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Enchilada Sauce

Red Enchilada Sauce

This a deeply flavored sauce for your enchiladas that takes about 30 minutes to prepare.

Enough for a batch of 6 enchiladas

INGREDIENTS

  • ancho chili: 1 whole dried chili
  • tomato puree (British: passata):  500g/500mL/2 cups
  • onion: .5 of medium onion, peeled and cut in 2 slices, root to tip
  • garlic: 1 whole clove, peeled, crushed flat
  • salt: .5 tsp
  • dried oregano: 1 tsp
  • cumin, 1 tsp
  • lime, juice of half of a lime
  • sugar: 2 tsp

STEPS

  1. Heat a medium-sized sauce pan over medium-high heat. (6 out of 10). Separately, prepare a large cup of almost boiling temperature water.
  2. Toasting: Once the sauce pan is heated, toast the whole, dried chili on each side for 30-45 seconds.  Remove the chili and add to the hot water.  Add the onion slices and garlic to the pan.  Char for 4 minutes, turning once, then remove from heat.  Keep the saucepan aside.  After the chili has soaked for 5-10 minutes, remove from the water, remove and throw away the top stem end and the seeds inside.  Roughly chop the chili.
  3. Blend: Add tomato puree, toasted ingredients, salt, oregano, and cumin to a blender.  (Optional: if you find the toasted chilies make the sauce too bitter, add the 1 tsp of sugar to mellow out). Start  the blender slow, and then increase to higher speed for 3 minutes total.
  4. Cook:  Add blender contents into the sauce pan and bring to a simmer.  Cook for 20 minutes, then squeeze in lime juice.
  5. Use or Store:  Use immediately for my Quick Enchiladas, Classic Enchiladas or store in the fridge for a few days–this is also great spooned over omelettes and scrambled eggs.