Chocolate-tinged red enchilada sauce

 This recipe makes a pretty traditional Mexican red enchilada sauce but the addition of some dark chocolate (I used the fantastic organic sea salt chocolate from Canadian chocolate company Xauxa) gives it a little more richness and depth.

Yield: 4 cups

Ingredients:

8 ancho chiles
2 pasilla chiles
3 guajillo chiles
1 medium onion quartered
2 plum or 1 large tomato
3 cloves garlic (skin on)
1/2 tsp Mexican oregano
1/2 tsp marjoram
3 tbsp canola or avocado oil
20 g Xuaxa sea salt dark chocolate, chopped
salt to taste

Method:

Wipe chiles clean and remove stems and seeds. Dry roast them in a hot pan or on a comal (no oil) for about 10 or 15 seconds each side. Don’t let them burn or your sauce will be bitter.  Soak chiles in a bowl of boiled water for about 20 minutes to soften.

Roast the onion, tomatoes, and garlic in the pan or on comal. Let the garlic cool and remove the skin.

Put the soaked chiles, onion, tomatoes, garlic, oregano and marjoram into a blender. (Save the chile soaking water). Blend all of it until smooth, about 3 minutes. It’ll feel like it’s a very long time but your patience will pay off with a silky smooth sauce. If sauce seems too thick add a small amount of the chile soaking water.

 

Heat two tablespoons of cooking oil in a medium sized pot.  Pour the sauce into the pot to fry it (be careful of potential spitting as the liquid hits the hot oil). Add the chopped chocolate and stir it into the sauce. Reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes until the sauce has thickened. It will also turn a deeper shade of red. Check and stir occasionally to make sure it doesn’t stick. The sauce is ready when it coats the back of a spoon.

Add salt to taste.

Allow the sauce to sit for at least 2 hours so that the flavours can marry.

Once your sauce is ready, use it to make your favourite enchiladas rojos. I pretty much guarantee no matter how you choose to make your enchilada that this sauce will be better than most. It will keep in the fridge for about 5 days or freeze it for use anytime.

 © Gail J Cohen 2020

Blow your socks off 7-pot chocolate chile and honey BBQ sauce

What's the point of growing chiles in your garden if you aren't going to experiment with crazy sauces? This one uses 7-pot chocolate chiles (aka: 7 Pot Douglah), which is one of the hottest peppers in the world coming in at about 2 million on the Scoville scale. It's got a fruity nutty flavour but mostly these chiles are just fiery - as is this bbq sauce.

If you like hot chicken wings, this is the sauce for you!

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Yield: About 500 ml or 2 cups.

Ingredients:

2 finely chopped 7-pot chocolate chiles/habaneros/carolina reapers etc
(use 1 if you are not in the mood to remove layers from inside your mouth and throat 😊)
2 cups ketchup
½ cup cider vinegar
¼ cup packed brown sugar
2 tbsp honey (raw is best)
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp lime juice
3-4 drops liquid smoke
½ tsp black pepper
½ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp onion powder
1 tsp kosher salt
¼ cup of water

Method:

Mix the black pepper, garlic and onion powders and the kosher salt in the ¼ cup of water and stir it up making sure there’s no clumps.

Stir chopped chiles, ketchup, honey, vinegar and brown sugar together in a pot over medium heat until it’s smooth.

Add the Worcestershire sauce, liquid smoke, lime juice and water with the seasoning to the chile and ketchup mixture in the pot and stir thoroughly. Bring to the boil and then reduce heat to low. Simmer for about 20 minutes. If it’s too thick for your liking, add a bit more water.

Remove from heat and let cool. It will keep in the fridge for a few weeks if put into sterilized glass containers. Also freezes well.

© 2020 Gail J Cohen