Help with Chile de Arbol Peppers/Sauce

[phorts]

Hi All,
 
I'm trying to recreate my most favorite sauce on the planet from my local tacqueria. After years of begging they finally gave me the ingredients and some guidance on the process, but i simply cannot recreate it after several attempts. So i'm hoping you all can help shed some light on what I might be doing wrong. 
 
Here are the ingredients:
 
Chile de Arbol
Tomatillos (canned)
Garlic
Onion
Salt
 
From what they tell me none of this is cooked. You simply roast the chiles, add to a blender and voila. I've been approaching this from a scientific method of using controls and variables, changing one thing each attempt. Canned vs Fresh Tomatillos, different quantities of ingredients, different brands, more/less seeds, etc. 
 
The sauce at the restaurant is a nice golden/orange color (see attached pic). My attempts all come out greenish with red chunks. I think my problem is that i'm not getting the essence of the peppers into the sauce. The peppers i'm using are very dry and brittle. When i roast them (either high and fast or low and slow) they dont become very maleable. So when i add them to the blender they just chop into smaller pieces. 
 
What am i doing wrong? I've tried peppers from Penzeys (attached pic) and my local supermarket. I'm using fresh onion and garlic (not boiled or roasted) and i've used canned and fresh (boiled and cooled) Tomatillos. 
 
It has to be something going on with the type of peppers or process that i'm using.
 
Thanks in advance for your help. If we solve this, you're going to have the recipe for one bad ass salsa!

 

[The Hot Pepper]

You need to rehydrate the dried peppers first, in water. This will fix your issue. The reason you have green with red chunks is you are blending dried peppers into a thick base and they are rehydrating after the fact. If you rehydrate first, it is akin to using a fresh pepper.

 

[phorts]

Thanks for the help!

So should I roast them dry and then rehydrate?

How long to roast and on what heat?
How long to rehydrate?

Is it possible they are using fresh cjie de arbol and why they didn't mention anything about rehydration? Can you even get fresh Chile de arbol easily?


Sorry for all the questions!

 

[The Hot Pepper]

I'm not sure why you are roasting dried peppers.

 

[The Hot Pepper]

"Toasting" can give dried peppers some flavor, in a dry pan. But roasting is what you would do with fresh.
 
If you want to roast you will need to rehydrate first. When they are plump roast a bit. Continue with your recipe.

 

[phorts]

Ahh yes I meant toasting. I'm toasting them in a dry pan.

Would you recommend toasting dry then rehydrating? Or rehydrating and roasting?

Thanks!

 

[The Hot Pepper]

Okay good.
 
Toasting is fine. Dry pan no oil. Then drop into water and rehydrate overnight or until soft and plump. Then continue with your recipe.

 

[Durge]

Watch a video on rehydeating peppers for best results. The process usually works best when you throw them in /some/ boiling water. Maybe simmer them until soft and until most of the water has boiled away. Then you can pour the rehydeated chilis and what little chili water is left on the pan into the blender with the rest of the ingredients. Also, you really don't need to worry about roasting the chilis before or after rehydrating them. That's doing too much to begin with, try the recipe without roasting.

To answer your other queation, finding fresh chile de arbol can be difficult depending on where you live. You might have luck at a local farmers market or produce mart.

If you really wana get that roasted flavor (after simply trying the rehydetaed recipe), I'd suggest rehydrating the chilis, then throwing them on a sheet pan and putting them in the oven on broil for a minute or two. This will create a little bit of that char on the flesh of the chilis. I do this with serranos and jalapeños. Goodluck, let us know how it went.