I want to make a salsa.
1 - 20 of 41 Posts
Joined
·
9,388 Posts
Sure this is technically a pico de gallo but it's good. So let's get to the pico de gallo goodness.
12 Roma tomatoes – diced into small cubes: I usually used Roma tomatoes because they are fairly easy to find and are usually ripe and don’t have to much in the way of pulp, If the Roma tomatoes look less than appealing feel free to grab up whatever tomatoes do look good. Please remember if say the beefsteak tomatoes look awesome you will not need twelve o them. Five or six should do well depending on how big they are. Also cherry or grape tomatoes are always easy to find and work fine.
3 or 4 Jalapeño peppers and one pableno pepper – diced fine: The pablenos add a lot of flavor without too much heat and the jalapeños add the heat. If you want it hotter leave the ribs and seeds in the jalapeños if you want it milder remove them. If you’re feeling frisky remove the ribs on some and not on others. You can use any chili combination you like and can fine but this works for me and is fairly easy to find.
1 bell pepper (preferably red or yellow) – diced fine: I like the bell pepper to add some flavor and the sweetness balances out the heat. I like the red and yellow peppers because they tend to be the sweetest.
2 or 3 cloves of garlic – minced as finely as possible. If you have an electric chopper or food processor just check the cloves in there and pulse a few times.
1 medium onion – diced fine: Use whatever onion is handy but avoid really strong onions that make your eyes water really badly. They tend to overpower the whole dish. If you can find a sweet onion like a Vidalia onion go for it. In a pinch you can use green onions as well. Use about 4 or 5 green onions including the green parts.
Cilantro and oregano – chopped roughly: I never measure this stuff I just grab a handful or so and give it a good chop and chuck it in. If you don’t like cilantro I suppose you could use parsley but if you don’t like cilantro I have no idea why you would be making Mexican food.
The juice of about two limes: Please use fresh lime juice. Limes are cheap and easy to squeeze so don’t skimp here.
Seasoning: Here’s where I get all freestyle. One warning under no circumstances should you ever heavily salt this dish. The salt will draw the moisture out of everything and turns this into soup and that sucks. Generally I use about teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of cumin and a teaspoon of chili powder. Feel free to experiment because I do it all the time.
Once everything is chopped and mixed together put in the fridge and leave it alone for a bit. It gives a bit of time for the seasoning to work and makes the dish taste a bit better. You can eat it as soon as you are done and it will be fine. But I think it’s a bit better if it gets a chance to sit for a bit.
So go nuts and eat this on tortillas chips or in a taco or on a taquito.
I personally like this recipe about fifty times better than anything I can get in a store.
12 Roma tomatoes – diced into small cubes: I usually used Roma tomatoes because they are fairly easy to find and are usually ripe and don’t have to much in the way of pulp, If the Roma tomatoes look less than appealing feel free to grab up whatever tomatoes do look good. Please remember if say the beefsteak tomatoes look awesome you will not need twelve o them. Five or six should do well depending on how big they are. Also cherry or grape tomatoes are always easy to find and work fine.
3 or 4 Jalapeño peppers and one pableno pepper – diced fine: The pablenos add a lot of flavor without too much heat and the jalapeños add the heat. If you want it hotter leave the ribs and seeds in the jalapeños if you want it milder remove them. If you’re feeling frisky remove the ribs on some and not on others. You can use any chili combination you like and can fine but this works for me and is fairly easy to find.
1 bell pepper (preferably red or yellow) – diced fine: I like the bell pepper to add some flavor and the sweetness balances out the heat. I like the red and yellow peppers because they tend to be the sweetest.
2 or 3 cloves of garlic – minced as finely as possible. If you have an electric chopper or food processor just check the cloves in there and pulse a few times.
1 medium onion – diced fine: Use whatever onion is handy but avoid really strong onions that make your eyes water really badly. They tend to overpower the whole dish. If you can find a sweet onion like a Vidalia onion go for it. In a pinch you can use green onions as well. Use about 4 or 5 green onions including the green parts.
Cilantro and oregano – chopped roughly: I never measure this stuff I just grab a handful or so and give it a good chop and chuck it in. If you don’t like cilantro I suppose you could use parsley but if you don’t like cilantro I have no idea why you would be making Mexican food.
The juice of about two limes: Please use fresh lime juice. Limes are cheap and easy to squeeze so don’t skimp here.
Seasoning: Here’s where I get all freestyle. One warning under no circumstances should you ever heavily salt this dish. The salt will draw the moisture out of everything and turns this into soup and that sucks. Generally I use about teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of cumin and a teaspoon of chili powder. Feel free to experiment because I do it all the time.
Once everything is chopped and mixed together put in the fridge and leave it alone for a bit. It gives a bit of time for the seasoning to work and makes the dish taste a bit better. You can eat it as soon as you are done and it will be fine. But I think it’s a bit better if it gets a chance to sit for a bit.
So go nuts and eat this on tortillas chips or in a taco or on a taquito.
I personally like this recipe about fifty times better than anything I can get in a store.
Joined
·
32,765 Posts
I never make it the same way twice, man, but I usually do something like this -
*~8 roma tomatoes, diced. (maybe 1, 1 1/2 pounds) A serrated knife makes this easier.
*maybe 1/2 a small onion, finely chopped. I don't like a lot of onion in my salsa so you'll probably want to add a little more here. Sometimes I'll gently saute them to further mellow them out.
*2-4 cloves of garlic, finely diced or pressed
*cilantro - generally I'll add 1/4 to 1/2 a head, chopped, sometimes more. Again, it depends on mood.
