sim plic i ty |sim’plisite|
noun
the quality or condition of being easy to understand or do: for the sake of simplicity, this chapter will concentrate on one theory.the quality or condition of being plain or natural: the grandeur and simplicity of Salsa de Ancho.
Some things in a fly fisher’s world manifest the very essence of ingenious simplicity.
- The surgeon’s knot.
- A sparsely tied Brassie.
- The knotless tapered leader.
- The classic bikini.
- An ice-cream-headache cold beer on a hot summer’s afternoon floating the Missouri.
The list could go on and on. Not surprisingly, there are parallels to such genius in the food world.
Friend Libby and I pondered at some length in Texas last year how to reconstruct a favorite restaurant salsa. It was obviously chile pepper based, piquant but not scorching and featured a vinegary note that gave it almost a vinaigrette character. It was pureed smooth, just thick enough to stay on a chip and obviously concocted from just a few key ingredients.
We both fiddled and fussed over several trials when trying to match it for a shindig she was catering at the time, but we never hit the flavors we were after right on the nose.
At least not until now.
Last Monday Libby emailed this elementary recipe, actually a stroke of simplistic genius, and claimed that she’d finally hit the taste we were after right on the money.
She was right. Try a batch of this salsa for your weekend grill feast and you’ll keep a jar in the fridge from that day forward. I can’t hardly imagine a food this wouldn’t make better.
7 dried ancho chile peppers, washed, oven toasted until dry and brittle
1 chile de Arbol pepper, washed, oven toasted until dry and brittle
1 large sweet onion, chopped fine / minced
1/2 cup olive oil
2/3 cup cup red wine vinegar
1-2 tsp. salt
Prep the peppers. Was the chile peppers and pat them dry; toast in a low oven until brittle. Cool, then removed the seeds and veins from three of the anchos.
Now crush all the peppers (sans stems of course) into very fine pieces with your hands or a quick pulse or two in the food processor. You’re looking for texture here, NOT making chile powder.
Mix it up. Now add the remainder of the ingredients and stir to mix well.
Wait for it. Chill for an hour or two in the fridge to let flavors mature and the chile pods to soften.
Enjoy.
