Red Enchilada Sauce (Salsa Roja)

*Red Sauce (uses dried chilis)
from David at http://onestopcook.wordpress.com, now at http://davidsfreerecipes.com/ (recipe modified)

"Canned enchilada sauce is good but if you have the time this will be well worth your trouble. It will give you just under 2 qts. of sauce. Any unused sauce can be frozen for 2 to 3 months, just be sure to label and date it:. This also makes a wonderful taco sauce."

FM: This is the recipe Brian and I use. I added the instructions to soak the dried chilis. They are easier to blend up this way. We use the soaking liquid in the sauce in place of some of the water/chicken stock. The last time we made this we used a can of tomato paste and added some extra tomato puree we had on hand. It was excellent.

1 oz. Guajillo chilis (5 or 6) (dried)
1 oz. Pasilla-ancho chilis (dried poblanos, about 3-4)
1 onion (1/2 in. dice)
4 - 6 cloves garlic
1/3 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro leaves
8 oz. can tomato sauce [use tomato paste instead]
1 tbsp. salt
1 tbsp. dry Mexican oregano
6 cups water [and/or chicken stock]
2 tbsp. corn starch
1/4 cup water

Add your chilis to a dry skillet preheated to medium heat and cook just long enough to smell them, about 20-30 seconds a side for the pasilla-anchos and about a minute for the guajillos. Be careful, they are already dried and will burn very easily. Heating them first will just give you a little more flavor. Remove them to your cutting board, remove the stems and cut them into bite size pieces.

[Brian and I soak the chilis in water after toasting them so they blend easier. Use the soaking liquid in place of some of the water.]

Add your garlic to a blender or food processor and pulse long enough to mince the garlic. Add the onion and pulse again. Add the chilis, cilantro, salt, oregano and water and blend until it has the consistency of a thin marinara sauce, about 2 minutes. You might have to do this in 2 batches. Add your mixture and the tomato sauce to a 3 to 5 qt. sauce pan and bring it to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and simmer covered for about 1 1/2 hours.

[We skip this step; it is quite smooth after blending.] After your sauce is cooked, pour the mixture through a strainer. Using the back of a wood spoon press the mixture through the strainer. After straining you should have basically a ball of  “chili paste” left in the strainer. You can save this for stock or discard. The sauce you’ll end up with is a beautiful red enchilada sauce.

Add your sauce back to a clean pan. Stir the tbsp. of corn starch into the 10 tbsp. of water to make a slurry and pour that into your sauce and bring it to a boil, this will thicken your sauce. Boil for 3 to 5 minutes then remove it from the heat, your sauce is ready.