Maybe the price was too high but I belive I really did buy high quality Chile Pasilla de Oaxaca in the Comsatti outdoor market. Our young yawning merchant had a friendly manner and did not seem to be a thief. And I have read in more then a few places that passilla de Oaxaca is sold by the piece ( 100 count ) rather then by weight. Still I paid too much(4 pesos for five) that first day and bought dozens of them for 14 pesos at the Reforma indoor market.
Today I decided to make the five I had bought earlier into a paste to mix into other dishes and possbly combine with cumin, celantro, oregano, and lime juice and smear of some chicken to be grilled the next day. Also a few of these smoky gems will find their way into a salsa verde in the next few days.
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First off, then chiles need to be seeded, and cleaned
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Then we need to toast the chiles. Sometimes I do this in the oven but today I am using a cast iron skillet to toast them on the stove top. The idea is to vaguely color the chiles, and release an aroma but not to darken or burn them
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Transfer them to a blender jar
and blend till you have a rough paste. Adding a 1/4 cup of warm water will help
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Using a spoon, press the rough paste through a strainer till you have a very smooth paste. For greater quantities of chiles it is easier to use a food mill.
This last step is not 100% necassary. I myself do not mind the bits of skin and ribs left in the chili paste after the initial trip through the blender. I did in fact reserve those bits after I finished straining the paste and will incorporate them as I see fit into various dishes.
So while I was making this paste I decided I would devout this batch to a salsa. It would be a typical Salsa de Tomitillo but I have a feeling the pasilla de Oaxaca is going to muscle in and take over. This would not be a bad thing.