Recipe - Chipotle Red Sauce (Corrected)

5 Dried chipotle chiles; (see
note)
2 Dried new mexico red chiles
1 Dried ancho chile
6 Cloves garlic; unpeeled
1 One half cup Water OR chile water; (see
below)
Three fourths teaspoon Salt
6 tablespoon Cider vinegar
1 teaspoon Unsweetened cocoa
2 tablespoon Dark brown sugar
One fourth teaspoon Ground cumin
1 cup Fresh orange juice
One fourth teaspoon Ground cloves
One half teaspoon Ground cayenne

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Stem and slit all the dried chiles, removing
half the seeds. (For a milder sauce, remove all the seeds.) Roast the
chiles in the oven just until you smell them, about 3 minutes maximum.
Submerge them in a pot of hot water and soak until softened, about 20
minutes. While the chiles are soaking, turn oven up to 500 degrees. Roast
the garlic on a baking sheet for 20 minutes, then peel.

Taste the chile water. If it's not bitter, use it instead of water. Combine
the chiles, garlic chile water, salt, vinegar, cocoa, sugar, cumin, orange
juice, cloves, and One fourth teaspoon cayenne in blender and puree. Taste, and
add an additional One fourth teaspoon cayenne if greater heat is desired. Pour
into sterilized bottle and seal. Refrigerated, the sauce will keep
approximately 8 weeks. Makes 3 cups.

Note: You may substitute canned chipotles in adobo, which will make
roasting and soaking unnecessary. Lift the chipotles from the sauce, but
don't rinse, as the adobo adds flavor.

The cocoaborrowed from Mexican mole saucesdoesn't sweeten the sauce;
rather, it adds a mellowness that, combined with the orange juice, takes
the sometimes bitter edge off the dried chiles.

This sauce has great range: it is "big" enough to be used as a marinade for
grilled meats and is also a fine steak sauce that's not too sweet. Not
particularly searing, it is also a wonderful dipping accompaniment to
grilled chicken and fish. My favorite dish for this sauce, however, is
Fajitas , where the onions, peppers, steak, and warm tortillas come alive
with the smokey chipotles.

Hot Licks by Jennifer Trainer Thompson, Chronicle Books,1994; ISBN:
8811805751

Recipe by: Jennifer Trainer Thompson_Hot Licks_1994

Posted to recipeludigest by Badams adamsfmle@sprintmail.com on Feb 20,
1998