Salsa Macha

The oil taken off the heat before the chillies go in, so they steep rather than fry.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 300 ml neutral oil
• 25 g chile de árbol, stalks removed
• 4 guajillo chillies, stalks and seeds removed, torn
• 2 morita chillies, torn
• 80 g raw peanuts
• 40 g sesame seeds
• 6 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar

Method

1. THE OIL IS TAKEN OFF THE HEAT BEFORE THE CHILLIES GO IN, so they steep rather than fry. This is the whole technique and it is counter to every other chilli instruction on this site. The oil is brought up to frying temperature with the peanuts, sesame and garlic, those are cooked and the pan is taken OFF the stove; only then do the dried chillies go in, into oil that is hot but falling. They soften, darken slightly and give their colour and flavour into the oil over several minutes without ever reaching the temperature at which they scorch. Dropped into oil still on the heat, a thin chile de árbol blackens in under five seconds, and burnt chilli in an oil-based sauce with no liquid to dilute it is irretrievable -- a whole jar that tastes of ash.
2. THE NUTS AND SEEDS GO IN FIRST AND IN ORDER OF SIZE. Peanuts need three or four minutes, garlic about two, sesame under a minute. Added together, the sesame is black before the peanuts are coloured. Peanuts first, then garlic, then sesame, then straight off the heat.
3. IT IS A COARSE BLEND AND NOT A PURÉE, AND MOST OF THE OIL IS HELD BACK. Blended briefly, with half the oil, to a rough paste with pieces still identifiable, then the rest of the oil stirred in by hand. What should be in the jar is a layer of solids under a deep red oil, so a spoon can take mostly oil or mostly crunch. Run smooth it emulsifies into a uniform sludge and the texture that makes it worth making is gone.
4. THE VINEGAR IS WHAT MAKES IT KEEP. One tablespoon. In an oil preserve with garlic in it, a little acid is doing real work, and it also stops the whole thing tasting flatly of oil. With it, the jar keeps two months in the fridge.
5. THE SOLIDS MUST STAY UNDER THE OIL IN THE JAR. Anything sitting above the oil line will go off, and a spoonful taken out leaves solids exposed. The jar is shaken or levelled after each use so there is always a film of oil on top.
6. The oil heated in a small pan over a medium heat until it shimmers.
7. The peanuts added and fried 3 to 4 MINUTES until pale gold.
8. The garlic added and fried 2 minutes until just golden. It must not brown.
9. The sesame seeds added and fried 40 SECONDS only.
10. THE PAN TAKEN OFF THE HEAT ENTIRELY.
11. ALL the chillies added to the hot, off-heat oil and stirred through. They will sizzle gently, soften and darken.
12. Left to STEEP, off the heat, 15 MINUTES, stirred twice. None should blacken.
13. Cooled to lukewarm, then the salt and vinegar stirred in.
14. The solids and HALF the oil blended in short pulses to a COARSE paste -- pieces still visible, not a purée.
15. Tipped into a bowl and the remaining oil stirred in by hand.
16. Into a jar, with the solids pressed below the oil line. Keeps 2 months in the fridge; levelled after each use so oil always covers the top.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Mexico · All recipes