*small number of whaever spicy chilis I happen to have. With jalepenos, I'd start with 1, then add more, tasting as you go
*salt to taste
*spices to taste
That's sort of the "skeleton" of a salsa. You adjust and add to it by taste from there. For example, eric seems to like a sweet salsa, while I like savory. So, I usually skip the lime and bell pepper, and use less onion. I also disagree on salt to an extent - that's not necessarily a bad thing, especially if you're dicing everything fairly fine.
Another thing we've been doing lately is adding half the tomatoes and all of the onion and garlic to a food processer, blending quickly for maybe 20 seconds, and then pouring it back into the bowl and adding the rest of the tomatoes and other ingredients. This gives a more substantial "body" to the salsa - diced fresh, this will give you a liquid that's basically water, just the juice from the tomatoes. Blended and then with additional tomatoes added in, this willg ive you a thicker liquid. It's a matter of taste.
As for spices, generally I'll add cumin (probably at least a teaspoon, maybe more) and some other form of ground pepper - definitely some fresh-crushed black, plus maybe some dried ancho chile powder or cayanne powder or something.
You can also add damned near anything - we've had good luck with adding mangoes to this basic structure.
Salsa is really awfully easy to make - the hard-yet-fun part is tailoring it to your tastes.
*~8 roma tomatoes, diced. (maybe 1, 1 1/2 pounds) A serrated knife makes this easier.
*maybe 1/2 a small onion, finely chopped. I don't like a lot of onion in my salsa so you'll probably want to add a little more here. Sometimes I'll gently saute them to further mellow them out.
*2-4 cloves of garlic, finely diced or pressed
*cilantro - generally I'll add 1/4 to 1/2 a head, chopped, sometimes more. Again, it depends on mood.
*small number of whaever spicy chilis I happen to have. With jalepenos, I'd start with 1, then add more, tasting as you go
*salt to taste
*spices to taste
That's sort of the "skeleton" of a salsa. You adjust and add to it by taste from there. For example, eric seems to like a sweet salsa, while I like savory. So, I usually skip the lime and bell pepper, and use less onion. I also disagree on salt to an extent - that's not necessarily a bad thing, especially if you're dicing everything fairly fine.
Another thing we've been doing lately is adding half the tomatoes and all of the onion and garlic to a food processer, blending quickly for maybe 20 seconds, and then pouring it back into the bowl and adding the rest of the tomatoes and other ingredients. This gives a more substantial "body" to the salsa - diced fresh, this will give you a liquid that's basically water, just the juice from the tomatoes. Blended and then with additional tomatoes added in, this willg ive you a thicker liquid. It's a matter of taste.
As for spices, generally I'll add cumin (probably at least a teaspoon, maybe more) and some other form of ground pepper - definitely some fresh-crushed black, plus maybe some dried ancho chile powder or cayanne powder or something.
You can also add damned near anything - we've had good luck with adding mangoes to this basic structure.
Salsa is really awfully easy to make - the hard-yet-fun part is tailoring it to your tastes.
Joined
·
11,837 Posts
aslong as it has habenero, its salsa. no habenero, no salsa
Joined
·
15,373 Posts
Good advice. We usually do that as well.
Joined
·
15,373 Posts
To add to some of the other comments:
Like Eric said, I like to use a little bit of salt (as little as possible, really) and I also like to add cumin.
I'm with Chris on the habanero thing; I typically will use in place of jalepeno a habanero, but I usually only use one and will rarely use two.
Like Eric said, I like to use a little bit of salt (as little as possible, really) and I also like to add cumin.
I'm with Chris on the habanero thing; I typically will use in place of jalepeno a habanero, but I usually only use one and will rarely use two.
Joined
·
32,765 Posts
I love habaneros, but I'll use whatever I can get my hands on. Then again, my default batch is smaller than Eric's, so if that's what you're using then an exceptionally hot pepper becomes less important.
One of the most fun peppers we've used so far have been dried smoked jalapenos, which evidently differ somehow from chipotles. It made a great, smokey salsa, especially when we also added smoked sea salt.
One of the most fun peppers we've used so far have been dried smoked jalapenos, which evidently differ somehow from chipotles. It made a great, smokey salsa, especially when we also added smoked sea salt.
Joined
·
2,124 Posts
:yesway: I likes me some heat.
Joined
·
15,373 Posts
I thought that's what a chipotle was. a dried smoked jalepeno?
Habenero juice on the junk does! :rofl:
Joined
·
32,765 Posts
Me too, hence the confusion. :lol:I thought that's what a chipotle was. a dried smoked jalepeno?
Joined
·
272 Posts
A chipotle is in fact smoked jalapeno. The confusion is that most people encounter these canned, packed in adobo sauce (a tomato-based sauce kinda like barbecue sauce), and not in the dried form. Chipotles are also called chiles morita and chiles meco. My understanding if that the difference between these is geographical.
Joined
·
11,071 Posts
They had some dried chile's there, but I didn't look too closely at the label. If they are smoked, I'll probably pick up a bag of them next time.
Joined
·
272 Posts
For a real treat, track down some pasillas oaxaquenos. They're smoked pasilla chiles; they have a deeper, fruitier flavor and a more mellow smokiness. I use them when I make black beans.
Joined
·
800 Posts
IM COMING OVER RIGHT NAO :monkeydance:![]()
So tasty. So hot... 4 jalapeños was just right for me. I thought I had cumin, so I didn't pick any up, but it still tastes great without it. Now, I wait. Gonna let it sit for a couple of hours before I try it again.
1 - 20 of 41 Posts
Join the discussion
