What is mole sauce?

Mole (say MOH-lay) is a family of Mexican sauces built on chiles, most often dried. They're toasted, soaked, blended smooth with other things, then cooked down until the sauce is thick, dark and glossy. The name comes from the Nahuatl word mōlli, which just means sauce, so it has nothing to do with the animal digging up your lawn. When one of our labels says "moles", it means this sauce, and the ancho is the chile it's built on.

What goes in

Every mole starts with dried chiles. Then something to thicken it: nuts, seeds, sometimes bread or a stale tortilla. Something sweet: dried fruit, and sometimes a little chocolate. Warm spices like cinnamon and clove. Then tomato or tomatillo, onion, garlic and stock. It all gets blended, fried in hot fat and simmered.

Does mole have chocolate?

Chocolate is the part everyone has heard of, and it's the part people get wrong. Not every mole has it, and where it's used it sits in the background. A mole should taste of chile first.

A few you'll see on menus:

• Mole poblano. The one most people meet first. Dark reddish-brown: a mix of dried chiles, ancho among them, with chocolate, nuts and spices. "Poblano" means "from Puebla".
• Mole negro. A Oaxacan one, darker still, close to black.
• Mole rojo. Red, as the name says.
• Mole verde. Green, built on fresh green chiles, tomatillos and herbs instead of dried chiles, thickened with masa or pumpkin seeds.

Where our chiles come in

Mole isn't meant to be a hot sauce. Ancho and guajillo are both Calm. Árbol is there if you want it to bite: 2 g of it carries about as much heat as the whole 28 g of ancho.

A weeknight mole

This isn't mole poblano, which takes a day and a long shopping list. It's the honest Tuesday version: same idea, one evening.

Our chiles: Ancho 28 g (the whole pack) · Guajillo 7 g (half a pack), optional · Chile de Árbol 2 g, optional Pantry: 2 cups / 475 ml hot water · 2 tbsp / 30 ml neutral oil · ½ cup chopped white onion · 1 tbsp minced garlic · ½ cup / 120 ml crushed tomatoes · 2 tbsp raisins · 2 tbsp smooth peanut butter · ¼ tsp ground cinnamon · ¼ tsp ground cumin · ⅛ tsp ground cloves · 1½ cups / 360 ml chicken stock (1 cup for the sauce, the rest for blending or thinning) · 15 g / ½ oz dark chocolate · 1 tsp fine salt · 1–2 tsp cider vinegar Allergens: peanuts. Dark chocolate and boxed stock can carry milk, soy or wheat, so check the labels. The serving ideas add sesame, cheese (milk) and egg.

1. Wipe and stem the pods. Slit them open. Seeds and veins come out of the ancho and guajillo. The veins hold most of a chile's heat, but these two are mild to begin with, and the seeds scorch and won't blend. On the árbol, leave the veins in (the seeds come along with them) if you want heat, and take them out for a milder sauce. Wash your hands after the árbol, or wear gloves, and keep them away from your eyes.
2. Toast in a dry pan over medium heat, 30 seconds a side, pressing flat, until they blister, darken a shade and the kitchen smells of raisins and toast. Turn the fan on. Árbol in a hot pan will make you cough. Árbol is thin: 15 seconds a side. If one goes black, throw it out.
3. Soak for 20 minutes in the hot water, with the raisins in too. Hold everything under with a small plate.
4. Meanwhile, soften the onion in 1 tbsp oil until soft and sweet, not browned. Add the garlic for the last minute.
5. Blend the drained chiles and raisins with the onion, garlic, tomatoes, peanut butter, spices and ½ cup / 120 ml of the soaking water. Taste the water first: if it's bitter, use stock instead. Run the blender a full minute. If it's still hot, fill the blender no more than halfway, take the centre cap out and hold a folded towel over the hole. Strain it if you want it smooth.
6. Fry the sauce. Heat the other 1 tbsp oil in a deep pan over medium-high until it shimmers, then pour the purée in all at once. It will spit, so stand back, or hold a lid in front of you. Once it settles, turn it to medium and stir until it darkens a shade and thickens to a paste.
7. Add 1 cup of the stock, the chocolate and ½ tsp of the salt. Turn it to low and simmer, stirring often, until it coats the back of a spoon and a finger drawn through it leaves a clean line.
8. Taste. If it's flat, add the rest of the salt, then vinegar a teaspoon at a time. Thin it with stock if it gets too thick.

Cool to room temperature within two hours (spread it in a shallow dish so it does). Clean jar, fridge, four days. Label it with the date. Freeze it if you won't get through it, thaw it in the fridge, and bring it back to a simmer before you serve it.

What goes wrong

• It's bitter. A chile went too far in the pan, or sat in the soak far too long. Sugar and chocolate won't cover it. Start again. It's cheaper than serving it.
• It tastes like chocolate sauce. Too much chocolate, or not enough salt and acid holding it up. Salt first, then vinegar. Next time use less chocolate.
• It's gritty. You left seeds in the ancho or guajillo, cut the blend short, or skipped the sieve.
• It's flat, muddy and heavy. It wants salt and acid, not sugar. Add ¼ tsp salt and 1 tsp vinegar, taste, and repeat.
• It's scorched on the bottom. Thick sauce catches. Turn the heat down, run a flat spatula along the bottom of the pan, and don't scrape the burnt layer back in. Pour the sauce into a clean pan and carry on.

What to make with it

• Chicken in mole. Spooned over poached or roasted chicken, cooked to 165°F / 74°C in the thickest part, with rice and sesame seeds.
• Enmoladas. Warm corn tortillas dipped in the sauce, folded, with raw onion and crumbled cheese on top.
• Breakfast. Over fried eggs and beans.