Big-Batch Ranchero Sauce

Lets say you are a home cook and want a smaller batch and don't have annatto paste available. Here's a passible home sized batch that is still enough for a couple of brunches: 16 oz can peeled plum tomatoes and their juices 1/4 bunch cilantro, leaves and stems washed and roughly chopped 1 bulb garlic peeled 1 serrano chiles, stems and seeds removed then roughly chopped 1/2 a guajillo chile, stems detached 1 teaspoon cumin 1 teaspoon coriander 1 teaspoon dried oregano 1 teaspoon paprika

She’s offering a great recipe in a time when sharing is more important than ever. Make a big batch. Make it the way she writes it. With love. And share it. There is not enough love , sharing or ranchero sauce in the world!

are the guajillos dried? if so, you only remove the stems and not seeds?

The recipe calls for 7 regular cans of tomatoes. A more sensible quantity for home cooking would be 3 cans of tomatoes, with some tomato puree added to make up for the missing 1/2 can (or use 3.5 cans), and halve the remaining ingredients.

From masterclass.com/articles/how-to-cook-with-guajillo-chiles "Guajillo chiles are the dried form of the mirasol chile." The heat level is mild: 2500-5000 Scoville units. So leaving the seeds in is fine. (By contrast, the serranos used in this recipe are 10-20,000 units.)

I am a home cook (of 2- my wife and myself), and I will make this As Is, because it will freeze nicely. I do this with other sauces. And the author states that it can be scaled down (easy math), which doesn't require bellowing about the amount nor making something completely different. As for the achiote, I'll buy at the friendly store that carries it. Now, I just need my tomato plants to play nicely (and that fat groundhog...sigh), and this ex-cook will inhaling Ranchero sauce. Thanks!

The restaurant-style #10 can she mentions is equivalent to just over four 28 oz cans, while the specification by weight is more like 3.75, so 4 of them should work just fine. I may make this this week, and have a quart for us, a quart for my parents, and a quart to freeze and send home with our best friend at the end of her upcoming visit. It sounds nice to have something to share that way.

Don’t bail out on the achiote paste! We can get the stuff even in Northern Montana in the Mexican section of Albertsons. If you really can’t find it then go online it’s inexpensive and the flavor profile is critical for this sauce. The guajillos are dried flat chile pods about 6 inches long. They have a red fruity raspberry-ish flavor. Pull out the stem, shake away the loose little seeds then use scissors to cross cut (perpendicular to the longitudinal axis) into thin strips so they disperse.

A quick version of huevos rancheros that I learned from a Mexican woman in Texas is to saute some onion, pablano or green pepper, and garlic. Stir some eggs with tomato paste, cumin, chili powder, s&p and cook with the vegetables. Then sprinkle on the cheese and wrap into tortillas.

Your eyes have not been deceiving you! They are only ever called "Guajillo" when they are dried. They are called "mirasol" when fresh, so of course no need to specify "dried."

In Mexico we never use cumin for sauces.

Maybe a little oregano? Dried, preferably the Mexican variety, added early — and not very much, I would guess. That said, you might try an experiment with a smaller batch and see if you still hate the cilantro if it's cooked this long. Harold McGee has written about how the aldehydes that people hate in cilantro convert into other substances when it's pureed; I feel like the same process takes place when it's heated for a long time.

No parsley. Leave out cilantro if you don't like.

Achiote paste usually includes annatto, oregano, cumin, clove, cinnamon, black pepper, allspice, garlic, and salt.

All guajillos are dried. Like pasilla or chipotle.