Ever wonder why spicy foods are so popular in hot areas? It seems counterintuitive, that Central American, Indian and Southeast Asian cuisines are crazy about hot chiles. Capsaicin, the chemical that creates the exciting illusion of burning in your mouth, also triggers the body to sweat, so it cools the body more efficiently. So yeah, hot food keeps you cool. I know it makes no sense on paper, but yeah, that’s life.

I crave hot foods in the summer. In another fit of irony, right when the garden is most bountiful, I also gravitate toward the heavier, rich and thick sauces made from dried chiles. The light, fresh hot sauces like Tabasco just don’t stick to the grilled foods of summer. I want a thick sauce like sriracha, that has a dipping consistency more like ketchup.

To get that consistency, you want to use dried chiles. Fresh hot sauces are just some chiles right off the vine, pureed with a little salt, water and vinegar. Not much to it. Dried chile sauces are a serious rabbit hole that allows for endless variation and very personal, unique options.

At the most basic level, a dried chile sauce also is just chiles, water, vinegar and salt. But that’s about where the similarity stops. There are a staggering amount of different dried chiles, and different ways they can be dried. Many are sun dried. Some are smoked. Some are picked while unripe, others allowed to age to the point where they wilt on the vine. Dried chiles have different names from their fresh counterparts, and can have different names for the drying technique.

Chile sauces also can incorporate other flavors very well, like garlic or onions. Since it will be a thick puree, the garlic or onions don’t need to be liquefied like they would in a Tabasco-style hot sauce. Garlic or onions can be added raw and blended in. You can roast the garlic or caramelize the onions for sweeter savory notes. Or you can use the time honored Mexican technique called Asado.

Asado is a dry roasting technique, typically done on a flat top iron griddle called a comal. It’s best done outdoors in a cast iron pan on a grill, because it can kick up quite a bit of smoke and set the alarms off in your kitchen. Onions are sliced thick and pressed onto the pan with a weight, so they blacken on the surface. And I do mean black, not brown. Garlic is dry-roasted as whole cloves inside their own skin. The paper skins will burn a little bit, and the garlic steams inside. It creates a truly unique garlic flavor.

As I said, there are many different chiles to use, and heirloom varieties and new hybrid chiles are coming to be more commonly available. I'll give a basic rundown of the more common varieties to give you a basic idea of flavor profiles and heat levels of different chiles:

So as you can see, there are a lot of options to choose from. Ancho, Pasilla and Guajillo are often mixed together as the basis for meat sauces like mole, where food is stewed in the sauce like a stew. Hotter chiles like Arbol are often used for isolated bursts of flavor, where a small drizzle or a few drops go on the food.

When choosing chiles at the store, give them a little squeeze in the package. Most chiles should have a little flex to them. If they feel crunchy, stiff, or shatter in the package then they have sat on the shelf too long and gone stale.

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There's a lot of ways to blend different chiles together to add more depth. Try mixing a deep savory chile like a Meco with something sweet and fruity like Californias. Make a clean chile sauce with just chiles, water, salt and vinegar to get a clear idea of what that chile tastes like. Add some garlic, onions or both for a fuller, more well rounded and subtle sauce. As always, have fun and don't forget to play with your food.

Don’t forget to take notes when exploring with different variations. Have fun out there, and stay hot.

Chef Tibbs, also known as Joshua “Tibbs” Tibbetts, is a Cedar Rapids native who has been a professional chef for more than 30 years. Reach him at askmrtibbs@gmail.com.

2 ounces (55 grams) dried chiles of your choice

2 ounces vinegar of your choice or lime juice

1 to 2 heads of garlic (optional)

Put the gloves on before handling chiles, unless you want some unpleasant burning surprises later. The oils in dried chiles can easily get on your skin and transfer to other sensitive parts of the body like the eyes and nose.

Remove the stems from the chiles and split them in half lengthwise. Scrape the seeds away with a spoon and discard the stems and seeds.

If desired, you can lightly toast the chiles for a few seconds each in a cast iron pan, pressing them down gently with a spatula. This will deepen the flavor. They will lose some sweetness and gain some savory notes. I highly recommend doing this outdoors, as the fumes can be pretty aggressive. If you want the sauce to stay on the sweet side, then skip toasting.

Place the chiles in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. If hydrating Meco chipotles, continue to gently simmer them for 5 to 10 minutes. Place a lid on the pan and let it rest at least until it comes down to room temperature, or as long as overnight.

Strain the water from the chiles, but save it if you want a hotter sauce. It can be added back in for a more flavorful but hotter sauce. If you want a milder sauce, discard the soaking water.

Place the chiles in the blender or food processor and puree them. With the motor running, add water a little at a time until it becomes a thick paste. Let it blend for a while. Depending on your blender, it might take some time to really puree the little chile chunks. Add the vinegar or lime juice. You can continue adding water until the sauce is diluted to the consistency as you want it to be.

If you want a very smooth texture, pass the puree through the fine mesh sieve. Use a ladle or mixing spoon to help push it through. Discard the fibrous material left behind.

Add salt to taste. Hint: adding more salt is going to make the mixture taste spicier, but you definitely need some salt to transform any butter elements into deep savoriness.

Double check the acidity. Depending on how much water you added to the blending process, it might want some more vinegar or lime added to balance the acidity percentage.

If adding raw garlic, peel a couple cloves and add them to the blender when you first put the chiles in. Same goes for raw onion. When using these raw, a little goes a long way. So a couple cloves of garlic, or half of a raw onion.

If adding garlic asado, break the garlic head(s) up into their cloves but leave the skin on. Put a cast iron pan on the grill or a burner. Get the pan medium hot before adding the garlic cloves. Toast them in the pan until the skins turn translucent and you see brown or black spots forming just under the surface. Remove cloves from the heat as they are individually done, transferring them to a jar. Put a lid on the jar and let them steam for 5 or 10 minutes. Then peel them, blend them into a puree, and add to the chile sauce.

If adding onion asado, slice the onions(s) into thick slices, about as fat as a sharpie marker. Get a cast iron pan hot. Lay the slices on the cast iron pan dry, with no oil. Press them down with a grill press or a smaller pan. This will smoke up a bit, so you'll want to do this outside. Check them frequently. When they blacken on one side, carefully flip them over and blacken the other side as well. Place in a covered container to let them steam for 5 to 10 minutes. Then puree them and add to the chile sauce.

If adding garlic or onions, you will want to taste it to check the acidity, it will probably want a some more vinegar or lime juice.

Alexandra Olsen Food & Drink Apr. 21, 2021 10:52 am

Joshua Tibbetts Food & Drink Apr. 11, 2021 12:17 pm

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