The Hot Sauce Cookbook (5 page)

“Son of Suchilquitongo” Salsa Verde

“SON OF SUCHILQUITONGO” SALSA VERDE

———
Makes 3½ cups
———

Here is a modern version of the ancient green salsas made by the Zapotecs in Suchilquitongo bowls. If you want to know what the ancient version tasted like, taste it before you add the garlic and lime juice. This is a great table sauce, as well as the perfect sauce for enchiladas verdes.

1 pound tomatillos, husked and washed

1 cup chopped fresh cilantro

3 fresh serrano chiles, stemmed, seeded, and minced

1 cup minced sweet onion

2 teaspoons minced garlic

Pinch of sugar

¼ cup freshly squeezed lime juice

Salt (preferably good-quality sea salt)

Put the cleaned tomatillos in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil, then turn off the heat and allow the tomatillos to soak for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, drain, and purée in a food processor. Add the cilantro, serranos, onion, garlic, sugar, and lime juice to the food processor and pulse three or four times to combine. Season with salt to taste. Serve immediately, or store in the refrigerator for up to a week.

ROASTED GREEN CHILE SAUCE

———
Makes about 6 cups
———

This is the traditional New Mexican–style green chile sauce. Add some chicken to make it into a stew, or pour it over your eggs for breakfast. Roast the chiles using the method
here
.

4 cups chicken stock (or substitute vegetable stock)

2 cups chopped
roasted
Anaheim chiles

5 tomatillos,
cooked
and puréed

2 teaspoons minced onion

1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano

1 garlic clove, minced

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon white pepper

2 tablespoons cornstarch dissolved in 2 tablespoons water

Combine the stock, chiles, tomatillo purée, onion, oregano, garlic, salt, and white pepper in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the cornstarch mixture and stir well. Cook until well thickened, 5 to 10 more minutes. Serve immediately, or store in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Green Eggs:
Ladle the warm sauce over two fried eggs on a warm plate and serve with refried beans and tortillas.

Chicken Chile:
Add 2 to 3 cups of chopped raw chicken meat and simmer until the chicken is fully cooked.

Green Chile Frito Pie:
Spread Fritos in a baking pan and ladle some sauce or Chicken Chile over them, then top with shredded cheese. Bake for a few minutes at 350°F or until the cheese melts.

Cooking Tomatillos

Remove the husks and rinse well. Simmer the tomatillos in barely boiling water for 7 to 10 minutes, or until they are soft. Alternatively, place the rinsed tomatillos on a hot grill and cook, turning frequently, for about 5 minutes or until they are soft but not bursting.

Easy Mole Poblano

EASY MOLE POBLANO

———
Makes 2 cups
———

There are many moles in Mexico—there are the proverbial seven moles of Oaxaca (
negro
,
colorado
,
amarillo
,
verde
,
chichilo
,
coloradito
, and
mancha manteles
), and there are fruit, nut, and herb moles. But when you mention mole, most people think of mole poblano, the dried chile mole with the chocolate in it. Recipes for authentic mole poblano can be found in many Mexican cookbooks; they may contain up to twenty-four ingredients and daunting techniques. If those recipes aren’t complicated enough, my friend chef Hugo Ortega at Hugo’s in Houston roasts his own cocoa beans and grinds his own chocolate for his mole. Mole makers seem to feel that the more arcane they can make the process, the better. One Mexican author says that to appreciate mole poblano, you have to share the Mexican love for the baroque.   
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Most Mexican home cooks buy ready-made mole paste in a Mexican market. There are also some excellent bottled brands being imported from Oaxaca. Or you can cheat. Here’s a simplified mole recipe that you can whip up in a few minutes. Your friends will be amazed—just go ahead and let them believe that it took all day.

2 ancho chiles

1 pasilla chile

1 guajillo chile

1½ cups chicken stock

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

¼ onion, sliced

2 tomatoes, quartered

1 ounce semisweet chocolate pieces

1 teaspoon tahini

1 teaspoon almond butter

1 tablespoon smooth peanut butter

½ teaspoon sugar

Salt

Stem and seed the chiles, tear them up, and put them into a saucepan with the chicken stock over medium heat. Bring to a boil and then turn off the heat and allow the chiles to soak for 10 minutes, or until soft. Remove the chiles and reserve the chicken stock.

