Small Bowl of Caribe Sauce
(click to enlarge)

Caribe Sauce


USA, New Mexico
Makes:
Effort:
Sched:
DoAhead:  		 2 cups
**
1 hr
Yes		 A moderately hot sauce popular in New Mexico, often as a marinade for meats. "Chili Caribe" means "Crushed Chili", so a Caribe Sauce is by nature a bit coarse and rustic.

1-1/2
4
1
3
1/2
c
cl
T
c
t
Chili New Mex (1)  
Garlic
Oregano, Mex (2)
Water
Salt
Make   -   (1 hr - 20 min work)
  1. Cap CHILIS and crumble fairly fine, seeds and all. If they are fresh and leathery, cut them into shreds with kitchen shears.
  2. Crush GARLIC and chop small. Add to Chilis, along with Oregano, Water and Salt.
  3. In a sauce pan bring Chili mix to a boil and simmer slowly about 45 minutes.
  4. As required or desired (this will depend a lot on the initial condition of the chilis), run Sauce in a food processor or blender to the desired texture. You will still have small flakes of chili skin in the mix. That is expected (see Straining).
NOTES:

  1. New Mexico Chili:

      (or California Chili). 1-1/2 cups was made from 12 chilis, weighing 2.8 ounces, and yielding 2.0 ounces. These were fresh and leathery. For details see our Chilis page.

  2. Mexican Oregano

      This is "official", but can be hard to find even here in Los Angeles (I suspect absolutely impossible in Detroit). If you can't get it use regular dried oregano (the two are not at all related, but the taste is similar).

  3. Straining:

      Some people try to make this rustic sauce smoother by straining out the flakes of chili skin and seeds. This is messy and difficult, it doesn't strain easily, and straining violates the nature of the sauce - best to leave it as is.

  4. Variations:

      Some people bake the chilis for about 20 minutes at 250°F/120°C, which will make them more crumbly, and with some change in flavor.
  5. U.S. measure: t=teaspoon, T=Tablespoon, c=cup, qt=quart, oz=ounce, #=pound, cl=clove in=inch
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