There is a syrup i like to make sometimes, its made with ancho chile. The ancho chile is a dried blackish/reddish brown chile. Flat and wrinkled, it looks almost like a big flat raisin in a way. Its actually a poblano that is dried, then its called ancho. It’s a not very hot to medium hot chili – the scoville units is 1000-1500.
This is the sweetest of the dried chiles originating from Mexico.The word ancho means “wide” in Spanish. Fresh poblanos are also sold under the name pasilla to confuse it a bit more. This chile is often mixed up with the darker and sweeter mulato chile – another variety of the dried poblano with hints of chocolate, cherry and tobacco in its flavour profile.
Ancho chile is great in soups and stews and in syrup.The ancho chile syrup has a sweet slightly hot, earthy and musky flavour and naturally pairs well with agave spirits. Its wonderful with mezcal for instance.
To such a chile i think a dark sugar is very fitting and last time i made this syrup i used raw light brown sugar 2:1 to water and a pinch of molasses.
ANCHO CHILI SYRUP
1 large dried ancho chili
1 cup light raw sugar
pinch of molasses
0.5 cup water
What you need to make one bottle of syrup is one large ancho chile to 0.5 cup water and 1 cup sugar. Bing to boil and boil lightly for about 10 minutes to get the flavours out of the dried chili, taste it and adjust the cooking time. Strain out the seeds when you think its hot enough.
Then take off the heat and leave to cool. Strain and bottle.
Syrup cooling in the window.
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This tastes very nice. Thanks for the fun idea. It only made about 2.5 ounces so I did it twice to fill a 5oz woozy bottle (what most hot sauces come in). I am going to write a review on this soon for my site http://www.hotsaucehoncho.com. I will put your link there too. Thanks again.