In a saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and onion and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, ancho chile, pasilla chile, guajillo chile, chocolate, tahini, almond butter, peanut butter, sugar, and chicken stock. Simmer for 5 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a blender and purée until smooth. If the texture is still gritty, return the mole to the blender and purée again. Serve immediately, or use as a sauce for braised chicken or
chicken enchiladas
. Tightly sealed, this sauce will keep in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Chicken Enchiladas

CHICKEN ENCHILADAS

———
Makes 8 enchiladas; serves 4
———

Enchiladas are a great way to use up leftover chicken. It doesn’t matter if the chicken you use to stuff the tortillas is grilled, barbecued, boiled, or fried. Here’s a standard procedure for making chicken enchiladas—pick the sauce that you like best.

6 tablespoons olive oil

¼ cup diced onion

4 cups shredded cooked chicken, chopped

2 cups sauce, such as “Son of Suchilquitongo”
Salsa Verde
,
Roasted Green Chile Sauce
,
David Garrido’s Ancho-Tomatillo Sauce
, or
Easy Mole Poblano

8 corn tortillas

½ cup crumbled queso blanco, for garnish (optional)

2 tablespoons lightly toasted sesame seeds, for garnish (optional)

Preheat the oven to 300˚F. Grease a 9 by 13-inch baking dish.

In a skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until wilted, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the chicken and cook until the chicken is heated, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and place in a bowl with ½ cup of the sauce. Toss well and set aside.

Wipe out the skillet, add the remaining 4 tablespoons of olive oil, and place over medium heat. When the oil is hot, dip a tortilla into the oil and cook until soft, 10 to 15 seconds on each side. Drain on a paper towel. Repeat with the remaining tortillas.

Divide the chicken mixture evenly among the tortillas, roll them up, and tightly pack the rolled tortillas seam side down in the baking dish. Pour the remaining 1½ cups sauce over them.

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until bubbling hot. Remove from the oven and transfer to plates. If you have made green enchiladas, garnish with the queso blanco. If you have made mole enchiladas, garnish with a sprinkling of sesame seeds.

DAVID GARRIDO’S ANCHO-TOMATILLO SAUCE

———
Makes 2 cups
———

David Garrido has been a judge at the Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival for more than a decade. He is also the chef and owner of Garrido’s, an upscale taco stand and cocktail bar in Austin. David coauthored a cookbook with me,
Nuevo Tex-Mex
, in 1998. The book is now out of print, but it included this recipe for one of the tastiest tomatillo sauces of all time. The ancho-tomatillo combination was inspired by a similar sauce from Patricia Quintana.

4 tablespoons olive oil

½ medium onion, thinly sliced

1 serrano chile, stemmed, seeded, and minced

1 garlic clove, minced

6 tomatillos, husked and quartered

2 ancho chiles, stemmed and seeded

2 guajillo chiles, stemmed and seeded

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

¼ cup chicken stock

1 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until light brown, about 6 minutes. Add the serrano, garlic, tomatillos, anchos, guajillos, and chicken stock. Lower the heat and simmer until the chiles are soft, 5 to 7 minutes.

Transfer the mixture to a blender, add the cilantro, and purée until smooth. Strain and add salt to taste.

In another skillet over high heat, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil and carefully pour the sauce from the blender into the skillet; bring to a boil, 1 to 2 minutes.

Use immediately as a sauce for tacos or chicken enchiladas, or chill and serve as a table sauce. This sauce will keep in the refrigerator for up to a week.

MOLCAJETE SAUCE

———
Makes 2 to 3 cups
———

The recipe for this sauce originated in Northern Mexico where mesquite grilling has been the preferred cooking method since prehistoric times—tomatoes and chile peppers get a lovely char on the grill. As the name implies, this table sauce is traditionally made in the three-legged stone mortar and pestle called a
molcajete
. The stone mortar is considered superior to modern appliances for making salsas, guacamole, and other blended mixtures that need to retain some of their chunkiness. It’s also an attractive serving dish.   
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Molcajetes
must be seasoned before use as the porous lava rock usually contains a lot of grit. To season a
molcajete
, first rinse as much of the grit out as you can, then grind a couple of fresh chile peppers in it. Discard the pepper mash and put the
molcajete
in a hot oven or out in the sun until it dries it out. The
molcajete
always retains a little of the flavor of the last thing you ground up in it.