Fresh enchilada sauce… Who knew it was this easy?

13 Friday Sep 2013

Posted by Zoli in quick and awesome, tex mex, the basics, tomato sauce, Vegetarian

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Fresh enchilada sauce. Who knew it was this easy?! Well, I did. But only after I read about it on the Mija Chronicles food blog. I make this any and every time I want enchilada sauce. ** Except that I frequently use a can of tomatoes as I don’t always have enough fresh ones to hand.

I recently made fresh tomato sauce with some extremely ripe tomatoes from the farmers market. Phew! No good food gone to waste. But shortly thereafter, what should appear but five more overripe, on-their-way-out, juicy red tomatoes. Am I not eating enough salad? Didn’t I just buy these guys?

Fresh enchilada sauce:

Ripe tomatoes (or a large can of unsalted tomatoes)
3-6 cloves garlic (about 3 cloves for every five tomatoes)
fresh jalapenos–I was out, so used the jar version
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

1. Chop the tomatoes roughly and toss them in the blender. You should peel and deseed them for perfect sauce. ** I HARDLY EVER do this on a week night. I usually chuck it all in, skins and seeds and all.

2. Roughly chop a few cloves of garlic and a deseeded jalapeno. Add as much jalapeno as you like for mild or spicy sauce. If you are unsure, start with less. You can add more spice but you can’t take it away.

3. Add the garlic and jalapeno to the tomatoes in the blender and blitz. You now have a strawberry-colored tomato pulpy mess that smells fantastic.

4. Heat up a heavy frying pan with a generous glug of olive oil. When oil is hot pour in the blitzed tomato mix, heat till it’s nice and bubbly and then turn the heat down to simmer and cover. In a sense, you are frying or sautéing the sauce.

5. Cook this until it turns from the pale pink color to a deep red. About 20 min. Add in salt and pepper to taste.

I used mine for some kale and three-cheese enchiladas, which I will post about soon.

Fresh tomato sauce

22 Thursday Aug 2013

Posted by Zoli in italian, kids, pasta sauce, pizza sauce, the basics, tomato sauce, Vegetarian

≈ 4 Comments

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basic red sauce, farmers market, fresh tomatoes, pasta sauce, pizza sauce, tomato sauce, tomatoes

My husband brought home a crate–a CRATE–of tomatoes from the farmers market. He purchased the lot for $10 but it was obvious the low price was due to their undeniably, indubitably overripe condition. What to do but make a tomato sauce? As I’ve written before, yummy and quick tomato sauce from a can of plum tomatoes will always suffice, but there is a differently delicious taste to be had with fresh sauce. And it’s not like it’s that much harder. You don’t need to watch it or nurture it or care for it in any way. You just need to be home.

What you will need:

Lots of tomatoes
1 or 2 onions (depending on how many tomatoes)
3-6 garlic cloves, crushed or sliced
Olive oil
splash of vinegar or wine
tbs sugar (optional)
fresh or dried basil
salt and pepper to taste
extra virgin olive oil to finish

1. Peel, slice and chop an onion, or two onions if you are using as many tomatoes as I did. I used one very large onion for about 15 or 20 tomatoes. Some of my tomatoes had mold growing where they had split. I chopped that part off and used the rest.
Disclaimer! It is best to boil the tomatoes for a few seconds in order to peel them, and it is probably best to discard the pulp and seeds. Not my style though. Way too finicky for a weekday. In my sauce, it ALL goes in.
2. Smash a few plump garlic cloves with the flat of your knife and take off the peel. No need to chop what shall disintegrate after four hours of cooking.
3. Heat up a good glug of olive oil and gently fry the onion and garlic ‘for a spell’. When soft and translucent add in the mountain of tomatoes. Bring to a boil and then turn down to simmer.
4. Cook and cook and cook.
5. When things are beginning to resemble a tomato soup, add in the seasoning.
Depending on the kind of and flavor of tomatoes you may not need vinegar or wine for the tang, or sugar for the sweetness. I started with the basil and salt and pepper, then came back a half hour later, tasted and reassessed. A tbs of red wine vinegar went in, along with a tbs of sugar. After a little more simmering I could have eaten this stuff on its own. Just delicious.
But keep on cooking. You want the sauce to reduce as much as possible and get richer and richer. After about four hours I blitzed it with a hand-held blender, added a glug of extra virgin olive oil, and was pretty much done. I now have about 8 jars of sauce–most of them in my freezer. We’ve had it on pasta, roasted mushrooms, eggplant and pizza so far.