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Salsa Macha

This isn’t a tomato-based “salsa” like the kind you find in jars at the grocery store. Salsa macha is more like chile pesto, a puree of dried chillies with nuts, seeds, garlic and a little salt, vinegar and Mexican oregano. And the flavour is out of this world. TIP: You can use chilli flakes instead of seeds to save you the step of deseeding the chillies.
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Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 60 g dried chillies I used about 6 guajillos and 4 chipotles
  • 40 g 1/3 cup almonds (or other nut)
  • 1 Tbsp sesame seeds
  • 4 garlic cloves peeled and halved
  • 500 ml 2 cups olive oil
  • 1 Tbsp cider vinegar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • A generous 1/2 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano

Method
 

  1. Stem the chiles, then break or cut them open and remove most of the seeds; break the chillies up roughly into thumb-sized pieces.
  2. In a large saucepan, combine the almonds, sesame seeds, garlic and oil. Set over medium-high heat and cook until garlic and sesame seeds are golden, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the chiles. Let cool 5 minutes.
  3. In a small bowl, mix the vinegar with the salt until the salt dissolves, then add it to the pan along with the oregano. When the mixture has cooled to room temperature, pour it into a blender and pulse until everything is chopped into small pieces (I use a Froothie Optimum 9400 power blender for this). You don’t want a super smooth puree – leave some texture in there.
  4. Pour into a jar and store in the refrigerator until you’re ready to use.