Red Chile Sauce

This is probably the most versatile of the red chile sauces. It also shows two important techniques. To develop the flavor of the dried chiles while softening them and taking away any bitterness, they are washed, quickly heated on a griddle to dry and briefly toast them, and soaked in hot water. Learn to recognize the moment when they are fragrant but not scorched—this is something you’ll be encountering in many dishes. Scorched chiles will turn the entire dish bitter and unusable. The othe