How should I use Mole Amarillo Powder?

Question

On a recent trip to Oaxaca, Mexico, I bought an unlabelled bag of mole amarillo (yellow mole) powder from a spice vendor. I neglected to ask them how it should be used in recipes. While I'm used to working with mole negro paste, this is the first time I've dealt with a powdered mole. Also, the resulting consistency for mole amarillo is different from mole negro or coloradito -- it's more souplike.

I'm not sure how to use this in a recipe. Among my questions are:

• How much powder should I use for one 2-3L pot?
• Should I use water or stock?
• How much water/stock should I add to the powder?
• Do I boil it before adding any meat/vegetables to the mole, or do I just use it right away? If I cook it first, for how long?

I've looked up some commercially available mole amarillo powders online, but they all have rather vague instructions, and none are consistent with each other. Any experienced advice, from someone who has actually used one?

Answer 1

I have found (through my own experimentation) that:

Use about the same volume of powder as water or stock.

Water or stock can be used.

Flavor is less assertive than mole negro, so milder dishes - shrimp, not carne asada ....

But I could be wrong on any if these. If so, let me know at hkerfoot_at_gmail.com. I was just gifted 2 500-gram bags of powder!