. Add 900 ml of the broth, the chocolate, the piloncillo and 12 g salt, then simmer at a bare blip, partly covered, for 60-75 minutes, stirring and scraping the base every 5 minutes without fail, because mole catches on the bottom and once it does the burn goes right through the pot. It is ready when a slick of red-black fat rises at the edges and it coats a spoon thickly; taste, and it should read smoky, savoury and faintly bitter with the sweetness well behind, adjusting with salt or piloncillo 5 g at a time. You should have about 1.5 litres; cool it and refrigerate overnight, because the mole is measurably better on day two.
10. 10 Next day, shred the cooled chicken into 3-4 cm pieces, discarding skin and bones, for about 750 g of meat, and moisten it with 150 ml of the mole. Pass each banana leaf square over a gas flame or across a hot comal for 10-15 seconds a side, until the matte green flashes glossy and dark, the leaf goes limp and it smells grassy and sweet; an unsoftened leaf cracks along the fold and the tamal bleeds masa into the steamer, so soften every one, including the offcuts for lining.
11. 11 Beat the 300 g lard on its own in a stand mixer with the paddle on medium-high for 6-8 minutes, until it is bright white, aerated and looks like whipped frosting (10 minutes by hand with a wooden spoon against the side of a bowl). Beat in 18 g salt, then the masa in six additions on medium speed, then trickle in 250-350 ml of the cold skimmed broth until the masa has the texture of thick buttercream and falls slowly off the paddle, and beat a further 10-15 minutes. Test it: drop a half-teaspoon pinch into a glass of cold water and it must float to the surface within 3 seconds, and if it sinks, beat another 5 minutes and test again. Do not reach for baking powder, because Oaxacan banana-leaf tamales are leavened by beating alone and powder gives a spongy, faintly soapy crumb that is wrong for a tamal de mole.
12. 12 Lay a leaf square shiny side up with the rib lines running left to right, and spread 130 g of masa into a rectangle about 16 x 14 cm and 5 mm thick, leaving a clear border of at least 5 cm all round. Spoon 40 g of mole down the centre and lay 55 g of shredded chicken on top, keeping both well away from the edges, because mole that reaches the border stops the masa sealing and the tamal leaks. Fold the near long edge of the leaf over the filling, fold the far edge over it so the two masa edges meet and seal, then tuck both ends underneath to make a flat parcel about 14 x 9 cm, and keep it flat, seam-side down; you will have 12, which is two apiece for six people.
13. 13 Put 5 cm of water in a tamalera or stockpot fitted with a rack, drop a coin into the water so that when the rattling stops you know the pot has run dry, and line the rack with softened leaf offcuts. Stack the tamales flat and seam-side down in 2-3 layers, cover them with more leaves and a folded tea towel, and put the lid on. Bring to a boil over high heat, then drop to medium-low to hold a steady, audible steam for 75-90 minutes, topping up only with boiling water, because cold water stalls the steam and leaves you a raw core. To test, pull one out, let it sit 5 minutes, and open it: the masa should lift cleanly off the leaf and be set, smooth and matte with no wet paste clinging, and if it clings, rewrap and steam 15 minutes more.
14. 14 Take the pot off the heat and leave the tamales in it, lid on, for 25-30 minutes before serving, because straight from live steam the masa is soft and gluey and will look like a failure that it isn't, and this rest is what sets the crumb. Serve them in their leaves, opened at the table, with the remaining mole reheated and loosened with a little of the leftover broth spooned over, the reserved toasted sesame scattered on top, the thin rings of raw white onion alongside, and a mug of champurrado or café de olla. They keep 4 days refrigerated and freeze for 3 months; re-steam 20 minutes from chilled, 35 from frozen, never in a microwave, which dries the masa to putty.

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