chipotle sauce

It was definitely time to try a new enchilada sauce.  This sauce goes with an enchilada recipe I'll be posting shortly.  I decided to throw out the chile powders for this one and use actual dried chiles.  Chipotles are a spicy, smoky dried chile that work in a lot of dishes.  This one worked well with the addition of a little cinnamon and some oregano. 

The veg route:
So we have some friends who are vegetarians and great cooks.  They shared this bouillon with us and it works pretty well.  When simmering the dried chiles on the stove, I put a small teaspoon full this base into 2 cups of water.  It helps flavor the chile water (which you'll use later on to thin out the sauce).  It's a little salty so get to know it before you use it in place of regular chicken broth.  If you want to go the veg route, I do suggest this.

Ingredients:
4-6 chipotles (the dry ones, number varies depending on how hot you want it)
1 guajillo chile
1 small onion, chopped coarsely
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 can tomato sauce
oregano, cinnamon, white wine, salt for taste. 

Stem and rinse chiles.  Remove any seeds that you can.  Put chiles in a pot with 2 cups of broth (vegetarian, regular...).  Throw in the onion and garlic.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes.   When soft, pull out seeds and place in blender with tomato sauce with 1/2 cup of chile water.  Process until smooth adding chile water until desired consistency is reached. 
After this step, I put the sauce onto the stove in a sauce pot and add a dash of cinnamon, 1 t. finely ground oregano and 2 T. white wine.  Simmer for a few minutes tasting the sauce until it tastes right.  If you get it terribly hot, you could always add some more tomato sauce or if it's too mild you can add some dried chile powder. 

Enjoy!

Enchilada Sauce

A nice and spicy red sauce is a great thing. There are a variety of recipes out there, most of which involve dried chiles and a blender. I like those recipes, but I'm often too lazy to toast chiles and I always hate washing the blender. So in searching for an easy enchilada sauce that could replace canned sauces (which always have too much salt and often MSG- which can trigger migraines for those who suffer), I found Emeril's Easy Enchilada Sauce Recipe.

It's a nice recipe that's hard to mess up and very fun to adapt. If you make it, don't make the same mistake I did. I don't use 'chili powder' so I instead used 'red chile (in a powder form).' The former is a blend of spices while the latter, well, is pure chile. My wife and I love spice so we ate it (with a lot of sour cream), but I wouldn't advise it.

There are a lot of benefits to using dried chile. The major one for me is that you have a lot of control over each element and it's easy to blend flavors. We are lucky enough to be a short walk from a great local grocery store that specializes in mostly Asian foods. Their wall of spices is pretty great. So if you're lucky enough to have access to more than just cayenne or 'chili powder', I would encourage some experimenting.

One final note has to do with adding wine to the sauce. I frequently add dry white wine to my enchilada and tomato sauces. It adds a nice flavor and helps you cut down significantly on the amount of salt that's needed. This was a great discovery and I do it all the time now.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 T. guajillo chile powder
1 1/2 T. ancho chile powder
1 t. cayenne chile powder
(You can substitute other chile powders but keep in mind that different chile powders have different heat levels so it's necessary to modify to your tastes).
1/2 T. cumin
1/2 T. black pepper
2 t. oregano (crushed finely)
1 t. coriander
1 t. garlic powder
1 t. onion powder
1/4 t. cinnamon

2 T. cornstarch
1/4 c. vegetable oil
1 small can tomato paste

4 c. chicken broth
1/2 cup dry white wine
Salt to taste

Whisk dry spices together in a small bowl. Heat oil in a large sauce pan or tall skillet. Add cornstarch and stir for about a minute. Add dry chile mix and cook for 3o sec - 1 minute (watch your nose!). The longer you let the chile powder cook, the more aromatic the sauce becomes, just be careful not to burn.

Add tomato paste and broth and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and cook for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sauce has thickened.
With about five minutes left, add white wine and stir well. Add salt as desired. If you start with a chicken broth made from bouillon, which is often pretty salty, you may not need any extra salt. If you're using a home-made chicken stock, extra salt will be necessary.