Recipe - Marks Red Chile Sauce

4 ounce Whole dried NM red chiles
2 ounce Whole dried ancho chiles
2 ounce Whole dried cascabel chiles
(if you don't have these,
use more of the other two)
2 Whole dried chipotle chiles
or chipotles in adobo sauce
1 teaspoon Adobo sauce
2 qt Water
1 pound Roma tomatoes
One half cup Chopped onion
1 tablespoon Olive oil
5 lg Cloves garlic; roasted,
peeled, and finely chopped
1 teaspoon Roasted ground cumin (the
toaster oven or broiler is
good, but pay attention,
this stuff burns only when
your back is turned!)
1 One half teaspoon Roasted ground Mexican
oregano
1 teaspoon Salt
2 tablespoon Peanut oil or (gag!) lard

I've also made several sauces that were in Mark Miller's _The Great Chile
Book_ and Rick Bayless's _Mexican Kitchen_ (mucho disclaimers), and at the
risk of some sore fingers, I'll type one up. It's pretty much verbatim
except for my comments in parentheses. Here goes:

Remove stems and seeds from chiles. Roast and rehydrate the chiles. (A good
variation is to collect the seeds and roast them in the dry skillet that
roasts the chiles. After they're brown and toasty, grind them up in a
coffee grinder and add the powder later to the sauce. After the seeds are
out, spread each chile flat on a dry skillet over medium heat. Mash it
really flat with a good spatula so that it crackles for a few seconds, then
flip it over and do the same for the other side. I do one at a time in the
pan. Don't burn them or they'll be bitter. Boil the water, remove the water
from the heat and dunk all the chiles I use just enough to cover them 2
qts water is overkill, and weigh them down with a plate. Let 'em soak for
about 30 mins.) (Back to copying)

Blacken the tomatoes in a skillet or under a broiler about 5 minutes.
Saute the onion in the olive oil over low heat until (just) browned. Put
chiles in a blender (food processor) and add the blackened tomatoes, onion,
garlic, cumin oregano, and salt. Add 1 cup of the reserved (chilesoak)
liquid (if it's not bitter, else use some water or chicken stock). Puree
all this to a fine smooth paste, adding more chile water, water, or chicken
stock as necessary.

(OK, stop, time out! When I make any of these rehydratethechilesauces, I
_know_ that I can't get the chile skins chopped smoothly enough to where
they won't find hideouts in my teeth. So, I put them with their soaking
juice (when I'm not sipping the stuff ooooh, is that good!) into the
blender first. After it's all blended, I push the mash through a medium
sized sieve, so that the skin bits and any old hard seeds stay out of the
sauce. Now, add the other stuff and carry on.)

Add oil or lard to a highsided pan (I use a dutch oven, because of the
spatter factor), and heat the oil until almost smoking. (Pouring all the
sauce in at once, preferably from a sauce pan with a good handle) Refry
sauce at a sizzle for 3 to 5 minutes, stirring continuously. Do not allow
sauce to get too thick (It's ready when it wants to coat a spoon): add
water as necessary. Sauce can be kept for up to 1 week in the refrigerator.
(End of copy)

This sauce is very good and tasty. If you're loaded down with dried NM
chiles, this is a good place to start. There's lots more to try and if you
don't have the books, I'll be glad to occasionally post one. Enough
bandwidth guzzling for now. Good luck!

Posted to CHILEHEADS DIGEST V4 #153 by sto_tolin@ONLINE.EMICH.EDU on Oct
08, 1997