Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Salsa, anyone?



Last night I didn't have time to write. I was busy harvesting my garden.

With my remaining crop of Roma tomatoes, I made salsa. I have plenty, so if you're hungry, come on over. But bring some tortilla chips... I'm out!

Or in case you want to make your own, here's my recipe.

Fresh Tomato Salsa

1 1/2 to 2 gallons of Roma Tomatoes
1 bunch fresh cilantro
1 large white or red onion
1 med bell pepper
3-6 jalepeño peppers
1-2 tsp salt
1-2 tsp garlic powder
4-6 Tbls lime juice

Dice Roma tomatoes into large bowl. Drain off a portion of the extra liquid if desired.

Remove stems from cilantro up to where the leaves begin (about halfway up the stalks) and discard. Wash and drain remaining portion of the cilantro, and chop into small pieces.

Peel and finely chop onion.

Remove seeds from bell pepper, and finely chop.

Cut top off of jalepeño peppers just below stem. VERY finely chop or blend. Be careful not to touch the cut edges with your bare hands, as the juices can burn. If you don't have a chopper, you can blend several roma tomatoes in your blender and then add the peppers. (Start with 3 or 4 peppers and add more as needed.)

Mix above ingredients together. Add salt, garlic powder, and lime juice.

Add additional jalepeño peppers or seasonings if needed.

As is usual in the recipes I develop, measurements aren't precise. You can play with it until you get it the way YOU like, just like I did.

Happy eating!

16 comments:

Pivoney said...

That looks delicious. Slasa recipe's are hard to give due to the lack of precision in amounts. I'll have to try your recipe soon.

For your next batch I recommend adding a yellow pepper as well. It doesn't add much flavor but the additional color adds to the presentation.

Zephyr said...

I do like yellow peppers, but I was making this from my garden produce, so I used my own bell pepper. But I agree it would look great to include a yellow pepper... if I make it from purchased ingredients, I'll be sure to do that! The bright colors of fresh salsa are one of the best parts!

Anonymous said...

Looks good Lara. That's close to my recipe. I don't like bell peppers in my salsa, but I love the cilantro. I'm on my way as soon as I stop by the store for chips!

Btw, do you grow your own jalepeños?

Anonymous said...

OHHHHHHHH, that looks so delicious, fresh from your garden even better.

Thanks for making me hungry.

Zephyr said...

Yes I do Horsn (regarding the jalepeños). I have tons of extras... and no clue what to do with them! You can skip the bell peppers in the recipe, but the cilantro & lime juice are required!

Any time Top Cat! :) I'll post my pizza recipe the next time I make it too. lol

Angelaaaaaa said...

Ummm....sounds yummy Lara..
Couple questions tho..bell peppers??...are they what we call capsicums here??
Also jalepeno...would that happen to be chillies???
And what the heck is cilantro??? ..Don't think I have ever heard of that one...

Mouthy Girl said...

I'm not a fan of bell peppers, either. The green ones kill me. Yellow, red, and orange are ok, though. How about adding some habenaros? I freaking love those suckers. I have jalapenos, habeneros, banana, and OTHERS in my garden. They're still growing like crazy right now! And tomatoes? Shit, sister, I bought a food dehydrator just for the freaking tomatoes. Right now they're drying a shitload of apples a friend of mine picked this weekend.

I'm trying your salsa recipe. We canned some a couple of weeks ago...it was filled with black beans and corn as well! The stuff is KILLER!

On another note, I'll post about my pear and raisin muffin mix tomorrow! I need some sleep. Buddha Baby endured four shots today. I thought I was going to fall down with pain when I heard his shrieks and saw the look of horror on his face. I loathe shot visits!

Zephyr said...

Ang, I don't know what you call bell peppers. You can use any sweet pepper (as opposed to the hot ones). They are in it for a bit more crunch & texture... so totally optional. Jalepeños are a hot pepper... you can substitute any hot pepper such as chillies. And cilantro is the term for the leaves of the Coriander plant, also sometimes referred to as Chinese Parsley.

Buddha Girl, I always hated shot visits too. And the first 24 hours can be terrible... I hated the fever & grumpinss in general. I don't envy you at all! As for my recipe, use any hot pepper that you want. I generally grow jalepeños, but I've also made it with other types, whatever I grew that year. I love this salsa recipe fresh, but I just haven't found one that I like canned yet. They all seem to turn to mush once I can them.

The Seeker said...

Can I harvest your garden? I've got some jalepeño for you... heh heh

Anonymous said...

Speaking of lime juice, I need another Corona.

WarriorM said...

I just want you to know that I LOOOOOOVE cilantro!!! Your salsa recipe is awesome. I can't grow anything, though. I have what you call a brown thumb. It must be my procrastination gene! :-) Plants need water, food, weeding, attention, etc. on a regular basis.

Baby Daddy said...

thx for sharing -- we love salsa and anything Mexican at my house (err -- mi casa).

cadbury_vw said...

you know lara, when i said i'd like to do the salsa with you sometime, this isn't what i meant

Zephyr said...

Vamos a comer salsa... tengo mucho! Tal vez, tengo demasiado.

Pero bueno, Cadbury, podemos bailar tambien. :)

cadbury_vw said...

I had meant to impress you with some snazzy ascii dancing stick people, but the blog auto formatting munges the art. i tried to use pre tags but they aren't accepted.

so i deleted my two attempts

and am just left with the music:

Lara, danza con mí?

Zephyr said...

LOL Cadbury, sure but I'll warn you that I've got two left feet. :)