On Nov 14, 7:54*am, mack the knife > wrote:
> Does anyone know how to make the delicious enchilada sauces found in most
> restaurants? *It's actually a mild kind of on the light orange/red side..

That's a Tex-Mex *chili* sauce which has tomato sauce in it. Most of
the "Mexican food" that Americans in the Southwest eat is actually Tex-
Mex, which is a blending of two traditions of cooking, American and
Mexican.

> Most recipes I've tried come out a dark red and too spicy.

That's a Mexican style *chile* sauce which has *no* tomato sauce in
it. The color comes from the red chiles themselves.

If you make your own *chile* sauce, you need to know your tolerance
for
heat.

Google up "scoville" in this newsgroup to find the relative "heat" of
the various
chiles used to Mexican cooking.

There is another factor besides the amount of capsacin in the chiles.

It's the *nictotine* taste that some chiles, like poblanos, have.

When poblanos are dried, they are called "anchos", meaning "wide".
They still have a slight nicotine taste after drying.