Here are all the ingredients you will need:
6-8 roma tomatoes (about 1-1.5lbs)
1-2 beefsteak/round/regular ass tomatoes (or just 4 more romas)
2-3 jalepenos (fire roasted is best)
handful of cilantro- perhaps a half cup?
2-3 jalepenos (fire roasted is best)
handful of cilantro- perhaps a half cup?
2 limes
4-6 cloves garlic
1/2 very large red onion
salt, pepper, olive oil, pinch of cumin optional
I forgot to add the lime in this pic. That is an entire bunch of cliantro- use just part of that
6-8 roma tomatoes (about 1-1.5lbs)
2 beefsteak/round/regular ass tomatoes (or just 4 more
romas)
The 6-8 romas are to be finely diced. The other tomatoes are cut
in half, placed face down on aluminum foil on a baking sheet, put under the
broiler and burn the shit out of the skins, aka roasting them. Let it cool a
few, the skins should peel off very easy, throw those away, add flesh to a blender.
Add a tsp of olive oil, a tsp or less sugar and blend- add a pinch of cumin if
you'd like, but very minimal. I also throw 3-4 garlic cloves on the baking
sheet w the tomatoes, and add them to the blend for a roasted garlic flavor
(which I do recommend, but the garlic will burn and or needs to be flipped as
they char much faster than the tomato skins, so pull em out early). This
blended mix gets added in last.
I roast my tomato and garlic in the toaster oven while I get started dicing the Romas
Also need to roast 1-2 jalepenos, or more if you want
really spicy- I usually roast 1, and fine dice one unroasted- taking seeds out
of all of them. You can put jalepenos on the baking sheet w tomatoes, but
again, have to flip em and its half assed. Put them directly on the burner, on
high, and use tongs to char the entire surface area to black. Put them directly
into a plastic bag to let them steam while you dice up other stuff. Its always
the last thing I dice up, where you take out of the bag, rinse under cold water
and brush w your hand, and the char flakes come right off (use garbage disposal
side of sink)- remove stem top and seeds and fine dice to add to bowl that also
has the diced roma tomatoes in it.
Just cook that sucker right on the stove top
Also to the bowl of diced stuff- usually just a half of a
large red onion, again finely diced- or a whole very small red onion- maybe a
3/4-1 cups worth? A half bunch of cilantro, chopped up and added. I do 1-2 raw
garlic cloves fine diced and added to the bowl (this is in addition to the 3-4
roasted pieces that got blended), so that's why mine always turn out pretty
garlicky, but you can always add more tomatoes or less garlic than that I
guess.
While other tomatoes are roasting, dice onion, raw garlic, cilantro and the 6-8-10 Roma tomatoes
So, you've got the diced romas, then dice in the onion,
then the cilantro, some raw garlic, the diced roasted jalepenos, salt and
pepper this pile pretty good then squeeze in 2 limes, rarely 3, sometimes 1.5-
depends how much you like that flavor to come to the front, stir this a few
times, pour the blended roasted tomato/garlic/tsp olive oil mix into all the
diced stuff and stir it all up so the onion pieces are mixed well- those
usually stick the most. Salting it correctly really ups the flavor, as does
letting it sit for one day in the fridge for all the flavor to mesh together.
If too spicy, add a bit more sugar, or better yet some fine diced mango or
kiwi. Or add more diced roma to dilute the salsa w more tomato. I like a heavy peppering,
a light lime flavor, heavy garlic, and fairly spicy.
On the right, the roasted tomatoes and garlic from the broiler. I add a bit of sugar, lime juice, olive oil and cumin seed to this and blend it into a liquid, then pour over all the diced ingredients on the left, and voila, time for chips
That should be pretty complete, but the short list is
tomato, red onion, garlic, cilantro, lime, S&P, touch of olive oil (or
not). If you don't like chunky, roast all that shit but the cilantro and lime,
put Everyting in the blender and whip it up for a liquid salsa. Add an
adobo/chipotle pepper or different types of hot peppers to make different
flavors, add more sugar or honey, serve on anything, like fish, not just chips.
Well, that's pure gold there- watch out though- you'll be
pissed next time someone tries to pass a serving of Pace brand salsa out of a
jar under your nose at the next family gathering or football party shindig-
that shit tastes like ass once you start making your own, especially when
you're using those tomatoes out of your garden later this summer. If you aren't
growing romas, you should have - they have a meatier flesh that dices into
better chunks, but you can get away with using any type of tomato if you have
to. 2 total lbs tomato matches the other quantities I've listed.
So, that's that. Good luck dood!
