Post by Coyote on Aug 29, 2005 0:05:22 GMT -5
This is red enchilada sauce. The corn tortillas set off the taste so that it tastes better with them than without. We eat very spicy stuff, but I’ve cut the amount of red chili in half and it will still be too hot for most. I advise that you cut the chili in half again as a starting point to see where you like it – as prepared below it is very hot. We use the normal American red chili (Sam’s Club) rather than stronger red chili that you might get at a specialty store (such as an Indian store). From the cookbook, it seems that there are various qualities of red chilli powder and they taste differently. (The author suggests you experiment until you find the one you like.) This is from “The Feast of Santa Fe” by Huntley Dent. It is such a good cookbook. Huntley Dent is a southerner, who loves Indian cuisine and wrote a cookbook on Santa Fe cooking – perfect for my tastes. In our simplest use, we just put Monterrey Jack cheese in corn tortillas, put the sauce over it and microwave it (that’s after the sauce has cooked as below). (The cheese is melted.) I usually make 2 or 2.5 times this recipe and refrigerate it – it doesn’t last long enough here to freeze it. We eat it every day until it’s finished. I’m going to try it on Karen’s enchiladas listed below.
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 to 4 tablespoons onion, finely chopped (I multiply this by 1.5)
1 clove garlic, peeled and finely chopped (I multiply this by 2)
¼ teaspoon oregano (I multiply this by 1.5)
1 teaspoon whole or powdered cumin (I multiply this by 1.5)
2 tablespoons flour
¼ cup powdered red chilies (originally ½ cup)
2 ½ cups water
½ to 1 teaspoon salt (it needs more salt if you prefer cooked salt to uncooked salt)
Heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and garlic. Saute for 5 minutes (onion should be translucent and turning yellow) Add oregano, cumin and flour. Stir constantly while cooking. Cook until this mixture bubbles up and begins to turn a very light brown (about three minutes). Remove from heat.
Separately: mix powdered chilies and water until smoothly blended. Pour them into the flour-onion paste. Stir to prevent lumps (use wire whisk). Return to medium heat and bring to boiling point. Reduce to simmer as soon as it starts to really boil. Simmer 2 or 3 minutes more. (I simmer longer than this but it’s because I thought it said to cook it longer.) Stir it to keep lumps from forming and to keep the chilies from burning – they burn easily. Add salt. (It should be thick enough to nap a spoon thickly.)
Huntley Dent’s directions take up a full page in the book – that is in addition to the list of ingredients, so he goes into a lot more detail.
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 to 4 tablespoons onion, finely chopped (I multiply this by 1.5)
1 clove garlic, peeled and finely chopped (I multiply this by 2)
¼ teaspoon oregano (I multiply this by 1.5)
1 teaspoon whole or powdered cumin (I multiply this by 1.5)
2 tablespoons flour
¼ cup powdered red chilies (originally ½ cup)
2 ½ cups water
½ to 1 teaspoon salt (it needs more salt if you prefer cooked salt to uncooked salt)
Heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and garlic. Saute for 5 minutes (onion should be translucent and turning yellow) Add oregano, cumin and flour. Stir constantly while cooking. Cook until this mixture bubbles up and begins to turn a very light brown (about three minutes). Remove from heat.
Separately: mix powdered chilies and water until smoothly blended. Pour them into the flour-onion paste. Stir to prevent lumps (use wire whisk). Return to medium heat and bring to boiling point. Reduce to simmer as soon as it starts to really boil. Simmer 2 or 3 minutes more. (I simmer longer than this but it’s because I thought it said to cook it longer.) Stir it to keep lumps from forming and to keep the chilies from burning – they burn easily. Add salt. (It should be thick enough to nap a spoon thickly.)
Huntley Dent’s directions take up a full page in the book – that is in addition to the list of ingredients, so he goes into a lot more detail.
