Got Tamaters And Onions ??

Mountain Man was askin bout some recipes for Salsa, so thought I'd just get down with the Program and go Hog Wild on you and give you what I got, and thats a bunch.. Too much to try and cram in the comments and I can keep track of this post and if anybody comes back later and has questions bout it I'll know where to look..

I'm one of those cooks that goes by "dabs and pinches and sprinkles and handfulls" .. I Just be sure to remember that I got BIG hands !!

I like the HOT kinda salsa so I tend to go by the Cajun recipe that I got from Mostly Cajun whose blog is listed in the blogroll.. I'll try to point out the ones that look HOT to me and the Cajun recipes so you can adjust em to your likes..

Most of the recipes I have are for small batches, but if I'm gonna go to the trouble of makin this stuff I'm gonna do a BATCH all at one time and only have to clean up once.. Ans small batches makes it hard to get a uniform taste and hotness.. One time your onions will be strong and the next they will be sweet and one time your peppers will be hot and the next they will be mild.. Folks that grow onions and peppers know this but others may not..

I've found that the best way to make salsa is make a bunch of it at one time and do it in stages, and it can even be staggered over a coupla days too to prevent you gettin in a hurry or havin to do it durin a hot part of the day or takin too much time out of ONE day..

Standin on my one leg at the counter choppin gets old real quick so I do most of my choppin and slicin and dicin and peelin one evenin and then start it cookin early the next mornin.. I make 2 gallons at a time in a stainless pot and that takes enuff jars to fill my 5 gallon pot with jars and lids that I use to sterilize em in..

If you like your salsa the Chunky kind, you are gonna wanna peel your tamaters too, but I like the sauce kind so I just run my tamaters thru the blender and dont have to boil and peel my tamaters, so that keeps me from burnin my fangers and hands too !!

So here goes with how I make it:

I start with about 8 cups of good sweet onions(use less the stronger they are) and about 10 Jalepenos(use less the hotter) and a coupla Cayenes and a good handfull of finely chopped Cilantro and 4 heapin tablespoons of minced roasted garlic, then I start blendin and addin my tamers till I get the pot up close(a coupla inches) to the top.. After that gets good and hot and cooks for about an hour I have a taste and see how I like it and I can get an idea what its gonna be like and add more of anythang I thank it may need..

After about 45 minutes I taste it again and I should have it bout where I want my onions and peppers and garlic to be and then I add the juice of 6 medium limes and 3 heapin tablesppons of salt and stir and taste again and make any adjustments to that that I thank it may need..

Now its time to just cook and stir till I get it where its thick enuff for me.. The thicker I want it the longer I cook and stir..

Now here are some others I have:

2-3 medium sized fresh tomatoes (from 1 lb to 1 1/2
lb), stems removed, finely diced
1/2 red onion, finely diced
1 jalapeño chili pepper (stems, ribs, seeds removed),
finely diced
1 serano chili pepper (stems, ribs, seeds removed),
finely diced
Juice of one lime
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
Salt and pepper to taste
Optional: oregano and or cumin to taste

Start with chopping up 2 medium sized fresh tomatoes.
Prepare the chilies. Be very careful while handling
these hot peppers. If you can, avoid touching them
with your hands. Use a fork to cut up the chilies over
a small plate, or use a paper towel to protect your
hands. Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and hot
water after handling and avoid touching your eyes for
several hours. Set aside some of the seeds from the
peppers. If the salsa isn't hot enough, you can add a
few for heat.

Combine all of the ingredients in a medium sized bowl.
Taste. If the chilies make the salsa too hot, add some
more chopped tomato. If not hot enough, carefully add
a few of the seeds from the chilies, or add some
ground cumin.

Let sit for an hour for the flavors to combine.

Makes approximately 3-4 cups.

This one I got from Mostly Cajun:

Four or five Roma tomatoes. You want a meaty tomato. Most groceries will ave those pear-shaped Romas. You want these ripe, no green showing.

