Save the salsa!

Cafe Society
1

Well I’m relleno-ing the ol’ chiles tonight, and I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to have some pico de gallo?’ So I nipped off to the market on my ‘lunch break’ to get stuff to make it. I ended up with 1.5 quarts. Now, I like pico de gallo as much as anyone, but I made a little much for two people – especially since Mrs. L.A. might think it’s a little hot. (Or she may not. We’ll see.) These are raw ingredients, and the only things approaching preservatives are a bit of salt and a bit of lime juice. (I forgot the limes, so I had to use reconstituted in the lime-shaped green plastic container. So sue me.)

I hate to throw the leftovers out. Is there a way to save it so that it doesn’t sit in the fridge until it starts mouldering?

2

Cook some it, blend it into liquid salsa, and freeze it for later.

3

I sometimes find myself in the same situation. Here’s an old stand-by family recipe to keep pico de gallo from going to waste.

Quick 'n Dirty Pork Burritos

3-4 lbs. boneless pork roast (shoulder roast is perfect for this), cubed
10 oz. can hot red enchilada sauce
1 - 2 lbs. refried beans, depending on how much you like beans in your burritos, homemade or otherwise
7-10 oz. fresh salsa (or jarred, if you just want burritos without making salsa)

Brown meat in your preferred fat, whether lard, vegetable oil or olive oil. Don’t use butter.

Dump all remaining ingredients in the pot and simmer for an hour, stirring often. The beans will stick more and more as the simmer progresses, so keep an eye on it.

When mixture is thick, lay down a track of cheese (I like cheddar and Monterey Jack) on a burrito-sized tortilla and spoon mixture over. Roll up and repeat till mixture is used up.

If you want them for dinner the same night, just heat in the oven for 20 minutes or so and serve with favored toppings: More salsa, lettuce, sour cream, guacamole, etc.

To freeze, wrap each burrito in foil. To reheat, either place in oven in foil and heat for 30 minutes or so. Or you can remove the foil and nuke them for a couple of minutes. These keep beautifully in the freezer for a couple of months.

Makes… quite a few. :slight_smile: If you run out of tortillas, you can just freeze the mixture and make burritos another time when you have more.

4

Missed the edit window.

To heat for dinner the same night, I’d still wrap them in foil to keep them from drying out.

5

Probably easy enough to make into freezable red sauce. I’d saute it up in your fat of choice and throw in a couple cans of diced tomatoes. Add spices (cumin, chile, whatever) to taste. Salt & pepper. Cook down until it’s slightly thick. You could puree it with a hand blender if you wanted.

6

Salsa fresca goes great in an omelet the next morning along with a little cheese. Just spoon a thin layer of salsa in the middle of the omelet, fold over and finish cooking.

For lunch, make some rice (not instant), add El Pato Mexican style hot tomato sauce, stir in some salsa, and serve. The El Pato should color and flavor the rice, not soak it. Awesome side dish when it’s all fresh.

7

Looks like I’ll be responsible for eating all of the salsa. Mrs. L.A. thinks I put too much salt in it. I think it’s fine. (But she really liked the chile relleno – poblano stuffed with cotija, and battered with whipped egg whites and yolks.)

Around here, leftovers often wind up in a tortilla. That recipe sounds interesting, though I wouldn’t use cheese with pork, myself. One thing, though… You call for 7-10 ounces of salsa. I have more than two and a half pounds.

That could work. Aside from enchilada sauce though, I can’t think of anything I use red sauce in/on.

I made ham-and-cheese omelettes a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately, Mrs. L.A. was a bit queazy that morning. Even though she likes my omelettes, having one when she was unwell kind of put her off of them. Last night, I did consider using the pico de gallo in a sort of Spanish rice later.

8

Yeah, I wasn’t saying I could use up all your salsa. Although I don’t think the burrito filling mixture would suffer if you added more.

Interesting you don’t use cheese with pork. :wink:

9

Send it to me? :grin:

10

I’m an interesting guy.

11

Yep, enchilada sauce was what I was going for, just forgot to mention that last bit :slight_smile:

12

Cook it down into sofrito; use it as the base of a batch of frijoles?

13

Stuff I do with leftover pico:
Add drained tuna and avocado for a tuna salad.
Make it into soup by adding to chicken broth and veggies.
Add to omelettes.
Add to Mac and cheese.

14

Here is my other solution, since you have so much: take the part you can’t use, buy a few bags of chips and set it up in the kitchen at work.

15

I was not aware that there was such a thing as “too much” salsa, but hey we live and learn.

I kid, we find ourselves in the same situation sometimes when a glut of toms kicks in. It does go very well with curries and Indian food in general. If it is hot then pair it with something of korma/passanda strength. If it is mild then a mouthful of fresh salsa and yogurt is perfect for the spicier sub-continental offerings, particularly a madras which is rich, hot and sweet and a great contrast with the tangy, fresh salsa.

16

There’s too much acid (and salt, maybe) in it for you to worry about it spoiling. Add some chopped tomato and onion if you want, cook it if you want, add lime if you want, but the stuff you made, will keep.

17

If it’s too much for the missus, maybe try mixing with more of the non spicy stuff for her part?

18

It’s hardly spicy at all. I only used two fresh jalapeños in it. She said it was too salty.

She tried it again Saturday, and she says it’s fine now. She seems to have ‘mood swings’ when it comes to saltiness.