Salsa de Chili Chipotle y Jitomate

[ExtraMSG]

Salsa de Chile Chipotle y Jitomate

This recipe is from the Mexican Table Salsas course, in the eCGI.

A wonderful distinction between Mexican and Italian tomato sauces, besides the heavy use of chiles, is that Mexicans usually fry, rather than simmer, their sauces. In just five minutes, a tomato sauce will darken and develop a rich, sweet depth of flavor and lose the bitterness of its dried chiles.

The rich, sweet, and smoky flavor of this salsa goes especially well with beef and pork and even makes a good base for a stew. The recipe also highlights the use of dried chiles. Substituting another dried chile for the chipotle would drastically change its character and the recipe simply begs for experimentation. This is an adaptation from Rick Bayless' book Mexican Kitchen (p 34).

• 3/4 lb or 2-3 medium to large tomatoes
  
• 2 cloves garlic with skin
  
• 1 chipotle, preferably dried
  
• 1 T lard
  
• Salt
  

Char and soften the tomatoes, garlic, and chile on a comal or using one of the substitute methods (broiler method pictured below for the tomatoes). The tomatoes should be mottled-black and squishy. The garlic should be soft and the chipotle quite pliable.

Try not to burn the chile. It should be slightly darkened and fragrant, reminiscent of the smell of a campfire. It's worse to burn the chile than to not toast it at all. The toasting wakes the chile's flavors, but burning it will turn the chile violently bitter. The chipotle should finish well before the garlic and tomatoes. You can press down on the chile with a spatula to cook it more quickly and evenly. On medium heat, it should only take a minute at most on each side to liven the chile.

With other larger chiles, such as guajillos and anchos, you can cut off the stem, slice up the side and spread the chile into a broad, single-layer piece for toasting. This also allows you to remove the veins and seeds. If your chiles are too brittle, you'll need to soften them on the comal first; it only takes a few seconds of toasting.

Place the chile in a bowl of tepid water, topping it with something to keep it submerged. After about 20 minutes, the chile will be re-hydrated, softened so it can be easily pureed, and some of its bitter taste will have been removed.

Place the tomatoes, garlic (skins removed), and chile into a blender and pulse. Try to leave some texture, simulating the chunkiness created in the molcajete. Put a pan on medium-high heat. The salsa will splatter as it's fried, so something deep is preferable. Ceramic-coated dutch ovens work perfectly for this purpose, but any heavy saucepan is fine, too. When the pan is heated, add the lard and let it get almost smoking-hot. Add the salsa, stirring occasionally until it turns a deep red, about 5 to 10 minutes. You want it to slightly thicken but not dry out. Salt to taste. Makes about 1 cup.

Keywords: Dip, Condiment, eGCI

( RG936 )