Mexican fire-roasted sauces

If you are into real Mexican cuisine, you might like to make a fantastic fire-roasted sauce that only gets better once it sits in the fridge.

You'll need a cast-iron griddle or comal (a round iron griddle).  The best are by Lodge, and you can often find them at Academy; if not, you can order one directly from Lodge.  They are the best way to heat up corn tortillas also.

Ingredients:
One onion, quartered
Three or four Italian tomatoes
Two or three garlic cloves, unpeeled
A chile ancho, mulato, guajillo, pasilla, or cascabel (I really like cascabel chiles); these are dried chiles but they should still be flexible so you can use the rest for stuffing if you want to.  Recipe for that later.
Ground chipotle powder

Cover the griddle with aluminum foil and heat.  Place onion and tomatoes on the griddle and allow to roast, turning with kitchen tongs.  Have your blender handy, and as the onion and tomato begin to char, put them into the blender.  Put garlic on griddle and remove as the peel becomes toasted.  You can do this at the same time you do the onion and tomatoes if you are careful not to let the garlic burn.  Without taking off the peel, use a garlic mincer to mince the garlic right into the blender.

Put a small pan of water on the stove, add some salt, and heat to just boiling.  Meanwhile, remove the seeds and the stem from your chile of choice (I only use one) and place on griddle.  Turn chile, pressing it down lightly, but only until fragrant.  If it burns it becomes bitter.  Pop it into the hot water, turn off the heat under the pan and allow chile to rehydrate.

Place chile into blender with other ingredients and a little of the water in which the chile soaked.  Add salt and pepper.  Blend until smooth.

Heat a skillet and add some neutral-tasting oil.  When hot, "fry" sauce, stirring, until the raw taste has worn off.  Check the salt, and add just a touch of chipotle powder to add a smoky taste.

Store sauce in fridge.  Use for flautas, enchiladas, with a fried egg, in beans, you name it. 

The aluminum foil allows you to use the griddle without having a clean-up afterward.  Enjoy!