Ancho Chile Sauce

The tomatoes are coming fast and furious. I get up, get some exercise, play with the dog...then look at the (shudder) garden!
Still a few handfulls of strawberries everyday. Pick peppers, eggplants, weed, zuchinnis, check the potato plants for bugs, dig up a fennel bulb if we are going to have it....plan to have corn soon!...actually this will be another post...fresh corn tamales served with ancho chile sauce.....
Then I look at the tomatoes. We planted 14 big red tomato plants and we like little cherry tomatoes. Last year we had a very sweet yellow/orange variety, so we started a few plants...little did we know that even though I plowed the garden in the spring, thousands of yellow cherry tomato seeds were lurking, ready to sprout! If you like them, stop by and I'll give you a few pounds!
But, we have to deal with the tomatoes. Big red sweet meaty tomatoes and lots of them. Janet makes sauce with fresh basil and freezes it. Today, I made a lot of the Ancho Chile Sauce, most of which I froze, but I sauted chicken thighs, then baked them covered with this sauce. I will take the meat off the bones and make enchiladas tomorrow night with the sauce. Here in France, I have found the perfect substitute yellow cheese for Mexican cuisine, a Dutch variety called Mimolette. This sauce uses Anchos, which are dried Poblano peppers. I buy bags of them when I am in New York each year.
This is a recipe for about 3 cups....I made much more today!
Put 2 tablespoons of oil in a skillet. When it is hot but not smoking, asdd the chiles (3 nice big ones). Fry until puffed and beginning to brown. Put the chiles in a bowl and add 3/4 cups of boiling water. let them soak about 20 minutes.
Take one big red ripe tomato and put it in in a small saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and simmer about 10 minutes. Drain it and put it into a blender. Add the soaked chiles and the water they have soaked in, one small onion and a peeled clove of garlic you have browned in a frying pan, 1/4 each of teaspoon of cumin, oregano, cinnamon, ground coriander. Puree until smooth.
In a fying pan, heat another 2 tablespoons of oil and pour in the puree and fry. Stir until it is thickened...about 10 minutes.
Put it in a saucepan and bring to a simmer, add 2 cups of chicken broth and salt to taste. Simmer for another 10 minutes.
This is a great basic cooking sauce for a lot of Mexican dishes. The perfect sauce for enchiladas or the fresh corn tamales that I plan to make next week!
Tonight, for dinner, we had a fresh tomato mustard tart....it was so beautiful, but that is another story!