Gavilla Patrciia Quintana – Salsa Arriera

Bitter: 🟡🟡🟡🟡○

Salty: 🟡🟡🟡○○

Sour/Tangy:🟡🟡○○○

Sweet: 🟡🟡○○○

Umami: 🟡○○○○

Heat: 🟡🟡○○○○○○○○

Quick Flavor Notes: Bitter, fruity, smoky, complex

Recommended: Yes

Texture: Medium-thin with seeds

Ingredients (translated from Spanish): Tomatillo, Water, Onion, Vegetable Oil, Garlic, Morita Chiles, Added Sugar, Salt, and Chile de Arbol

This is a salsa that’s been sitting in a drawer in my spare bedroom for too long. It’s one I picked up over two years ago at this point while in Mexico along with a bevy of other salsas and hot sauces. I’ve previously reviewed the Salsa de Aguacate y Habanero from the same brand and quite enjoyed it. Patricia Quintana is a Mexican chef and entrepreneur who studied abroad in Switzerland and France before returning to Mexico combining continental European classical techniques with native Mexican flavors. She founded the Gavilla brand thirty years ago and continues to write cookbooks as well as appear on Mexican television as a cooking instructor and demonstrator. Enjoying red salsas often more than green I was excited to give this a try.

Salsa Arreira means “mule driver’s salsa” and originated in central Mexico. When local commerce depended on four-legged transportation mule drivers would run teams of mules throughout Mexico delivering goods and cargo. Because they’d often be away from cities and settlements while on route they developed a quick and easy salsa to flavor the durable food they were able to take along. Originally salsa arreira was made from serrano peppers charred over their campfires and mixes with onions and garlic. While that version still exists a more modern version has evolved that’s based on popular Mexican dried chiles – the morita and the chile de arbol. The morita chile is a smoked red jalapeno, similar to a chipotle pepper but smoked for a much shorter period of time so that the smoke flavor becomes an accent instead of dominant. Morita, which means “little berry” in Spanish, have a dark fruity berry-like flavor. The chile de arbol is one of the spicier members of the Capsicum Annuum family and gets its name, meaning “tree chile” from the thick woody stem they develop when ripe. Gavilla Patricia Quintana Salsa Arreira combines those two chiles with tomatillos, onion, vegetable oil, garlic, sugar and salt for a simple yet flavorful salsa.

While the original salsa arreira made by the mule drivers was thick and chunky, often ground by molcajete, the Gavilla Patricia Quintana version is thin and smooth other than the chile seeds. I do always love to see seeds in a sauce or salsa as they add a bit of texture and a bit of bitterness which is a flavor that’s undervalued in many foods. Since the base of this sauce is tomate verde, or tomatillos (technically tomate verde means green tomato but it’s how tomatillos are referred to in most of Mexico, and despite looking like a tomato is actually a member of the gooseberry family) it’s surprising how scarlet in color the sauce is, which is a good indication that it’s heavy on the chiles. That comes through in the flavor as well, especially the chiles de arbol which despite being the last of the ingredients by volume have a huge impact on the flavor of the sauce. This salsa tastes more like the dark red salsa that comes in the little plastic cups from taquerias and taco trucks than any other salsa I’ve tried. It has that earthy intense bitter flavor that chiles de arbol have along with a slight smokiness from the moritas. Unlike chipotles, which I often find to be overwhelmingly smoky, the subtle background smoke of the moritas is very pleasant. The fruitiness of the moritas also comes through after that initial earthy bitter hit of the chiles de arbol which when combined with the natural sweetness of the onion and tomatillo gives this salsa a great bloom that transitions on your palate. The onions and garlic also make this nice and savory and there’s enough acidity from the tomatillos to keep it vibrant if not necessarily tangy. Heat is present and even has a bit of build as you eat more, with this salsa even eclipsing basic hot sauces in heat.

Of course I had to do the American thing and try this with tortilla chips first. I typically prefer chunkier salsas for dipping chips though the flavor of this one is still very nice for that purpose, with the mild flavor of the corn chip letting all of the flavor notes of this salsa shine. Given that this reminded me so much of the sauce cups I get from taco trucks I tried it with tacos next and it shines especially brightly there, the thinner consistency letting it coat all of the meat and it coming across as just a higher quality more nuanced and fruitier version of those little salsa cups. When I was reading up on the history of salsa arreira I saw that it was commonly used on grilled meats, so I decided to try this on a skirt steak that I grilled and again I found it to be a great pairing, the smoky and bitter elements working in synergy with the charcoal seared beef and those fruity, oniony, garlicky flavors being steak’s best friends.

While I bought this in Mexico it looks like Gavilla now has US distribution and is available on Amazon (and I imagine at various Mexican grocery stores) so this is one I can definitely recommend. It’s freshly made, has great chile-forward flavor, has a complex flavor that’s quite different from any US-market jarred salsa that I’ve tried, and is all natural with no artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, or thickeners.