Fundación:

Salsa Madre

Mother Sauce

Salsa madre, mother sauce, is like a cook’s “secret sauce” of proprietary seasoning and ingredients. You see the sauce more in restaurants than home kitchens. I’m not exactly sure why that is, but I’m guessing restaurants make the seasoning sauce for the same reason I developed my Saltado Sauce (page 138). Having a “mother sauce” helps the cook keep all of the different, and sometimes independently bold, flavors in Peruvian cooking balanced. I’ve heard some Peruvian home cooks also use the term salsa madre, but like so many of our Spanish phrases, they could be referring to an actual completed sauce, or more of a seasoning base like my salsa madre. In that way, my version is almost like aderezo (seasoning base; see page 152), in a more complete, full-flavored form (an aderezo is a cook’s favorite mix of seasonings, like onions, garlic, maybe some pepper pastes, but is pretty basic). Along with sautéed onions, my salsa madre has both ají amarillo and ají panca pastes—which together have a spicy and smoky-sweet flavor balance—and a generous amount of spices like cumin and oregano, along with plenty of garlic.

The flavors in salsa madre are pretty intense, so you only need a small amount. Chop the onions finely so they almost melt into the sauce. Because the salsa madre already has a good amount of oil, you can start off sautéing whatever you are cooking simply with a dollop or two of the sauce. Store the sauce in the freezer in generous tablespoon-size portions or flat in a freezer bag so you can break off little chunks whenever you need it.

• ¼ cup olive oil
• ½ cup finely diced red onion
• 2 tablespoons pureed garlic (see page 37) or finely minced garlic
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 tablespoons ají amarillo paste, store-bought or homemade (see page 34)
• ½ cup ají panca paste, store-bought or homemade (see page 36)
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1½ tablespoons dried oregano leaves, preferably Mexican
• 2 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper

1 Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven or saucepan over medium-high heat until hot, a good 2 minutes. Add the onion and sauté, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, until it begins to soften, 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in the garlic and bay leaf, and then add the ají amarillo and panca pastes. Reduce the heat to medium-low and gently push the aderezo (flavorings) back and forth on the bottom of the pan until the pepper pastes smell toasty and the sauce has reduced slightly, about 5 minutes.

2 Add the cumin and oregano and stir for 15 seconds, or until the spices smell fragrant. Add the pepper, remove the salsa madre from the heat, and let cool completely. Remove the bay leaf, cover, and refrigerate for up to 5 days, or lay the sauce flat in a quart-size freezer bag, freeze, and break off small pieces as needed.