Oaxaca City-style Mole

Richer and sweeter than the preceding Mole Negro de Teotitlán, this Oaxaca City version is the pinnacle of the Spanish-Zapotec culinary art. It was one of the first Oaxacan dishes I learned, from the well-known cooking teacher Marfa Concepcion Portillo de Carballido.

In this Mole Negro, the black color comes not so much from toasting the chiles until dark but because the chiles themselves—chilhuacles negros—are black. Doña Concepcion did not toast the chiles to the same dark, brittl