I want to make some salsa, but I am looking for the best, most amazing recipe, so I have come to you, my gourmand friends for input…
Pass the tortilla chips and share…
One of my favorites:
1 lb tomatillos
1/2 lb various peppers (I usually include about 1/3 hot, 1/3 sweet and 1/3 smoky varieties)
1 avocado
1 lime
1/2 bunch cilantro
Roast tomatillos and peppers. Place a large garlic clove and ~1/4 cup tequila or water in a blender and blend. Add roasted tomatillos and peppers. Blend just enough to mix together - not until smooth! Mash the avocado (again not until smooth) and chop the cilantro. Add the avocado, lime juice, and chopped cilantro to the mixture.
One of the best ways to serve it is over plain baked salmon. I also sometimes do plain steak tacos with lots of salsa. The best thing about these meals is that they have no added sugar, salt or fat.
Now I know what I want for dinner!
3 or so large tomatoes
2 green bell peppers
1 bunch cilantro
1 bunch green onions
1 anaheim pepper
2 jalpenos
2 lemons
a dash of lemon pepper
I think thats everything chop everything but lemons and lemon pepper ( I use a food processor) and mix together. Squeeze juice from lemons and add lemon pepper to taste. Probably not the best ever, but I like it. Also, it tastes better if you let the final product sit for an hour or so; it gives all the juices time to mix and become delicious.
I use Alton Brown’s basic recipe:
**Salsa Recipe courtesy Alton Brown
Show: Good Eats
Episode: Chile’s Angles **
6 Roma tomatoes, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 seeded and minced jalapenos, plus 2 roasted, skinned and chopped jalapenos
1 red bell pepper, fine dice
1/2 red onion, fine chopped
2 dry ancho chiles, seeded, cut into short strips and snipped into pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 lime, juiced
Chili powder, salt, and pepper, to taste
Fresh scallions, cilantro or parsley, to taste
In a bowl, combine all ingredients. Place in refrigerator for up to 12 hours for flavor infusion.
Serve with tortilla chips.
You can make this with just about any chilis you have around. The roasted jalapenos really make this one shine.
Mango Black Bean Salsa
2 medium mangoes, chopped
2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can corn ‘n’ peppers
1/2 cup red onion, finely chopped
1-2 jalapenos, minced
1 tablespoon ground cumin (more to taste)
2 teaspoons Adobo seasoning (or garlic salt)
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
Cilantro, chopped, to taste
Combine all ingredients and allow to rest for an hour before eating. This is actually best the next day.
I use Rick Bayless’s recipe. The biggest difference you can make is to use backyard tomatoes, or failing that, the best farmer’s market tomatoes you can find. Here’s the recipe from memory:
1 pound of tomatoes, halved and cored
1 habanero
1 clove of garlic, unpeeled
1 small white onion, finely chopped and rinsed under cold water in a strainer
1/3 cup finely chopped cilantro
1-2 tsp of cider or other mild vinegar
salt to taste
Put the tomatoes, skin side up, in a broiler pan under the broiler. Broil them until they are blackened, then turn them over and slightly blacken the other side. While this is going on, put the garlic and habanero in a small skillet on the stove over a high heat and blacken them slightly, too. It will take several minutes. Peel the softened, blackened garlic and put it with about half of the habanero (reserve the other half) into a blender with a little water and blend them until minced. Scrape them out into a small bowl and reserve.
Remove the skins from the tomatoes, reserving one or two of the most blackened skins. Put the tomatoes and their juices into the blender, together with the reserved blackened skins, and pulse the blender once or twice. You don’t want a smooth puree, but a kind of chunky pulpy mixture. Scrape the tomatoes out into a big bowl and add the garlic mixture, the onions, the cilantro and the vinegar. Add water until it is of a texture to your liking, thicker or thinner. Stir in some salt to taste. If you like it hotter, carefully mince the remaining habanero half and add it in in increments until it is to your taste.
Gads, it’s good made in early September when one is swimming in ripe tomatoes from the backyard!
I wouldn’t call my salsa “amazing,” but it’s damn good and you can make it in five minutes.
I use canned tomatoes instead of whole tomatoes which probably sounds attrocious to alot of people, but I find that whole tomatoes bought from my local grocery store do not have much flavor to them, whereas canned diced or whole tomatoes do. Probably there are much better fresh tomatoes than the ones at my store, so if you have access to them, by all means use them.
Anyway, the recipe is:
Mix the following in a blender:
A can of tomatoes,
About a third of a fist-sized white onion.
A lot of fresh cilantro, like all the leaves off a set of stalks half an inch in diameter
A couple of cloves of garlic.
One or two Jalapenos, to taste. Remove core and seeds as per heat preference.
Six or seven good shakes from a salt-shaker.
Blend it up.
Eat with chips or whatever else is appropriate.
It often ends up being a favorite at parties, suprisingly enough.
-FrL-
Forgot to add: For some reason it’s always far tastier after it’s been in the fridge for a day. There was once a thread asking why this is true of so many foods and beverages, but we never came to a clear answer.
-FrL-
Some great sounding recipes here. Mine is as follows:
6-8 Roma tomatoes, seeds removed, chopped
white onion, chopped fine, about 1/4 - 1/3 cup
3 or 4 large garlic cloves, minced
1/4 - 1/3 chopped fresh cilantro
1 or 2 jalapenos, a serrano or two, a yellow Rio Grande, 1 or 2 roasted Anaheims, all chopped
juice of 1/2 lime
salt to taste
I prefer to make fresh salsa, but you can certainly roast the tomatoes & peppers and make it more of a cooked version. If you’re going to roast or pan blacken any hot peppers, take care, breathing the fumes can light you up.