Salsa de Chile Costeño

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy cast iron comal or 10-inch cast iron skillet
• •Volcanic stone molcajete (8-inch or larger)
• •Heatproof bowl for steeping the chiles
• •Small clay cazuela or barro negro vessel for serving

Instructions

1. 1

   Know the chile first

   Before you turn on the comal, look at your chiles. Chile costeño rojo is small, thin-skinned, and the color of dried brick. It comes from the Costa Chica of Oaxaca, the Pacific stretch around Pinotepa Nacional and Jamiltepec. It is not chile de arbol. It is not guajillo. The skin is thinner than both, the heat is sharper, and the flavor is grassy and bright in a way no other chile gives you. If your bag says 'costeño' but the chiles are fat and dark, you have the wrong thing. Send them back.

2. 2

   Char the tomato, garlic, and onion

   Heat a heavy comal or cast iron skillet over medium-high until a drop of water dances. Lay the whole tomatoes, the unpeeled garlic, and the onion wedge directly on the dry surface. No oil. Let them blacken in patches, turning every few minutes, until the tomato skin splits and slips and the garlic feels soft inside its papery shell. The onion should be charred on the cut sides and translucent in the middle. This takes 10 to 12 minutes. The black spots are flavor. Don't be afraid of them.

   Pull the garlic first. It softens before the tomato is ready. Squeeze the cloves out of their skins onto a plate and set aside.
3. 3

   Toast the costeños

   Lower the heat to medium. The comal is already hot from the vegetables. Lay the chiles flat on the surface, a handful at a time. Press them down with a spatula for two seconds, flip, press again. Total time on the comal: about 15 seconds per chile. They will turn fragrant and the skin will lift slightly. They should not blacken. Costeño is thin-skinned and burns in a heartbeat. Burned costeño is bitter costeño and there is no fixing it later. No me vengas con atajos. Toast them right.

   If smoke fills the kitchen, your comal is too hot. Pull it off the burner for thirty seconds and start again. The kitchen should smell like toasted chile, not like ash.
4. 4

   Steep the chiles briefly

   Drop the toasted chiles into a heatproof bowl and pour the 1/4 cup of hot water over them. Hot tap water, not boiling. Let them sit for five minutes only. This is not a guajillo soak. The costeño softens fast and you do not want to wash the flavor out into the water. The water becomes part of the salsa. Do not throw it away.

5. 5

   Grind in the molcajete

   Start with the salt and the peeled roasted garlic in a volcanic stone molcajete. Grind until the garlic disappears into a paste. Add the chiles, a few at a time, with their soaking water, and grind in slow circles, pressing the chiles against the stone. The skin will start to break down into a thick, brick-red paste flecked with seed. Add the charred onion and grind it in. Finally, work in the tomato in pieces, peel and all, until you have a rough, glossy salsa with visible texture from the seeds and the chile skin. This is what costeño salsa looks like at the table in Pinotepa.

   If you don't have a molcajete, a blender works, but pulse it. Don't puree. Costeño salsa is not a smoothie. You want texture, not a slick of red liquid.
6. 6

   Taste and adjust

   Taste with a piece of warm tortilla, not a spoon. The salt should land first, the chile heat should bloom on the back of the tongue, and the smoked tomato should sit underneath as the body. If it tastes flat, more salt. If it tastes tight and one-note, a tablespoon of lime juice will open it up, though many cooks on the Costa Chica leave it out. If it is too thick to spoon onto a tlayuda, loosen with a tablespoon of hot water at a time. Asi se hace y punto.

7. 7

   Rest and serve

   Let the salsa sit for at least 15 minutes before serving. The flavors marry quickly. Spoon it into a small clay cazuela or directly into the molcajete and bring it to the table. It is the salsa for grilled fish from the coast, for tlayudas costeñas, for a simple plate of beans and tortillas. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •Source the costeño from an Oaxacan vendor or a specialty Mexican market, not a generic supermarket bag. The Mercado de Abastos in Oaxaca City and the markets in Pinotepa Nacional sell them by the kilo. Online, look for sellers based in Oaxaca rather than generic 'Mexican chile' importers. The wrong chile makes the wrong salsa. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
• •Leave the seeds in. Costeño seeds carry the heat and the texture and removing them gives you a thin, polite salsa that is not what coastal cooks make. The senoras on the Costa Chica grind everything together.
• •If you only have a blender, pulse in short bursts and do not puree. The texture of a molcajete salsa, the broken seeds, the small pieces of skin, the rough body, is what makes it salsa de costeño and not a chile sauce. La cocina no es decoracion, es trabajo.
• •This salsa keeps in a glass jar in the refrigerator for one week. The heat softens slightly and the smoked tomato deepens. Many cooks say it is better on the second day.

Advance Preparation

• •The salsa can be made up to three days ahead and refrigerated in a sealed glass jar. The flavor improves as it sits.
• •The chiles can be toasted and stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one week, ready to be soaked and ground when you need the salsa.
• •The tomato, garlic, and onion can be charred on the comal one day ahead and held covered in the refrigerator. Bring to room temperature before grinding.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 70g)