A great cooked Mexican sauce, typically for use as a sauce within other recipes. It has a clean, authentic taste and thick, meaty texture. You may want to double or triple the recipe and freeze some to have on hand for use in recipes. Yield: Makes 500 ml (2 cups / 16 oz)
Cut the chiles open, discard seeds and stems, chop into small pieces, place in bowl covered with boiling water for 45 minutes, then drain.
Blend tomatoes in blender until you have a coarse sauce. Now add all the ingredients to the blender, including the drained, softened chiles and blend until smooth.
Cook for about 10 minutes in a medium sized saucepan, stirring frequently over medium heat until sauce is slightly thickened.
Serve room temperature.
Notes
Instead of the 4 anchos, you can use 3 tablespoons of chili powder, or 1 teaspoon of crushed red pepper.Instead of the tin of tomatoes, you can use 4 fresh tomatoes (600g / 1 ½ pounds), and chop them before putting in blender.Sugar is optional; use only if you are using tomatoes that won't be very sweet (e.g. hothouse tomatoes or not fully ripe ones.)