Hey Everybody,
I had a rather hefty harvest of tomatoes this afternoon, so I decided to make some salsa. Even though there are about a zillion other salsa recipes in these forums, I thought I would share just for kicks. I have always thought that salsa making was more whimsical and improvisational, rather than something that should be made precisely from a recipe, but that is just my opinion. Recipes make something much easier to reproduce, at least. Well, here's what I did...
I cut up a regular sized vidalia onion into chunks, so each piece was probably about 1/16th of the onion, and I peeled about 5 cloves of garlic and placed this stuff on a foil-covered cookie sheet. I broiled everything in the oven along with a bunch of tomatoes and 5 datil peppers until things were starting to get a bit roasty. Then everything went into the food processor for a bit of chopping, along with the juice from a lime. When everything was at my desired consistency, I boiled it in a pot with a tablespoon or two of tomato paste to cook it and evaporate a bit of the water. Then I added a teaspoon of salt, a half teaspoon of ground cumin, and a "handful" of finely chopped cilantro. I think that cilantro and cumin taste best when they are not boiled for the entire time, but added at the end after you turn the flame off.
I am being intentionally imprecise with my quantities. As long as you add enough tomato to balance the onions, you will be fine. If you didn't broil enough tomatoes the first time, broil a second batch before you put everything in a pot to boil on the stove. There is a lot of room for personal preference with the consistency, too. I like my salsa blended rather finely, but you can hand chop everything and avoid the food processor step altogether, if you want. Or you can hand chop your pepper of choice and blend everything except for the pepper, and add them to the pot so that you have discernible chunks of pepper in your salsa.
I have probably rambled on too much, but I hope someone finds this to be helpful.
I had a rather hefty harvest of tomatoes this afternoon, so I decided to make some salsa. Even though there are about a zillion other salsa recipes in these forums, I thought I would share just for kicks. I have always thought that salsa making was more whimsical and improvisational, rather than something that should be made precisely from a recipe, but that is just my opinion. Recipes make something much easier to reproduce, at least. Well, here's what I did...
I cut up a regular sized vidalia onion into chunks, so each piece was probably about 1/16th of the onion, and I peeled about 5 cloves of garlic and placed this stuff on a foil-covered cookie sheet. I broiled everything in the oven along with a bunch of tomatoes and 5 datil peppers until things were starting to get a bit roasty. Then everything went into the food processor for a bit of chopping, along with the juice from a lime. When everything was at my desired consistency, I boiled it in a pot with a tablespoon or two of tomato paste to cook it and evaporate a bit of the water. Then I added a teaspoon of salt, a half teaspoon of ground cumin, and a "handful" of finely chopped cilantro. I think that cilantro and cumin taste best when they are not boiled for the entire time, but added at the end after you turn the flame off.
I am being intentionally imprecise with my quantities. As long as you add enough tomato to balance the onions, you will be fine. If you didn't broil enough tomatoes the first time, broil a second batch before you put everything in a pot to boil on the stove. There is a lot of room for personal preference with the consistency, too. I like my salsa blended rather finely, but you can hand chop everything and avoid the food processor step altogether, if you want. Or you can hand chop your pepper of choice and blend everything except for the pepper, and add them to the pot so that you have discernible chunks of pepper in your salsa.
I have probably rambled on too much, but I hope someone finds this to be helpful.
