Wednesday, September 5, 2012

New American Cooking: Mexican Gravy or Red Chili Sauce so Easy and so Good!

OK here is one of the sauces for the Enchiladas in the previous post, but it is such an awesome sauce it could just be my new favorite thing. I mean it is so tasty and so versatile that you could find a lot of uses for it. I think it's so good I should bottle it!

Anyway lets get down to the story. So Mexican Gravy, what is that? Well I did some research and found that this sauce is basically the basis for all foods Tex Mex. It's kinda like the Mexican or Tex Mex version of an Italian Sunday sauce or Sunday Gravy. It's red sauce with a whole lot of chili's in it. It's actually very simple. Chili, stock, flour, fat, some tomato sauce (though not a requirement), and spices. That's it. But it's how you put it together I think that matters. For me I decided not to roast the peppers boil them puree them and use them in the sauce. Although that might have been fun to do it seemed like a lot of work. So I found home recipes and they all seemed to use chili powder and basically one form or another of the elements described above. I found one that also added some Cacao.  It seemed like a good idea. So I threw that idea in there too. I also saw vast discrepancies between how much chili powder to use. I went wit the more is more camp on that one. So I am telling you this so easy it's crazy but if you make it you will never go back to bottled sauce again. So enjoy Ya'll!

Forrest's Mexican Red Chili Gravy

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
3 Tablespoons Garlic powder
2 Tablespoons Ground Cumin
2 Tablespoons Dried Oregano
1 Tablespoon Kosher Salt
1/2 Cup Red Chili Powder ( I used a mix of regular Store Brand Chili powder and ground Guajillo Pepper powder 30/70 blend ( but you can try other peppers like Ancho)
3 1/2 cups beef broth
1 15oz can of Store Brand tomato sauce ( no High Fructose Corn Syrup)
2 Tablespoons of hot Coco Mix with sugar added.

Method:

Melt butter and stir in the flour
Let cook for a few moments then pour in the other dry ingredients
Cook till starts to smoke stirring constantly
Then add the beef broth slowly combining the mix
When combine let it come to a bubble and boil
Then add the tomato sauce
Cook for 5 mins stirring often
At this point you are done but to get more combined complex flavor to can
reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 to 30 mins
If it gets too thick add more broth or just water
It should be thick and delicious
Add salt to taste if you like it more salty add it
Done. Done Done!

Enjoy on Enchiladas, as a flavor base for Taco meat ( good by little envelopes of salty seasoning), or on steak or braised beef or chicken. You could even use it as a sauce base for shrimp.
 Ya'll Enjoy this!


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