Title: Tamale Sauce
Categories: Spice Mexican Sauce
Yield: 1 Servings

		Dried ancho chiles
		Water
		Masa harina
		Lard
		Tomato sauce
		Tortillas
		Something for filling

SECRET SAUCE

Soak the dried chiles in warm water to cover for an hour. Remove stems and seeds. Put peppers and some of the soaking water in a food processor or blender and make a puree. Add enough water so that it's a little thinner than the sauce you want.

Make a roux with 1 TB masa and 1 TB oil PER CUP of puree. Cook the roux for a few minutes over low heat. Add the puree, and stir until thickened. Add salt to taste, add tomato sauce if it's a little bitter or to make it go farther.

ENCHILADAS

Quickly fry the needed tortillas in oil, long enough to soften, but not long enough to crispen. Wrap them around your chosen filling (at room temperature or slightly warm), and put them in a casserole that has a little sauce in the bottom. (You can do the wrapping and rolling _in_ the casserole--then they get a bit of sauce all over.) Cover well with sauce, and bake (about 15 minutes at 350, uncovered--maybe longer if you've got cheese in your filling).

NOTES: It's the corn component that makes this sauce special, IMHO. What I liked about what I made Sunday was how well the mesquite flavor (albeit phony) went with that dark, bittersweet sauce.

Eileen Anderson From the Chile-Heads Recipe Collection URL: http://chile.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu:8000/www/recipe.html

previous

next