Jalapeno Sauce
(Salsa Doña)

For Roasting:
4 Large fleshy Jalapeno peppers

Other Ingredients
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup vegetable oil
coarse sea salt, to taste

This sauce is inspired by the Doña sauce at Tacodeli on Spyglass Lane in South Austin. The food at tacodeli is great, but it's really just an excuse to eat Doña sauce. I did a little research on the web and found some recipes that got close to this wonderful, rich and spicy pepper sauce, and just kept at it until I got something I like. It's not exactly Doña, but I like it as much, and vive le difference!

As always, wash and rinse the vegetables. Don't start me on my dystopian view of the future of our foodchain.

OK, this is the trick. I've been roasting vegetables in my lame electric oven for a while, and it will do the trick, but the roasting happens unevenly, and the flavor is pretty neutral.

Roasting on the charcoal grill is ideal, but that takes forever. My gas grill was killed by Lucy the Crazy Dog, who chewed through its hoses one summer day.

The point is that you need flame to really blister the skin off of peppers. I saw the proprietor of Boggy Creek Farm roast chiles this way, and I've had a hankering to do it ever since:

Enter The Propane Torch:

Yes, you can still use your gas grill, or charcoal grill, or broiler, to roast chiles in your time-honored and preferred fashion. But you just can't beat this for thrills. Also, if the Alien comes to your house, you can scare it out of your ventilation ducts with this baby.

 

Next, into the ziploc to steam until they cool, as always.

 

Then, wearing gloves, as always when handling peppers, just rinse them and rub the blackened skin off.

 

After, and Before...

 

Next, halve and seed the peppers. These are all the ingredients there are!

 

Pop everything into the blender and let 'er rip. Put the garlic clove in first. I start with a couple of tablespoons of oil and drizzle it in until the blender has enough liquid to process. Don't get it too runny. Add some salt, to taste. Less than a half-teaspoon for this lot, probably.

 

Mmmm!