Viva Las Vegas Enchilada Sauce

This is such a great sauce. It's delicious on it's own and it's a great base if you want to get more complex and add ingredients such as a bit of mexican chocolate-(like ibarra), or peanut butter, or chipotles, or whatever tickles your southwest fancy at the moment. I like to use a cast iron skillet for this recipe. Some people like to toast their chiles first, in which the cast iron will again come in handy, but if you do, be careful as they scorch easily. Note: The prep time is for the blender method for processing the chiles, because it doesn't take as long. If you decide to scrape the pulp it will take you longer.

• Ready In: 30 mins
• Yields: 2 1/2 cups

Ingredients

• 8  dried chilies, I usually use a mix of ancho and new mexico chiles
• 2  cups boiling water
• 2  tablespoons  lard
• 2  garlic cloves, roughly chopped or mashed
• 1⁄2 teaspoon cumin seed, - (optional)
• 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1⁄2 teaspoon oregano
• 1⁄2 teaspoon vinegar

Directions

1. Place your dried chiles in a bowl and pour the boiling water over. Let the chiles soak. Oftentimes, I have had to put a lid or a plate on them to get them to stay submerged. Let cool until handleable, discard the stems, and retain your soaking water.
2. Scrape the soft chile pulp from the skins and mash - or - puree the soft chiles with a little soaking water in a blender and then strain. Reserve.
3. Using a heavy skillet, fry the garlic in the lard. If you like cumin, add the cumin at this time and fry for a minute until fragrant. Add the chile pulp and fry for a few minutes until you notice a darkening of color and thickening of texture.
4. Add the tomato sauce, any reserved chile soaking liquid and the oregano and simmer on low for ten minutes -or longer if you would like a thicker consistency. When done, add the 1/2 t. of vinegar and add salt to taste.
5. Enjoy in your favorite recipe!
6. Makes bomb chilaquiles.