Quote: (09-22-2013 12:20 PM)JimNortonFan Wrote:
Ranchero sauce recipe? I love the stuff on eggs, tortillas and carne asada.
Alright, not gonna lie, this one is a pain in the ass, but it's what we use at the hotel. Now looking at the recipe, break it down conceptually as follows:
Dried Chilies
Fresh Chilies/vegetables
Herbs/Spices
You want to re-hydrate the dried chilies in hot water for 1 hour.
Roast the fresh chilies and vegetables until well caramelized
Blend everything together with herbs, spices, and seasoning
So using that conceptual template you can formulate your own ranchera salsa. You don't need to use 4 different kinds of dried chilies like this recipe calls for. You can stick to arbol chilies if you want something strongly bitter and spicy. Dried chipotles are just smoked jalapenos, so that's your smoke flavor. Guajillos and Pasillas lend a bit more sweetness. But come up with your own dried chile combination as you see fit. You can make a simple ranchera salsa with simply arbol chilies, tomatoes, onion, garlic, and water. It's just going to be a little flat.
All that said, here's the recipe we use. It produces something like 2 quarts, so freeze whatever you don't use or just cut the recipe down by 1/2 or 1/4.
Salsa Ranchera “seis chiles”
Roma tomatoes20 ea.
Poblano chiles4 ea.
Onion1 ea.
Jalapeno chiles (green or red)4 ea.
Arbol chiles6 ea.
Passilla chiles6 ea.
Guajillo chiles2 ea.
Chipotle chiles2 ea.
Garlic cloves2 ea.
Cumin, toasted and ground1 tsp
Coriander, toasted and ground1 tsp
Cilantro1 bunch
Salt3 T
Quarter the onion and separate the quarters into leaves. Split the poblano and Jalapeno chiles and remove the seeds. Lay the onions, chiles, and whole tomatoes in a roasting pan, coat with 1T grapeseed oil, and roast in a 400 degree oven. After 15 minutes, stir the roasting vegetables so they cook evenly. Repeat this every 15 minutes using a timer 5 more times, so there’s a total of 90 minutes cooking time. While the vegetables are cooking, clean the arbol, guajillo, passila chiles by cutting off the stem, splitting the flesh, and removing all the seeds. Stem the chipotle chiles and put all the dried chiles in a pan and cover by ½ inch of boiling water. Put a small plate on top to weigh down, and cover with plastic wrap.
Once the roasted vegetables are done, put them and their cooking juices in a blender and add the soaked dry chiles, the raw garlic, the toasted ground spices, the cilantro, and the salt. Add enough of the chile soaking liquid plus extra water if necessary and puree until smooth and proper consistency.