Spice is Nice: Homemade Red Chile Sauce

While we were busy shoveling New Mexican food into our mouths at Mary and Tito's during vacation, I mentioned that I had a delicious recipe for making your own red chile (aka enchilada) sauce from a New Mexican friend of mine.

Like many recipes that I have for making what you can easily buy, I aquired this recipe while living overseas. We had to make our red sauce if we wanted it - along with our own tortillas, tortilla chips, salsa, tamales, pancake mix...

Anyway, after mentioning this, my friend, J, said, And you've never made this for us?

Seriously - no offense to J (or J's spouse). I've not made this recipe for The Boy, either. In fact, I haven't made this recipe since I moved back to the United States from Kenya in 1997 - 15 years ago.

But there's nothing like an aggrieved comment to get me cooking. The other day I whipped up a batch for The Boy (Boy before friends, I always say) to get his opinion.

His thought? This is amazing. J would go crazy for it.

There you have it: Boy tested, Boy approved. And now I'll probably never buy red chile sauce at the store again.

Red Chile Sauce

• 4 T flour
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/4 t onion powder, garlic powder, cumin, and oregano (I omitted the oregano because it upsets my stomach)
• 3 T ground red chile powder (I used 1.5 T ground chile and 1.5 T ground adobe chile) or 3/4 T chile puree
• 1 qt (4 c) water
• 1 #1 can tomato paste

Mix all ingredients well in medium saucepan. Simmer 30 minutes.