Ancho Chile Tomato Sauce

I have been trying to find a simple yet truly tasty ancho chile sauce. I’ve made chile sauce with mostly chiles (either whole or powdered) and I don’t like the flavor as much as when the anchos are paired with tomatoes. The sweetness of the tomatoes mellows out the anchos. I’m not sure it has enough “ancho-ness” yet but it’s still a tasty sauce. I think it would be great on chilaquiles, fish, chicken, pork, eggs, or as a red sauce for enchiladas.

Anchos are not very spicy chiles and there aren’t enough of them vs. tomatoes to make this spicy at all. They lend a nice flavor without the heat.

I’ve simplified the typical recipe by using canned tomatoes but I still used the classic method of charring the onions and garlic rather than sautéing them.

Ancho Chile Tomato Sauce
(makes about 4 cups)

2 dried ancho chiles, seeds and stems removed
boiling water, about 1 1/2 cups
2 cloves garlic, unpeeled
2 medium onion, sliced in 4 fat slices each, longitudinally
1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes in juice, undrained
1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

Heat a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Toast the ancho chiles until fragrant. Place in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Set aside.

Place the garlic and onion slices in the skillet and toast. The onions should be very brown to nearly charred and the garlic should have dark brown spots on the skin. Remove from the skillet. Peel the garlic. Chop garlic and onion coarsely.

Wait another 30 minutes to finish making the sauce so that the chiles have time to rehydrate. They should be very soft so they puree nicely in the blender.

Place the chiles, water, onions, garlic, and diced tomatoes in a blender. Puree until there are no large chunks of anything. Pour it all into a medium saucepan. Add the tomato sauce, olive oil, honey, red wine vinegar, and salt. Bring to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes, or until the sauce thickens.

Sauce can be frozen.

Spicy Tomato Sauce with Orange

Sometimes, an idea for a recipe comes to me and I go poke around the internet to see what other people have come up with. That’s how new recipes come about. No chef ever started with no idea of some defining principles. We all are exposed to food from the time we’re babies and I can’t think of anything that isn’t informed by those who “came to the stove” before us.

I found a recipe. I found many as this is the Internet Age! Made a few tweaks and this is where it ended up. I used this sauce in a recipe for a baked eggplant dish I created. I’ll post that in a day or two. I thought both were simple, bright and easy. Perfect for summer. The sauce would be delicious on pork, chicken, or seafood. The orange flavor is quite subtle but makes for a more complex tomato sauce.

Harissa is a spicy Tunisian or Moroccan chile paste. I used a commercial version of medium heat (see photo). It gives a jolt of chile with some underlying warm spices and a bit of tartness. Feel free to experiment with the harissa, more or less to your taste. If you don’t have harissa, I would use 1/4 teaspoon of hot red chile peppers (such as Aleppo or Korean), a pinch of coriander, and 1 teaspoon of vinegar. You can use more chile pepper if you want a spicier sauce.

SpIcy Tomato Sauce with A hint of orange
(makes about 2 cups)

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1/4 cup orange juice
1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 bay leaf
1/2 tablespoon harissa
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoons sugar
1-1/2 tablespoons butter

Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté until light golden in color. Add the garlic, sauté 1 minute longer, then add the orange juice, scraping up any browned bits that may have accumulated on the bottom of the pan. Cook for a few minutes to reduce the juice a little.

Stir in the tomatoes, bay leaf, and harissa and season with salt and pepper.

Cook uncovered over medium-low heat for 20-30 minutes, stirring now and then. Stir in sugar. Taste and add more salt and pepper if needed. Add the butter and stir until melted.

Serve hot on fish, seafood, pork, or chicken.

Lentil Tomato Soup

Whew! My life has been off to crazytown lately. Cooking has not been on the priority list. Actually, that’s not true. It’s just that cooking has become very very simple of late. Here’s hoping that changes soon because I’m a lot happier when I’m trying new recipes and playing in the kitchen.

Which brings me to my soon-to-be “new” kitchen. We recently purchased a townhouse near Boulder and the kitchen is oh so sad. An electric range from the late 90’s!! Horrors! A new induction range is coming (not soon enough for me). Until then, I must soldier on with a poor excuse for a stove.

Thing about soup, it’s easy to cook in one pot and an electric range is good enough. This recipe is adapted from the New York Times. The original is vegetarian. Mine is not, though you could leave out the bacon and it would still be darn good. But, I love bacon as a flavoring in bean soup. This is a very hearty, stick-to-your-ribs kind of soup.

Lentil Tomato Soup
(serves 4 as a main dish, 8 as an appetizer)

2 slices thick bacon, chopped
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 large stalk celery, chopped
2 large cloves garlic, minced
1 14-oz. can diced tomatoes in juice
2-3 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup brown lentils, washed and drained
5 cups water
leaves from 8 sprigs fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
freshly grated Parmesan or Romano cheese for garnish

Heat up a soup pot on medium heat. Add bacon and oil. Cook until bacon renders out fat. Add onion and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add carrot, celery, and garlic. Cook for another minute. Add in tomatoes, 2 teaspoons salt, black pepper, and lentils. Stir to combine. Add in water, thyme leaves, and bay leaf. Stir and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to maintain a simmer. Cover partially and cook for 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours until lentils are tender. Remove bay leaf. Stir in red wine vinegar and parsley. Taste; add more salt and pepper according to your taste. Serve garnished with grated cheese.

Even better the next day (as is true with so many soups and stews).

Adapted from Lentil Tomato Soup by Martha Rose Shulman, New York Times.

Lentil-Mushroom Soup

What a pretty basket of mushrooms!

