Red Chile Sauce: New Mexico's Mother Sauce

Ingredients

• 8–10 dried red New Mexico chile pods, stems and seeds removed, rehydrated in hot water
• 2 cloves garlic, raw, peeled
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp Mexican oregano (Lippia graveolens), not Mediterranean oregano
• 30 ml lard or neutral oil
• to taste salt, added after cooking only

Method

1. 1
   Remove stems and seeds from the dried red chile pods. Cover with hot water and soak until the flesh is fully supple and the skins yield without resistance when pressed.
2. 2
   Transfer the rehydrated chiles to a blender with the raw garlic, cumin, and Mexican oregano. Add enough of the soaking liquid to allow the blades to run freely. Blend to a smooth purée. Pass through a sieve if the skins have not broken down completely — the purée should be uniformly smooth with no visible flecks of skin.
3. 3
   Heat the lard or neutral oil in a heavy pan over medium heat. Add the chile purée all at once — it will spatter. This is the step on which the dish lives or dies: fry the purée, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes. The fat cooking concentrates the sauce, deepens its colour slightly, and drives off the raw chile note entirely. The sauce is ready when its colour has shifted to a deeper brick-red and it no longer smells raw.
4. 4
   Remove from heat. Season with salt. The finished sauce should coat a wooden spoon — thicker than a broth, thinner than a paste. Adjust consistency with soaking liquid if required.