Enchilada Sauce

So we are huge fans of Mexican food and are often trying to create authentic, restaurant quality food at home. Sometimes we succeed, sometimes we come short. Well the other night we decided to make Enchiladas; corn tortillas? check, ground beef? check, cheese? check, sauce... umm nope. Well, I guess the reason we didn't have any sauce is because we don't much care for the canned stuff anyway, but that's besides the point. What we do always have on hand are dried California Chili pods, we get them in the bulk section of our local store, however you can find them at most grocery stores in the Hispanic isle, or at specialty stores. We keep these around to make Tamales or enchilada sauce on the fly. Want to see one of the reasons why we make the sauce ourselves, aside from it tasting better? The ingredients in our sauce are as follows: dried California chili pods (or New Mexico chili pods), dried arbol peppers (or cayanne peppers), water, salt, garlic, dried oregano, cumin, and vegetable oil.

Here is the ingredients list for Old El Paso sauce,Water, Tomato Puree (Water, Tomato Paste), Modified Corn Starch, Dried Red Chilies, Soybean Oil, Sugar, Salt, Citric Acid, Onion Powder, Mono sodium Glutamate, Spice, Garlic Powder, Red Pepper, Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein (Corn, Soy And Wheat), Autolyzed Yeast Extract. Contains Wheat And Soy Ingredients.... wait, what?? Wheat and soy ingredients? Since when do chili peppers contain soy or wheat...oh wait, they don't. Anyway, getting off track here.

In making our own sauce we have a lot more flexibility. We can make it spicier (just add some more dried Cayenne peppers in with the California peppers), add some tomato body, runnier, thicker etc etc...the possibilities are endless. So with one base recipe and a few ingredients we are able to make this an incredibly versatile sauce in our kitchen.

Ingredients list:

8 dried California chili pods (or New Mexico chili pods)

6 dried arbol peppers (or cayanne peppers)

4 cups water

1tsp salt

1 clove garlic pressed

1tsp dried oregano

1/4 tsp cumin

1/4 cup vegetable oil.

The Process is easy. Take 8 California chile pods, cut off the stems and remove all the seeds. Cut into a few smaller pieces. Take 6 Arbol peppers (more or less depending on how spicy you want it), cut off the stems and remove all the seeds. Put in in a medium saucepan and cover with 4 cups of water. Heat water to boil, cover and remove from heat. Let pot sit for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, pour the water and peppers in a blender. Add 1/4 cup oil to blender. Add in the salt, oregano, cumin, and pressed garlic. Blend well.

There you go, mix it in with whatever meat you are making and reduce, and if making enchiladas, pour some of the sauce over the prepared tortillas and bake. Enjoy.