Here’s something warming for fall. Though most people don’t think of mushrooms as a fall product, it’s when many mushrooms varieties show up in the forest. Porcini (called Cepes in French, Steinpilz in German, Boletus edulis in Science) are my favorite fall fungi, though in our Colorado mountains, they show up after good rains all summer long. You don’t need fresh porcini for this soup – good thing, as they are not available in most places and they cost $30-50/pound when you can find them. Dried porcini are not inexpensive, but a little goes a long way. You need 1 oz. to make a big, rich, flavorful soup. Add some fresh mushrooms at the end for even more umami. You can use whatever kind you can find in the supermarket: button, cremini (baby Portobellos), oyster, or if you are feeling flush, some fresh porcini.

This soup is hearty enough for a simple dinner. Serve it with some crusty bread and a big salad.

Lentil-Mushroom Soup
(serves 4-6)

1 oz. dried porcini mushrooms
1 cup brown lentils, rinsed
2 stalks of celery, cut into small dice
½ medium red onion, cut into small dice
⅔ cup passata (see Note)
2 bay leaves
¾ – 1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes
½ pound sliced fresh mushrooms
¼ teaspoon black pepper

Soak the dried mushrooms in 2 cups of hot water, until rehydrated, about 30 minutes. Remove the mushrooms and pour the soaking water through some cheesecloth to strain. Reserve the water for the soup. Chop the porcini and put in a soup pot with the lentils, celery, red onion, passata, bay leaves, and ½ teaspoon salt. Combine the mushroom soaking water with cold water to make a total of 6 cups and add to the pot. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low to maintain a simmer. Cook for about 45 minutes, until the lentils are tender.

Heat the olive oil in a medium skillet. Add garlic, red pepper flakes, and mushrooms. Cook for 10 minutes until the mushrooms and garlic are lightly browned. Add to the soup along with the black pepper. Taste for salt and serve.

When reheating the soup, add a bit of water because it will thicken up when chilled.

Note: Passata is Italian tomato puree. Unlike American canned tomato puree, it is not cooked, so it tastes fresher. I like Mutti brand which is sold in bottles. You can find it at World Marketplace stores. Pomi brand is another good one. It’s sold in cartons and is available in supermarkets.

Adapted from Fagioli: The Bean Cuisine of Italy by Judith Barrett, Rodale, 2004.

Photo: By George Chernilevsky (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Unstuffed Cabbage

This recipe is my grandmother’s, passed on to me via my mom. Stuffed cabbage is a complicated process: make the filling, blanch the leaves, stuff and roll up the leaves, braise for a long time. Delicious it may be, but you will spend a chunk of your day pulling it off. I haven’t made this recipe in years because it’s so much work. It is so good and very special…

Six months after my grandmother died, I found a stash of stuffed cabbage buried in the freezer. She had come to visit after the birth of my daughter, and left me with her wonderful stuffed cabbage. Finding that stuffed cabbage was a pretty emotional experience and I relished every bite of my grandmother’s last food production in my life.

Besides simplifying the stuffing process, I have modernized the recipe by cutting back on the meat. I replaced some of the meat with cooked lentils. It’s still a stick-to-your-ribs, sweet and sour dish. It may not remind you of your grandmother, it will give you some idea of my memories of my dear grandmother.

Unstuffed Cabbage
(serves 8)

non-stick cooking spray
1 large green cabbage
½ teaspoon kosher salt

Lentils
½ onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
¼ teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon kosher salt
¾ cup lentils, rinsed
4 cups water

Stuffing
1 pound ground meat (beef, pork, turkey)
½ onion, chopped
1 cup cold cooked rice
1 egg, beaten
1 ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon black pepper

Sauce
1 ½ Tablespoons oil
2 Tablespoons flour
2 cups commercial beef stock
¼ teaspoon dried thyme
2 14 oz. cans diced tomatoes, drained
¾ cup raisins
½ cup crushed gingersnaps (about 6 2″ cookies)
¼ cup packed dark brown sugar.
juice of 1 lemon, about ⅓ cup
1 teaspoon kosher salt (see Note)

Place all the Lentils ingredients in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook for 30 minutes until lentils are tender. Drain well and set in the fridge to cool slightly.

While the lentils are cooking, peel off the large outer leaves from the cabbage and set aside. Cut the remaining cabbage into quarters, core, and slice. Spray a large Dutch oven with non-stick spray. Put all the sliced cabbage in the Dutch oven and sprinkle with the salt. Lay half of the big leaves over the sliced cabbage. Set aside while you make the stuffing.

Preheat the oven to 325°F.

Wipe out the lentil saucepan. Heat the oil in the pan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour and cook for a few minutes until the roux is golden. Whisk in the beef stock and dried thyme. Bring to a boil and whisk until the stock thickens slightly. Set aside.

Combine all the Stuffing ingredients in a large bowl. Add the lentils and mix to combine. Spread the stuffing over the cabbage leaves in the Dutch oven. Lay the rest of the cabbage leaves over the stuffing.

Combine the beef stock sauce, and the remaining sauce ingredients in the bowl you mixed the stuffing in. Pour over the top of the cabbage, poking the cabbage at the edge of the pot so that some of the sauce drains down along the edge.

Cover the pot and place in the oven for 2 hours. Remove the cover and cook for another 30 minutes until the cabbage is very tender and the sauce has reduced. This is a dish that improves with reheating. Make it ahead, chill it down, then reheat it. The flavors become more harmonious and smooth.

As you probably figured out from my story above, stuffed cabbage (or unstuffed cabbage) freezes very well.

Note: I used commercial beef stock (Better Than Bouillon is my preferred brand in instant broth). If you use homemade or unsalted stock in the box, you will need to add more salt to the sauce.