The story behind this sauce tells of two nuns surprised by a visitor. They had little in the way of food and so they used a molcajete to grind every ingredient they could find and simmered it in liquid until it thickened into a sauce.
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Ingredients:
- 12 guajillo chiles, roasted, skinned, stemmed and seeded
- 3 tomatoes, roasted and peeled
- 1/4 cup lard
- 1 onion, peeled and sliced
- 8 garlic cloves
- 1 stick of cinnamon torn into small pieces
- 1 tablespoon Mexican oregano
- 1/4 cup unsalted peanuts or unsweetened peanut butter
- 1 clove
- 1/4 cup masa
- 1 teaspoon cocoa powder
- 1/4 teaspoon thyme
- 1/4 teaspoon anise seeds
- 1/4 cup raisins, soaked in water to soften (optional)
- 3 peppercorns
- 4 cups chicken broth
Preparation:
Note: The traditional way is to mash all of the ingredients except the broth, with a molcajete (mortar and pestle) but a blender will also do the job just fine.
Heat the lard in a large saucepan. Add in the onions and garlic and cook until translucent. In a blender, puree the peanuts then add in the oregano, cinnamon, anise, peppercorns, thyme and cloves and blend with the tomatoes. Puree to make a smooth paste. Add in the onions and garlic and puree again. Finally, add chiles to blender to puree into a smooth paste.
Add the chicken broth to the pot and add the pureed ingredients. Make a roux, by mixing the masa with a 1/4 cup of the chicken broth. Mix the roux into the broth and whisk until mixture is smooth. Add the pureed ingredients and simmer for 1 hour, covered and then simmer uncovered until sauce has thickened.
