Spouse 1.0 and I moved 500 miles away from our usual Mexican food spots, and 500 miles from the store that sold our favorite store-bought salsa. Love the new digs, but not digging the lack of good Mexican food.
True story: We asked the taco truck guy at the fair where to get good Mexican food locally, and he said, "There isn't any." Then he backpedaled and said his food was pretty good. (It was, but the salsa was still not quite what I need.)
My mom made awesome salsa, but she took her recipe to her grave over 40 years ago. All I remembered was that she used Serrano chilis and a blender.
I asked Baby Sister how she made salsa. She replied by sending a picture of ingredients. (She then described what she did with the ingredients. No measuring, of course. That's just now how Mom did things. But, since Baby Sister doesn't do chilis at all, I figured I needed to keep looking.
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| My Ingredients |
So, I googled a bunch of restaurant salsa recipes. Putting them together with my vague recollections of mom's salsa and my sister's photo, below is what I came up with. It's a bit runny, but pretty good. Spouse said it tasted too much of tomatoes. I think that's because I'm using fresh, ripe tomatoes instead of the underripe, mass-produced tomatoes that high-volume salsa chefs have to use. But, it's the best we've had since moving here, so worthy of noting.
8 medium tomatoes on the vine, quartered
1 very large serrano chili, about 1 ounce before stemming and chopping
About 2.5 ounces yellow onion (next time, try white)
About 4 good sized cloves of garlic
Cilantro to taste
1 1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp lime juice
3/4 tsp cumin
Pulse blend until everything is coarsely blended
Pour into stainless steel pan and cook briefly (maybe longer next time to thicken it more?)
Pour into clean glass jars with corrosion-resistant lids. Makes a little less than 2 pints. It's fresh food, so use it before it ferments.
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| Salsa! |
