Instructions: Ive also made several sauces that were in Mark Millers _The Great Chile Book_ and Rick Baylesss _Mexican Kitchen_ (mucho disclaimers), and at the risk of some sore fingers, Ill type one up. Its pretty much verbatim except for my comments in parentheses. Here goes:

Remove stems and seeds from chiles. Roast and rehydrate the chiles. (A good variation is to collect the seeds and roast them in the dry skillet that roasts the chiles. After theyre brown and toasty, grind them up in a coffee grinder and add the powder later to the sauce. After the seeds are out, spread each chile flat on a dry skillet over medium heat. Mash it really flat with a good spatula so that it crackles for a few seconds, then flip it over and do the same for the other side. I do one at a time in the pan. Dont burn them or theyll be bitter. Boil the water, remove the water from the heat and dunk all the chiles - I use just enough to cover them - 2 qts water is overkill, and weigh them down with a plate. Let em soak for about 30 mins.) (Back to copying)

Blacken the tomatoes in a skillet or under a broiler - about 5 minutes.

Saute the onion in the olive oil over low heat until (just) browned. Put chiles in a blender (food processor) and add the blackened tomatoes, onion, garlic, cumin oregano, and salt. Add 1 cup of the reserved (chile-soak)

liquid (if its not bitter, else use some water or chicken stock). Puree all this to a fine smooth paste, adding more chile water, water, or chicken stock as necessary.

(OK, stop, time out! When I make any of these rehydrate-the-chile-sauces, I _know_ that I cant get the chile skins chopped smoothly enough to where they wont find hideouts in my teeth. So, I put them with their soaking juice (when Im not sipping the stuff - ooooh, is that good!) into the blender first. After its all blended, I push the mash through a medium sized sieve, so that the skin bits and any old hard seeds stay out of the sauce. Now, add the other stuff and carry on.)

Add oil or lard to a high-sided pan (I use a dutch oven, because of the spatter factor), and heat the oil until almost smoking. (Pouring all the sauce in at once, preferably from a sauce pan with a good handle) Refry sauce at a sizzle for 3 to 5 minutes, stirring continuously. Do not allow sauce to get too thick (Its ready when it wants to coat a spoon): add water as necessary. Sauce can be kept for up to 1 week in the refrigerator.

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This sauce is very good and tasty. If youre loaded down with dried NM chiles, this is a good place to start. Theres lots more to try and if you dont have the books, Ill be glad to occasionally post one. Enough bandwidth guzzling for now. Good luck!

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