New Mexico Red Sauce -- this travels very well!

[profdant139]

Someone mentioned New Mexico red sauce in another thread – thought I would post this. It travels well – make it at home. It is a great addition to meat, chicken, fish, soup, eggs, anything but ice cream.

If you have suggestions about improving this recipe, please post them!! I am always experimenting.

Anyway, here we go:


Old Prof Dan’s New Mexico Salsa Roja

Get a half pound of dried New Mexico chiles at any well-stocked Mexican market. Try to pick out chiles that are not twisted or cracked.

Wearing disposable rubber gloves, clean the chiles.

Cleaning: this is a lot of work (but it results in a less spicy sauce!!). Don’t rinse them yet. Cut off (or break off) the stems. Slice each one lengthwise. Open the pieces and clean out the seeds and interior fibers. Discard any moldy pieces. Rinse them all in a colander to get rid of the dust.

Now that the cleaning is done, soaking. Put them into a large glass or porcelain bowl or casserole. Pour in two quarts of boiling water, and let them sit for at least 15 min. The goal is to rehydrate them to the texture of wet leather and to wash away some of the bitterness. Push them down into the water. When the chiles are limp, drain the water and rinse the chiles.

Saute one sliced medium onion, till it is limp and slightly charred. Put the onion, the wet chiles, several garlic cloves (cooked or raw, depending on your tolerance), 1 t cumin powder, 1 or 2 t oregano, and one T of tahini (surprise!!) into a blender or food processor. (Cumin seeds make the best powder: toast lightly for 90 sec. and crush in a mortar.)

Pulse the mix until it is pureed, as smooth as possible. Depending on how powerful your food processor is, this could take a while. Dribble in water, about 1.5 cups, until it has the desired consistency – between runny and gloppy. (Some folks use chicken stock – it’s worth a try!) Finally, add salt as needed, a quarter teaspoon at a time – a half pound of chiles took about one teaspoon of salt.

Some folks now simmer the whole thing for 15 minutes. I don’t. Some folks strain the puree – I don’t. Some folks serve this with plain Greek yogurt to cut the heat – I don’t.

I'm looking forward to hearing your variations and ideas!

[profdant139]

I'll try a little vinegar --thanks for the tip!!

[SDcampowneroper]

We made up this sauce with the original recipe. Did not like it at first decided to give it a little vinegar for preservative, and time to mellow. Its wonderful now!

[NMDriver2]

Instead of sauce make a jam. Clean the chili as you recommend, then boil them for 20 minutes to soften the skin if you are using dried chili (I use roasted fresh with the skin, seeds, and vein removed). Chop or puree in a blender as you recommend. Pour the puree into a deep pot and cover with apple cider vinegar, add a package of lemon kool aide or the juice of 4-5 lemons. Start the mix to boiling and then add twice as much sugar as you have puree/vinegar in the pot. You can add one package of pectin if you want a more jam like result or leave it out and have a runnier result (runny works good on waffles, ice cream, etc.) You let it boil until it begins to thicken enough to sheet off of a spoon. Most of the time this takes another 15-20 minutes depending on how much water/vinegar is used.

We have made red sauce but we can buy the sauce from local restaurants by the quart and it is better than we make at home 🙂

We also dehydrate the fresh red chili after cleaning and that can be re-hydrated for sandwiches, recipes etc. or just eaten like jerky with a slice of cheese.