Ask Zarela: What is your favorite processor for Mexican sauces?

Photo by Manu Bastien

I recently found this question in my “to do” folder and I apologize for not answering it sooner.

Question: What food processing machine is best for making Mexican sauces?

Answer: There is not one machine that can magically help you produce a smooth mole, a nut paste or a chunky tomatillo sauce. Virtually all moles and related sauces rest on a grinding/puréeing process that is really several processes. But the metal blades of our appliances neither crush nor mash — they cut and rip.

Supposedly primitive Mexican tools like the rough stone metates or molcajetes (mortars) can combine the necessary actions better than any simple modern electric appliance.  They crush whole spices as efficiently as they mash moist ingredients. of course they ruin your manicure and only the molcajete is practical in a typical US kitchen, but only if it’s already been amansado or broken in. It is an arduous process achieved by grinding rice or beans repeatedly until all the lava holes are broken down and the surface is completely smooth. There are some commercial ones made of other stones now but sometimes they are too smooth and a lack the soul of the original because you don’t have to work hard to make it yours

One of my all-time favorite gifts is a molcajete amansado given to me by one of the great cooks in Veracruz, Dona Carmen Virues de izaguirre of Xico, Veracruz.  I can occasionally still smell her particular sazon when I use it.

But you can use a combination of equipment that work well if you use them for what they work best:

A small electric coffee or spice grinder. This easily reduces canela (soft-stick Mexican cinnamon), cloves, peppercorns, allspice, and dried herbs to a fresh, fragrant powder that can be smoothly combined with other ingredients.  My recipes almost always call for whole spices separately ground in this way, or with a mortar and pestle. I can’t overstate how much better the freshly ground ones are.

A heavy-duty electric blender should be the only appliance you use for puréeing dried soaked chiles.  you will need to add some liquid (as specified in the recipes) to encourage the blending action.  The advantage is that the short, stubby blades purée soaked ancho, guajillo, and similar chiles more successfully than the curved blades of a food processor.  They also much better for emulsifying all ingredients in juicy mixtures with tomatoes, tomatillos and onions.  Just be aware that when working with large quantities of sauce, you will have to blend in batches, a few cups at a time.  This can slow you down quite a bit. Though it is expensive when compared to other brands the VitaMix turbo blender is a tremendous time saver because it purees so thoroughly tha you don’t havee to pass the mixture through a sieve.  It is also the only machine I know that can turn dried corn into flour for my delicious pimpo cookies.

A food processor is great for grinding dried toasted chiles, dried fruits, sesame seeds, other nuts and seeds.  So to help avoid doing endless batches of more complex mole basics in the blender, you can split up the task by using the food processor to handle such ingredients and combining them with others that have been separately processed in a blender.

Another piece of equipment that you will need i you don’t have aVitaMix blender is a  sturdy medium-mesh sieve — or several — and a good pulsing implement.  Merely whirling a mixture in a blender or processor won’t necessarily give it the right finish for a Mexican sauce.  Often the texture must be made even smoother.   If you can find an old-fashioned wooden pusher (the kind shaped like a stubby pestle), it is ideal but a flat wooden spoon also works well.  This is one part of the process that takes elbow grease.  Push and rub to force through every bit you can; discard all the hard or stringy bits that remain in the sieve.  Be sure not to use a fine sieve — it will be too fine.