Problem is, most of the salsa recipes I find produce a pile of finely chopped vegetables with a small amount of watery liquid in it. I don’t want to make this. I my veggies to float in a nice thick “sauce”, like the jar salsas I buy (but without all those nasty preservatives and chemicals).
Can someone give me a basic overview on how to get a thick saucy salsa going? If anyone has a recipe or two they’d like to share, that’d be great too. I’m planning on using onions, bell peppers, tomatoes, some hot peppers, then maybe some fruit (pineapples!) to make it interesting. How do I cook it? What sort of spices do I need? What kind of tomatoes should I use, fresh or canned? Skinned and seeded tomatoes? Do I need sugar? Should I take the seeds out of my peppers or leave them in (I don’t want this to be super hot, but I don’t want it super bland either).
Also have tried and really like some non-tomato salsas, such as Vidalia Onion and Jalapeno. This salsa is so awesome. It must be pureed or something, so it’s just a beautiful, thick, golden brown paste, no chunks of anything visible. It is soooo good! I’d love to try making something like this at home, but don’t have the faintest idea how to go about doing it. Anyone have ideas or tips?
2 large, red ripe tomatoes, peeled and seeded
1 garlic clove peeled
1 Anaheim green chili, seeded and cut into thirds
3 green onions, cleaned and cut into 1 inch pieces
4 oz canned chopped green chilies
1 to 3 whole jalapeños, deveined and seeded
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 Tablespoon lime juice
salt and pepper to taste
Chop everything up and mix. Chill and serve.
A Basic, albeit Large, Cooked Salsa
8 cups chopped/drained paste-type tomatoes
45 oz tomato sauce
one small can (6 oz.) tomato paste
10-16 cloves garlic, as desired
4 cups chopped bell pepper
2 Tablespoons minced Habenero pepper
2 small cans (4.5 oz.) chopped chilies
3 cups finely chopped onion
2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
3/4 teaspoon cumin
juice of 1 lime
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
2 Tablespoons corn starch
Bring all ingredients but the last to a low boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Add corn starch if needed.
Any cooked salsa is generally just “Put all the stuff in a pot and simmer awhile.”
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.
I think they sometimes thicken it (commercially) with tomato paste. I’d be judicious about adding it because it will add sweetness. Also, drain waterlogged things like your chopped tomatoes thoroughly (maybe leave them in the fridge to dehydrate awhile).
BTW the hottest part of the pepper is the seeds. Remove them, maybe reserve and add back gradually to get a feel for how much (tsp? Tb?) is going to create the heat you want.
Personal favorite salsa: Van de Waal. Check Wal Mart for it; it’s cheap, too!
Roast* and chop 2 chili peppers. Saute 1 cup chopped onions in 2 Tbsp olive oil. Add 2 cups canned tomatoes, 1 8-oz can tomato sauce, 1 clove minced garlic, chili peppers, ½ Tbsp chili power, 1 Tbsp honey, ½ tsp salt, ¼ tsp ground cumin seed, and a pinch of cayenne. Simmer uncovered for 30 minutes.
*Put 'em in the broiler till the skin turns black, then peel off the skin.
I agree with the first quoted paragraph, disagree with the second. In my opinion, peppers get hotter as they get closer to the stem. Now, if it’s because the additive factor of eating a whole pepper, or if the capsaicin it’s because it’s more concentrated near the stem (which would explain the, in my opinion, flawed conception that it’s the seeds that are the hottest; it’s just because they’re closer to the stem than most of the fruit).
Also, if you want some other stuff to spice it up a bit (pun intended), try adding black beans or sweet corn.
Just remember…to some of us, cilantro tastes like chemically-teated, superfund-waste-cite derived, spoiled, boiled and concentrated sweat sock residue.
It’s my understanding it’s the fleshy membrane attaching the seeds to the outer fruit that is where most of the heat resides. The problem is carefully removing it without squirting capsaicin all over the seeds & fruit, but there you go.
1 can (about 15 oz) mexican style stewed tomatoes
1 can (about the same) diced or whole tomatoes in juice
1 bunch green onions, white and light green part only, cut in pieces
1-2 Tablespoons pickled jalapeno slices (I use the ones for nachos)
1-2 Tablespoons fresh cilantro leaves, washed and well dried
About 1 tsp of salt and a few grinds of pepper.
Puree in bowl with stick blender. You can add more chopped vegetables if you like a chunky salsa. Let refrigerate at least one hour to blend flavors.
Here is Rick Bayless’s roasted tomato and habanero salsa. Excuse the slightly elaborate instructions; I’ve copied and pasted them from a recipe that I distributed here at work, and I had to assume that folks knew zilch about cooking when I wrote it up. It’s semi-cooked, thickish and chunky.
Roasted tomato and habanero salsa
3 big tomatoes, cored
2 cloves of garlic, skin on
1 habanero chile
½ medium white onion, chopped fine and let it sit in a bowl of cold water while you work
1/3 cup cilantro, chopped fine
¼ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons of mild vinegar, like rice or apple cider vinegar
Cut the tomatoes in half and put them on a pan close underneath a hot broiler. When the tops of them are somewhat blackened, turn them over and blacken the other side. This might take 10-15 minutes per side. Remove them from the broiler and let them cool. While they’re cooking, put a skillet over medium high heat and put the unpeeled garlic cloves and the habanero in it. Let them get somewhat blackened on all sides and remove them.
Carefully cut the habanero flesh away from the seedy part, holding it by its stem. Touch the chile as little as possible. Put the habanero flesh in the blender with one of the tomato chunks and a couple of tablespoons of water. Blend it for several seconds to ensure that the chile is well minced. Scrape this chile mixture out and reserve it. Peel the garlic.
Remove all the skins from the tomatoes, but save one or two that are really well blackened. Put these skins and all the tomatoes and the roasted garlic and all the accumulated juice from the tomato broiling pan into the blender and give it one or two pulses. You want to keep some chunky texture, so don’t blend it too much. Pour this tomato mixture into a mixing bowl, add the salt and vinegar, and then add the reserved habanero mixture a little at a time, tasting after each addition to check on how hot it is. You may want the whole amount, and you may not. It’s to your own taste.
Then add a little water until it’s as thin as you like it.
