ISO Mexican hot sauce

[smoke king]

I recently had an opportunity to try some authentic, homemade Mexican hot sauce-unfortunately, the language barrier kept me from getting the recipe from my host.

You could see through it-it wasn't opaque-and I could see pepper seeds, and of all things, sliced radishes floating in it!! And it was smokin' hot!! OK-I'll admit it-I'm addicted to the endorphin rush, but it had a great flavor as well.

He had grilled up some skirt steak, and it was real simple-just the steak and the sauce on a tortilla-I could'nt stop eating it!!

Does this sauce ring a bell with anyone? I would love to make a batch for myself!!

[Dina]

There are variations on these sauces SmokeKing. My mother's recipe is a concoction of mashed, ripe tomatoes, chopped onions, serrano peppers, cilantro, garlic, salt and pepper then sauteed in a bit of vegetable oil. The chunkier one we make is called pico de gallo which consists of the same fresh ingredients (all finely chopped) with a splash of lime juice. This one is not cooked. MIL, who is from El Salvador, makes this killer sauce which consists of chopped radishes and all the ingredients I mentioned except for the peppers (their's is not a hot sauce). They just don't know what they're missing. LOL If you tell me more about the flavors in the sauce, I'll try to find more recipes for you.

[smoke king]

Thanks Dina.

This sauce had no tomato in it whatsoever. The onions,garlic, cilantro and some sort of chile(s) sound right, but it was'nt "chunky" at all. Could this be something that is sauteed and then strained?

You know, now that you mention it, I guess I just assumed this was a Mexican hot sauce. It could be El Salvadoran, or ?

I will try to get some more info on this and get back to you.

Thanks so much.

[Dina]

If it was strained then it had to be sauteed a bit. Was the radish cooked or raw? I'd make the first sauce I mentioned (without the tomato) then strain it. I'm sure you can play with it several times until you find the right taste.

[smoke king]

The radish was raw-I'm sure it was added after the process.

I like the idea of sauteeing and then straining, but I can't help that think that if you take the tomatoes out of the equation, you are taking out the liquid-will the onions, peppers,cilantro etc "give up" enough liquid to make it into a "sauce"?

I'll keep an eye out for my neighbor-unfortunately, he speaks no english, and I no spanish (except for Cerveza-that one I was able to figure out!!)

Anybody know the spanish word for "recipe"?