Today I made red chile sauce.  This is a very time-intensive work of art.  The recipe isn’t difficult, but it requires straining the soaked red chile through a vegetable mill (sometimes called a rice mill.)   This milling is done twice (sort of like first pressed olive oil and second press. )  So today I made a wonderful batch of the stuff.  This chile sauce is then used to slow cook meats or is added to beans and other dishes.  It has a wonderful flavor that cannot be duplicated, although many a restaurant cheats and thins the sauce with tomato sauce or uses dried chile powder to attempt the same sort of sauce.  Trust me, it isn’t the same.  This method is native to New Mexico, probably originating somewhere in Mexico with the indigenous Indians there.  They make a mole type sauce that is similar although chocolate or tomatoes and other ingredients (such as garlic, onions, other chile types) are usually added.

I pretty much make the sauce much like tomato sauce is made, only I don’t have to cook it down.  The chiles are rehydrated from a dried state, and so to get the right consistency it’s a matter of adding just the right amount of water.

Making the sauce is very messy because the chile stains pretty much everything it touches–instantly.  When I’m finished, everything goes straight outside to be hosed down.  This morning, I did just that. I was pretty pleased with myself. The dishes were clean and the lawn got some water. I walked around the corner of the house to rinse my hands a final time and to shut the hose off. When I came back around I saw my work sabotaged!!! Or maybe he was trying to help dry the dishes…The neighbor’s cat was licking my nice clean dishes. He looked up with a very innocent expression on his face when I demanded to know just what he thought he was doing. He then proceeded to stick his nose right inside one of the pans and slurp up the remaining water.

Sigh.

I came back inside, washed the dishes again, and began moving the containers to the freezer–only I set one on the door where it wasn’t secure.  The next time I opened the door, it slid out, smashed on the tile floor and spattered EVERYWHERE.   We’re talking have to paint some lower walls…throw out the rug that was there and someone is in serious need of a bath.

It took me the better part of an hour to clean the freezer, the doors, the walls and the floor.  I was already hot and sweaty so may as well make a day of it.

Anyway, I’ll be very happy to have the marinated pork or marinated beef in a few days.  It’s a wonderful dish.  I’m trying not to cry over the container of missing, splattered chile, but it’s hard.
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