Jalapeño and Cilantro Sauce

Two weeks ago, our department hosted a potluck burrito bar.  My colleague, who's Mexican-American, is famous for her sauces.  She made several types of sauce for this event, the cilantro jalapeno sauce, members only sauce and a burrito sauce.  Of the three sauces, the cilantro jalapeno sauce caught my eye due to it's lime green color.  It has a mild jalapeno kick and a rich cilantro goodness.  A lot of people asked for the recipe and she graciously shared it with us.  She mentioned getting the recipe from the America's Test Kitchen show.

Jalapeño and Cilantro Sauce

Ingredients:  (makes 1 cup)

• 1 cup fresh cilantro leaves, and stems, trimmed and chopped coarse
• 3 jalapeño chiles, stemmed, seeded, and minced
• ½ cup mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Procedure:

1.  In a blender, put the cilantro, jalapeño, mayonnaise, lime juice, garlic and salt.  Blend it for 1 minute.
2.  Scrape down sides of blender jar and continue to process it until smooth, about another minute.
3.  With blender running, slowly add oil until incorporated.
4.  Transfer to a bowl for serving or jar for storage.  

For a mild spicy sauce, add chile seeds of one chile.  For an ultra spicy sauce, add all chile seeds from all 3 chiles.