Tomatillos. These are bit more exotic, looks like a little green tomato, an inch or so in diameter, generally snuggled in a thin papery husk. You’ll want a couple. If you can’t find tomatillos, don’t go sit in your front yard and commit seppuku. Just throw in an extra regular tomato or two.

Cilantro. A good handful. Now, cilantro will generally be found in the vicinity of the tomatillos, but a lot of stores carry cilantro next to the parsley.

Peppers: For the run of the mill folk, at least ONE jalapeno IS necessary. If you’re more adventurous, bump this up to two or three. If you’re more experienced and enjoy a bit MORE bite, add a serrano. If you’re a flippin’ capiscum FREAK, add a habanero. Note, though, that the name is “Pico de gallo”, which translates to “peck of the rooster.” It’s supposed to have some bite. The flavor of the jalapeno is, in my opinion, essential to the dish. Since it’s supposed to be a condiment, you will want to make it hotter than you can stand it on its own.

Onion: Half a fist-sized yellow or white onion. If you’re thinking :what the h*ll am I gonna do with the rest of that onion, well, go back and double everything I’ve listed above, and use the whole thing.

Lime: One large, or two small. Or lemon.

Salt

The procedure:

Chop up the tomato and tomatillo. Do this rather fine, maybe an eighth-inch dice. Discard the seeds before you start chopping. Do the same thing with the onion. If your onion has seeds, well, I don’t know what to tell you…

Chop up the peppers. Here’s a little trick. Cut the peppers in half lengthwise, then clean the seeds and white membranes out under running water. You’ll have fewer problems. Also, after you’ve been handling peppers, you want to make darned sure that you wash your hands very carefully, two or three times, before you a) rub your eyes or b) attend to private bodily functions. Take my word for this. Fail to heed this warning will happen ONCE and provide onlookers with the stuff of hilarious legend on your behalf. They will enjoy it MUCH more than you will, I guarantee. Anyway, chop your choice of peppers up finely, maybe a bit finer than everything else.

Chop up the leaves and tender stems of the cilantro.

To assemble the pico de gallo, dump the whole mess of ingredients into an appropriately sized bowl. Sprinkle a couple of pinches of salt over the top. Squeeze the juice of your lime or lemon over the whole mess. Stir it together well. Let it sit for at least a half an hour in the fridge for the flavors to mingle.

Discussion:

This stuff is great on top of a pile of beans and rice or other dishes. It adds a wonderful freshness to bland foods. Dump a tablespoon on top of scrambled eggs. Better yet, fold it in the middle of a cheese omelet. Put some on top of your pasta. Let your imagination run wild. It keeps for about a week in the fridge, if you can stay out of it that long.

Now, there you have it: a guideline recipe for pico de gallo. Feel free to juggle things around a bit. Wanna get freaky? Take this recipe, and add three or four avocados, coarsely mashed, for a guacamole that’ll put you over the edge.

And here is a link to a whole bunch of recipes, not that you'll need em after gettin mine:

http://www.pepperfool.com/recipes/salsa_idx.html

Folks are gonna have their "druthers" on how they want their salsa so some or most may want more cilantro in theirs but I find that it covers up the taste of the peppers if you get too much cilantro in it and I like the taste of some good peppers in my salsa.. To me thats what makes it salsa.. And you may have other peppers that you like the taste of in your salsa too.. And you dont have to have fresh tamaters to go in it either.. There are some good store bought canned tamaters out there too.. And you would be surprised at how close they can taste to homegrown once you heat em up.. A trick I have learned about store-bought tamaters, is that you can stick em in the nuker oven for a minute and it will bring out the REAL tamater taste in em..

I hope everybody has good results with their salsa, and remember, that nothin tastes as good or good for you as what you grow, cook, and can yourself, and the Pride in doin it will make up for the effort it takes..