Green Sauce

I love this sauce.  It may have been part of the first meal Bill cooked for me...or maybe the second.

Anyway - it comes from Betty Crocker's Mexican Made Easy - published in 1993, I think it may be out of print now.  Bill bought his copy for $2.99 at a Building 19 store an eternity ago.

Anyway, from Chapter 2 in the book - "Sizzling Sauces and Sides" - the description for Green Sauce is as follows:

                "This is a suave chile sauce, slightly chunky and rich with cream"

Suave?  I don't know about that.  There's definitely some heat to it, though.  I love it.  It's great as a dip, and we also used it in tacos made from a slow-grilled pork tenderloin, and it was fabulous that way.

What you'll need:

1 large onion, finely chopped (about a cup)

4 poblano chiles, roasted, peeled, seeded and finely chopped (about 1/2 cup)

1 jalapeno chile, seeded and finely chopped

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

2 T vegetable oil

1/2 cup whipping (heavy) cream  ( * we only use 1/4 cup)

1/4 tsp salt

Now.  If you've never roasted peppers, here's probably the easiest way.  Heat up the broiler in your oven, and put one of the oven racks on the highest level possible.  Put your peppers on a row in the pan so that when you place the pan in the oven, the peppers will be directly under the broiler flames.  Once the broiler is ready, put the pan with the peppers (it's sounding like a tongue twister in the making) on the top rack and broil for a few minutes, until the skin chars.  Pull the pan out, flip the peppers over, and char on the other side.  They should look like this -

or even more charred.  Oh, and all that gunk on the pan?  Just soak it for a while, and it'll come right off.  Or you could be smarter than we are and cover the pan with foil first.  Take your pick.

Anyway, when the peppers are nice and black on the outside, place them in a paper bag, close the top, and let them sweat a bit.

When they've sweated and cooled, you peel the skin off.  It's helpful to do this at the sink, so you can rinse the bits of peel away as you work.

Another option, if you've got a gas stove, is just to set the peppers (if they're big enough) on the burner over a flame.  Turn them periodically to get a nice even char all over.  Then proceed with the sweating and so forth.  Just - you know, don't go off and so something else while the peppers are on the fire.  It could be bad.

Okay, now, once you've got everything peeled and chopped and ready to go, place the onion, chiles, and garlic in the oil over medium heat in a small pan, stirring occasionally, until the onion is tender - about 8 minutes. 

Stir in the cream and salt. 

Ta-da!  How simple is that?  Especially in my house, where Bill does all the work and I just taste the finished product and give my professional opinion.

And my professional opinion is always "You should have doubled the recipe!"  (Yield is 1 1/3 cups)

So hey, if you're looking for a change from salsa for your Super Bowl party on Sunday (if you're having one, or going to one.  Or if you might be hungry all by your self) - make this instead!