Question
Julie Cannon
You mentioned you had lived in Austin. Any tips for making Tacodeli's Dona sauce? I tried something similar to fauxmartha's method, but mine is much darker, less flavorful, less airy/creamy.
Answer
I've actually done a little bit of research on this as well, too. So the Taco Deli's salsa sauce, if you look at the ingredients on the package, it's literally just jalapenos, garlic, salt, and vinegar. So just four ingredients, which is pretty nice. Now, the technique is really what the magic part on this is. And you mentioned Faux Martha's method. Faux Martha basically puts everything into the oven and basically broils it to be able to get the jalapenos to crisp on the outside and get that blackenedness on the outside. Which is great because it's going to add a ton of flavor to it. Now, the creaminess is part of what makes this sauce kind of what it is. Doing a little bit of research into it, I found a chef that actually worked at Taco Deli back in the day and posted the recipe. You can find it on Reddit if you do a little bit of digging. But they said that they actually boiled the jalapenos. And boiling the jalapenos actually changes a little bit of the chemical structure into adding a lot more liquid into the cells of that jalapeno. Now, I personally would probably roast them first to be able to get that nice depth of flavor, which is what Faux Martha did on that. But you definitely get all the skins off the outside to be able to make that not as dark as well, too. And you might even want to try a 50/50 match where you can broil half of the jalapenos and then get the skins off of those and then boil the other half of the jalapenos. Then put everything into a food processor and hope to get that creaminess. One of the tricks of this, too, is also using a very high-speed blender. So something like a Vitamix would work great, where you're going to put it on high for quite a long time to be able to get rid of most of those seeds that are in there, too, to be able to help break it down if you keep the seeds in it. A lot of people keep the seeds out, especially to keep that creaminess on it. So again, just four ingredients, but part of this is technique. So instead of just broiling, try boiling your jalapenos, which is definitely something that I was a little surprised by, but it seems to work to be able to help get that creaminess out of that sauce or into that sauce.
