Experimenting with salsa.
I'm signed up for a number of recipe mailing lists, and occasionally (OK, more than occasionally) I print out dishes I want to try out. Recently, I snagged a recipe for pan-fried chicken and ancho chili salsa (to go on flatbread/pita). Although I haven't actually made that recipe yet, I was experimenting with the salsa itself -- which, interestingly, doesn't actually appear to have any ancho chili pepper in it! Go figure.
Anyways, this is my first attempt at the salsa recipe, my notations, and thoughts.
Ingredients:
* 2+ jalapeno chilies, de-stemmed (the original recipe calls for dried chipotle chilies, soaked in boiling water, but as my local market didn't have those I improvised to something I was familiar with)
* 2 fresh tomatoes (I didn't grab Roma tomatoes -- the ones that look kind of like holiday lightbulbs in silhouette, right? -- I went with more the ones that look like tomato-pumpkins in general shape. Next time I'm trying with Roma tomatoes instead.), quartered
* 1 medium white onion, quartered and then halved (Cut into eight pieces - that makes sense, right? The original recipe calls for 4 spring onions, which (a) I had no idea what spring onions actually were, (b) local market didn't seem to have them, and (c) 4 onions seems like a lot, doesn't it? I digress.)
* 2 tablespoons lime or lemon juice (The original recipe calls for "one lime or lemon". I actually did get a lemon, peeled it, chopped off the pithy bits, and put it in the food processor, but really, that seems like a wee bit too much lemon given the final taste.)
* 2 cloves of garlic, peeled
* 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (Original recipe doesn't specify how much to put in; I'm guesstimating based on what I used.)
* 1 tablespoon cilantro (Recipe as written calls for a small bunch of fresh coriander, of all things. I actually grabbed a bottle of cilantro by mistake at the market. As it turns out, though, cilantro seems to fit salsa recipes better than coriander anyways.)
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
* 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper or Chinese red pepper flakes
* 1 teaspoon cumin
Method:
Throw all the ingredients in a blender or food processor and pulse until well combined. You don't quite want to puree them, just blend them enough to make a tasty salsa.
First reactions: the taste is just about right, but the visual of the salsa itself seems almost too... pink, rather than the rich hearty red I was hoping to achieve. I'm not sure whether that's because of using the wrong tomatoes at first, or throwing in the whole lemon rather than just using lemon juice. I'm tempted to try making this recipe again using one Roma tomato and one 14.5-oz can of diced tomatoes, complete with juice, just to see if I can get the color "right".
Anyone have suggestions on how this salsa might be improved? Visually or tastewise?
Originally crossposted from http://kitchenklutz.dreamwidth.org/14649.html. Please comment here if you first read the post here.
Anyways, this is my first attempt at the salsa recipe, my notations, and thoughts.
Ingredients:
* 2+ jalapeno chilies, de-stemmed (the original recipe calls for dried chipotle chilies, soaked in boiling water, but as my local market didn't have those I improvised to something I was familiar with)
* 2 fresh tomatoes (I didn't grab Roma tomatoes -- the ones that look kind of like holiday lightbulbs in silhouette, right? -- I went with more the ones that look like tomato-pumpkins in general shape. Next time I'm trying with Roma tomatoes instead.), quartered
* 1 medium white onion, quartered and then halved (Cut into eight pieces - that makes sense, right? The original recipe calls for 4 spring onions, which (a) I had no idea what spring onions actually were, (b) local market didn't seem to have them, and (c) 4 onions seems like a lot, doesn't it? I digress.)
* 2 tablespoons lime or lemon juice (The original recipe calls for "one lime or lemon". I actually did get a lemon, peeled it, chopped off the pithy bits, and put it in the food processor, but really, that seems like a wee bit too much lemon given the final taste.)
* 2 cloves of garlic, peeled
* 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (Original recipe doesn't specify how much to put in; I'm guesstimating based on what I used.)
* 1 tablespoon cilantro (Recipe as written calls for a small bunch of fresh coriander, of all things. I actually grabbed a bottle of cilantro by mistake at the market. As it turns out, though, cilantro seems to fit salsa recipes better than coriander anyways.)
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
* 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper or Chinese red pepper flakes
* 1 teaspoon cumin
Method:
Throw all the ingredients in a blender or food processor and pulse until well combined. You don't quite want to puree them, just blend them enough to make a tasty salsa.
First reactions: the taste is just about right, but the visual of the salsa itself seems almost too... pink, rather than the rich hearty red I was hoping to achieve. I'm not sure whether that's because of using the wrong tomatoes at first, or throwing in the whole lemon rather than just using lemon juice. I'm tempted to try making this recipe again using one Roma tomato and one 14.5-oz can of diced tomatoes, complete with juice, just to see if I can get the color "right".
Anyone have suggestions on how this salsa might be improved? Visually or tastewise?
Originally crossposted from http://kitchenklutz.dreamwidth.org/14649.html. Please comment here if you first read the post here.