Christmas tamales · The tamalada

Salsa roja for tamales

25 minutes · makes enough for about 2 dozen tamales

A photo like it · Jorge A. Ramos Ruiz, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

A simple cooked tomato and chile de árbol salsa to spoon over tamales at the table.

You need

• 4 Roma tomatoes
• 1/4 white onion
• 2 garlic cloves, unpeeled
• 4 to 6 dried chiles de árbol, stems pulled off
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/2 lime, juiced

How to make it

1. Heat a dry skillet or comal over medium-high. Char the tomatoes, onion and garlic, turning, until blistered and soft, about 10 minutes for the tomatoes. Peel the garlic.
2. Toast the chiles de árbol in the same pan for 15 to 20 seconds, until they darken a shade; pull them before they blacken.
3. Blend the tomatoes, onion, garlic, chiles and salt until smooth.
4. Heat the oil in a small pot over medium-high, pour in the salsa (it spatters) and simmer 5 minutes, until a shade darker and slightly thicker.
5. Take it off the heat, stir in the lime and taste for salt. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Good to know

• Four chiles is medium; six is hot.
• It keeps a week in the fridge.

Then fill and steam them: the masa, and how to fill, fold and steam.

The rest of the tamalada

Or order a dozen: 25 makers

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