Salsa Suggestions

Long time lurker, first time caller , lol....

So, i have a garden full of everything.. 18 varieties of tomatoes, every herb known to man beans, melons, corn.. lots of goodies..

Im beginning my canning adventure tonite, and I think the first batch i want to can will be salsa, which Ive never made before.. (i know, shut up! lol)

So any suggestions would be great.. Any particular tomato better? Any particular herb better? I bought a jalapeno.. should I wear gloves? And how far does one medium sized jalapeno go? I would prefer it to be mild..

How coarse/fine do you chop?

You guys rule in advance!

You get to decide how spicy, and how thick.

I like my salsa with tomato, onion, garlic, and a variety of chopped peppers and of course EVOO. I trend to liking a medium to hot salsa. If I want to use the salsa with chips or to top some fish I'd chop with my chopper--If I want it saucier I'd use the food processor.

We're not big on Cilantro so don't use herbs. I do finish it with a good squeeze of Lime juice and maybe even some zest. Also Salsa is one of those foods that really benefits from salt so I usually am more liberal with the sodium than I would be for other dishes.


For alternatives, I add cucumbers, radish and celery sometimes. I also like it with olives sometimes especially if I'm going to use it with chicken.

Salsa also tastes much better if you let it sit at room temperature for about an hour after you make it. Then you can use it or fridge it.

and I'm still not convinced there's truly any difference between them (although someone said true salsa is cooked - first time I've heard that!) - but all I use is tomatoes, garlic, onions, cilantro, salt, jalapenos, and a tiny hit of cumin - that's for openers.

Depending on what's around, I add chopped jicama, radishes, pineapple, melon, papaya, mango, chipolte chiles in adobo, tomatillos, green onions - all with a healthy squirt of fresh lime juice. And, yes, FRESH. It makes a great big difference.

There's another salsa I fix that's just corn, black beans, onions, garlic, jalapenos, cilantro, and lime juice. That's a big favorite.

Once you start with the basics, you know there's not really any "recipe" - you just toss together what you like with tortilla chips, and you got with it. I doubt I've ever fixed the same salsa twice.

More than anything, have fun, and don't forget that you get to eat the mistakes............... :)

the only downside being that you can never remember what you put into it that was so damned good.

Salsa cruda is fresh, uncooked salsa, so you'll still get to call the fresh stuff "salsa."

Pico de gallo means it's got a real kick, like getting pecked by a rooster.

I like your style. I'll be over for lunch.

So the only different between salsa cruda and pico de gallo is in the kick? The intensity of flavor?

I've seen pico de gallo around here both green and red, with tomatoes and without. I prefer it to plain salsas because I do love the extra kick.

It's not really hot unless it makes my eyelids sweat.

Delurking too...

Wear gloves! First time I cut up a jalapeno we were on the phone to the local emergency room within minutes.

The cure for swollen fingers that looked like little overstuffed sausages was to soak the hands in a bowl of vinegar. Worked fine and I could actually bend the fingers again!

Wearing gloves prevented that from happening again.

I'd say, just chop the jalapeno fine, but first get rid of the seeds and that white tissue that the seeds attach to. That should de-fang a lot of the hot from the pepper. Try chopping about 1/3 or so of the pepper, add it in to the rest of your ingredients and let it rest a bit. Taste it and add more if that much tastes ok to you.

Good luck with the salsa!


horseshoecrab

The first time I cut a Jalapeno I touched my eye with my pepper juiced hand. It was scary there for a moment ...I was sure I would go blind. I've never had problems with my hands but I would guess if you had a cut it could be awful. Gloves are a really good idea. I used gloves when I made hot sauce with Scotch Bonnets a few years back...and I'm sure it's one of the reasons I lived to tell about it.

Oh man... in the eyes sounds like a rough go. Flood with cold water?

It was the little scratches here and there from our three kitties at the time that led to my grotesque swollen fingers!

Scotch bonnets :woohoo:

Have retired from eating hot stuff but think about maybe trying a little bit of hot - even very mildly so - once in a while.

horseshoecrab

Cooked - which is the majority of the ones in the supermarket, and fresh - which are always refrigerated.

I tolerate cooked, but I love fresh. My favorite one is practically a gazpacho, but I love a fresh (uncooked) salsa.

"So, i have a garden full of everything.. 18 varieties of tomatoes, every herb known to man beans, melons, corn.. lots of goodies.."

Wow, you have at least 18 tomato plants!

ENJOY!!!

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Our home grown tomatoes never got bigger than a golf ball. Tasty but PUNY! Not enough hot weather and too much rain.

I just made a little salsa yesterday, let it sit overnight and our guests today said it was tasty.

Everything store bought - tomatoes, garlic, green peppers, banana peppers, jalapeno peppers, onion, cilantro, lemon juice, olive oil and S&P. Easy, peasy and tasty.

It would have been so much more so, if home grown. Enjoy your bounty!

been bottled. The salsa I made last year was only slightly spicy when I put it up, but got quite a bit hotter after about six months on the shelf.

Have fun!

Used a combination of red grape, yellow cherry and yellow pear tomatoes-- about two cups. (Wish I could tell you the names, but ALL THREE are tomatoes that I either bought or was given thinking they were one thing, and they turned out to be another-- a rather perfect metaphor for my crazy year.)

I chopped a Yellow Hot Chile Pepper in half and removed about half of the seeds (the seeds from any hot pepper add more heat, so use them or not depending on your taste) and then cut the halves into quarters widthwise.

For my herbs, I used a hanful of the classic cilantro but added about four small sprigs of Lime Basil (instead of lime juice.)

I out all the above in the blender and added a small splash of apple cider vinegar and an even smaller one of sesame oil.

Whirred it all up in the blender with a tiny pinch of salt and voila!


We had some of it with chips as an afternoon snack.


For dinner, I blended in about a tablespoon of some homemade lemony cucumber guacamole I had on hand and a few springs of parsley for brightness. This became a sauce for Quorn faux chicken breasts.

I basted the Quorn with pepperoncini oil and then topped them with a layer of the salsa sauce and baked for about 25 minutes at 425, with a couple of minutes under the broiler at the end. Served with more fresh salsa sauce on top. Yummy, if I do say so myself!

That stuff will be so mild you'll be able to eat it on top of pasta.

Basic salsa cruda is cored and seeded tomatoes, chopped, onion, cilantro, lime juice, and peppers. I like mine with a bit of a kick so I use jalapenos for flavor and serranos for heat. I don't like it so hot that all you get is the heat and the other flavors get lost. For 2 tomatoes, I use 2 jalapenos and 2 serranos.

If I were canning it, I'd probably use only jalapenos, but I'd use some of the seeds. Heat builds in sauces and salsas when they stand for a while.

The tomato you use should be a very flavorful variety. Roma tomatoes are good for sauces, but they really don't have enough flavor for salsa.

As for gloves, by all means use them when you're working with hot peppers. Forgetting and scratching an eye if you don't is a truly memorable experience, although it does no real damage.

I've found they can really vary in intensity from bland as bell peppers to taking the top of your head off in the same batch. Only way I've found to judge is to taste as you go.