Breakfast Burrito Sauce

Some successful dishes are based on reading a recipe, being inspired by an idea you wouldn't have thought of, and perhaps having a new experience. Alternatively, others are based on a random flash of a thought that illuminates a hole in your food world and makes you crave an inexplicable food experience, or even emotion, and trying to create a recipe to fill that void.

This recipe is in the later category, as a couple of weeks ago I became obsessed with the idea of making a sweet but also spicy breakfast burrito sauce. I was thinking of making a homemade breakfast burrito sauce, and all of a sudden had a very specific image come to mind of a sauce that would combine different elements from a breakfast plate (picture maple syrup mingling with the huevos racheros). I ended up starting with a smokey tomate-chipotle sauce, and adding in maple syrup, cinnamon, and fruit preserves to try achieve this savory-sweet goal.

This recipe included an ingredient that I've been curious about, but haven't used before, canned chiles chipotles en adobo. They're basically a very smokey-tasking canned chile. The flavor is definitely kind of strong, so I would use them sparingly, but I liked the flavor.

I was really happy with how this sauce turned out; this is mostly a spicy sauce, but the sweet and fruity flavors come through, making it a more complex addition than the typical sauce to whatever you put it on. Honestly, I envisioned this as a breakfast burrito sauce, but I mostly ate it with fried eggs and cheese on toast. And it was pretty amazing, especially after sitting for a few days. I think pretty much how I pictured.

Breakfast Burrito Sauce

Adapted from Rick Bayless's Essential Quick-Cooked Tomato-Chipotle Sauce

Makes about 2 cups

3 canned chiles chipotles en adobo

4-5 garlic cloves

1 1/2 lbs (4-5 medium) tomatoes 

1/2 t salt

1 T olive oil

2 T apricot preserves

1 T maple syrup

1/4 t ground cinnamon

1. On a heavy, ungreased skillet over medium heat, roast the unpeeled garlic, turning occasionally, until blackened in spots and soft, about 15 minutes. Cool, slip off the papery skins, and roughly chop. 

2. Lay the tomatoes on a baking sheet and place about 4 inches below the top of the oven with the stove set to the broiler mode. When they blister, blacken and soften on one side, about 6 minutes, turn them over and roast on the other side. Cool, then peel, collecting all the juices with the tomatoes. 

3. Scrape the tomatoes and their juices into a food processor and add the canned chiles and garlic. Pulse the food processor until the mixture is nearly a puree. 

4. Heat the oil in a medium-sized saucepan over medium-high heat. When hot enough to make a drop of the puree sizzle, add the mixture from the food processor, as well as the apricot preserves, maple syrup, and cinnamon, and stir for 5 minutes as it sears and concentrates to an earthy, thickish sauce. Lastly, add the salt. 

Keeps for at least a week in the refrigerator.