Romesco

I made this romesco to go with grilled salmon, aioli, tomato salad, goat cheese crostini and tortilla espanola.  The recipe is adapted from Essentials of Mediterranean Cooking.  The recipe calls for ancho chilies.  It doesn't say if it's fresh or dried, so I assumed that it was for fresh.  I have never seen a fresh ancho chili in Columbia, but I did have a couple of poblanos in my fridge.  Researching later, I realize that an ancho is a dried poblano.  So the next time I would soak the dried ancho, then scrape out the pulp.   Nevertheless, it was delicious with the salmon.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place ancho chilis in bowl, cover with bowling water and soak for 20 minutes.  Drain. Remove stem and seeds.  Scrape pulp with a spoon into a food processor.  (This would have worked with a dried ancho.  This did not work with a fresh poblano.  So I cooked the poblanos with the red peppers, peeled them, then chopped and put in the processor.

Roast one large tomato and 2 red bell peppers.  Roast the tomato for about 10 min, then the bell peppers for an additional 20 minutes.  Peel and put in processor.

In a small frying pan add 1 tbsp olive oil. Saute one slice coarse country bread, crust removed, until crunchy.  Break apart into food processor.  Then add 2 chopped garlic cloves, 1/4 cup blanched toasted almonds, 1/4 cup toasted hazelnuts (skins removed), 1 tbsp red wine vinegar, 1 tsp sweet paprika, 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper.  I also added one tsp of dried ancho powder.   Season with salt and pepper.  Process to a coarse puree.  Cover and refrigerate.  Bring to room temp before serving.