Chipolte Sour Cream Dip

This is really the quickest and simplest dip to whip up, but it tastes great and goes with so many things. It can also be used as a salad dressing, or a condiment, like mayonnaise.

I usually just cut up carrot and celery sticks and romaine lettuce leaves to dip into it.

Chipolte's are a roasted, smoked chili pepper with a rich earthy flavor. The sour cream is a perfect complement with it's tart, refreshing flavor that helps cool the heat of the chili.

Homemade Chipolte en adobo. Ingredients: dried chipotle chili peppers (brown chile meco variety), dried ancho chili peppers, tomato paste, apple cider vinegar, sugar, salt, garlic, oregano, ground cumin, and black pepper. Credit: Badagnani

A chipotle, or chilpotle, which comes from the Nahuatl word chilpoctli meaning “smoked chili” is a smoke-dried jalapeño.

The red jalapeños are moved to a closed smoking chamber and spread on metal grills. Wood is put in a firebox, and the smoke enters the sealed chamber. Every few hours the jalapeños are stirred to mix in the smoke. They're smoked for several days, until most of the moisture is removed. In the end, the chipotles have dried up in a manner akin to prunes or raisins. The underlying heat of the jalapeños combines with the taste of smoke. Typically, ten pounds of jalapeños make one pound of chipotle.

[Reference: Wikipedia – Chipolte]

Ingredients:

1 cup sour cream
1 heaping tsp chipolte pepper (homemade or canned)

Instructions:

1. These portions are only a guideline. It's best to decide how much dip you want and start with that amount of sour cream.
2. Add sour cream to blender. Add the chipolte pepper and blend well.
3. Taste, and add more chipolte as required until it suits your taste.

Serve as a dip with vegetable sticks, crackers, or vegetable chips (pictured), as a salad dressing, or as a condiment on tostadas, nachos, burritos, or… anything you like really.

Prep time: 15 minutes