Smoky, spicy chile mora salsa

One of my new favorite smells is the chile mora. It’s a smoked, dried jalapeño, and therefore classified as a chipotle. But it’s a bit sweeter and more raisin-like than the brown chipotles you see in the markets. It’s also not as hot. (The chile morita, a cousin, is much spicier.)

Chile moras smell so intoxicating — a heady mix of chocolate, raisins, herbs and smoke — that I was almost tempted to leave the batch I bought on my kitchen counter as an air freshener. But I bought them to make a salsa, so that’s what I was going to do. If I didn’t eat the chiles raw first.

Decided to use the molcajete, and I used the same technique as in other molcajete salsas I’ve posted on this blog — first grind the salt and aromatics, then the chiles, then the tomatoes. Each ingredient is added a little bit at a time to ensure the proper consistency.

My problem was that the chiles just wouldn’t break down. I’d gotten a few tough ones in my batch from the market, and their skin didn’t soften even after 20 minutes in hot water. Plus this time I was envisioning a thin table salsa — something that you could spoon into a taco, or over eggs.

So I broke out the immersion blender.

(You: “You did?”)

Yes, I did. A few quick pulses and a chorrito de agua and boom. I had what I wanted — a salsa that had the consistency of a thick soup or porridge, with bits of chile seeds still visible.

It should be noted that I still don’t trust myself with a blender to make salsas. Of the two batches of salsa I made, the second one came out looking like pureed tomato sauce. (Still tasty, but the texture was, as Mexicans say, equis. Meaning mediocre and nothing special.) My preferred salsa texture veers toward the heftier side.

Because the chile moras are so smoky, this salsa tastes good on just about anything. I liked it especially on sweet vegetables, which played off the mora’s raisiny notes. Layered it on a corn tortilla between roasted onions and red peppers, and it was just about perfect.

Smoky chile mora salsa
Makes about 3 cups

Ingredients

75 grams chile moras (just over 2 1/2 ounces)
300 grams fresh tomatoes
One-quarter of a medium onion
1 unpeeled garlic clove
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 allspice berry
Water

Place chiles in a shallow dish and pour over with boiling water to cover. Let them sit until their flesh is softened, about 15 minutes. If some chiles aren’t softening very well after 15 minutes, remove them to another dish and top with a fresh batch of hot water, and let them sit for another 15 minutes. When the chiles are done, make in incision in each and remove the veins and stems. Note: I kept some of the seeds, because I like my salsa spicy.

While the chiles are soaking, roast your onion piece, garlic and tomatoes on the comal, until the skin has blackened and the flesh has softened a bit. (See the pics above for visual cues.)

In the molcajete, grind the salt and allspice berry to powder. Peel the garlic clove and remove any blackened bits of garlic flesh, because they’re bitter and you don’t want them in your salsa. Grind the garlic into a paste, and then do the same with the onion. Add your chiles a few at a time, making sure to grind each as best you can. (You don’t want long pieces of chile — grind those suckers down.) At this point you should have a thick red paste.

Add the tomatoes one at a time, and grind each until the skins have dissolved. At this point, it’s ready to eat. Taste for more salt and serve.

If you want a thinner salsa, or perhaps you don’t feel like spending 30 to 40 minutes grinding — that’s about how long this took me — feel free to add water and pulse in an immersion blender or food processor. Just be very careful not to over-blend. You want to see blackened roasty bits in this baby.