Fresh Salsa (September 2007) - original recipe by Barry L. Kramer
Preparation time: about 30 minutes chopping vegetables
Cooking time: none, but you have to wait 15-20 minutes after mixing.
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Careful attention to the selection of good ingredients is important here.
6 firm Roma tomatoes
2 jalapeno peppers
1 or 2 habanero peppers
1/2 medium white sweet onion (Vidalia or "candy onion")
1 clove of fresh garlic, peeled, about the size of a marble
1 1/2 limes -- perhaps less if they are particularly tart or juicy.
a bunch of fresh cilantro
kosher salt
olive oil
Tapatio hot sauce
1. Wash vegetables. Obtain a glass bowl to hold the mixture. Don't use metal
or plastic.
2. Remove stems from cilantro until you have about a loosely-packed half cup of leaves, more if desired. I like cilantro so I used a lot of it. (images: cilantro leaves on stems ; cilantro before chopping ; cilantro after chopping).
3. Cut off ends of tomatoes to remove undesirable parts (tips, green stem ends). Slice tomatoes in half lengthwise, cutting from stem end to opposite the stem end. Then use a sharp-edged spoon, like a measuring spoon or melon baller, to scrape the seeds, watery pulp, and center part out of the tomatoes and discard. Keep the firm outer flesh. (image: chopping tomatoes)
4. Cut the stem end off the jalapenos. Slice in half lengthwise. Use a knife and remove the seeds and membranes, discard. Finely mince the peppers (1/16" or smaller). I sliced them first, then chopped them up, but it would be probably be okay to chop them into unevenly shaped pieces. Taste the peppers to make sure they aren't too hot. The ones I used were very mild, so I used two peppers. (image: chopped tomatoes and peppers)
5. Use a sharp knife to finely dice the onion, into 1/16" to 1/8" pieces. I used the center half of the onion where it is largest in diameter. Put the chopped onion into a screen mesh strainer. (image: chopping onions)
6. Use a sharp knife to finely dice the tomatoes, into 1/8" pieces. Put the tomatoes into the bowl.
7. Rinse the chopped onion under cold running water for about 10 seconds, then shake gently to remove excess water. Add to the bowl. Rinsing the onions prevents them from being too pungent and overpowering the taste.
8. Slice and roughly chop the cilantro leaves. Add to the mixture. (image: cilantro after chopping).
9. Crush the garlic with a garlic crusher and add the fine crushed part to the mixture. Discard any hard parts that didn't go through the crusher.
10. Cut the stem end off the habaneros. Hold them down with a fork (don't touch them) and use a knife to cut them in half lengthwise and remove the seeds and membranes; discard. Cut them each into 4 pieces.
11. Squeeze all of the juice from one and a half limes into the mixture. Limes vary, so you may want to add less and taste it. Once, a lime and a half made it too tart.
12. Add the following remaining ingredients to the mixture:
1 T olive oil
1 t kosher salt (less if you don't like salt at all)
1/4 t Tapatio hot sauce
13. To make the salsa hot, force one or both habenero peppers through the garlic crusher and crush them into the mixture. That will allow for very even distribution of the heat. The salsa will be very mild without this. Exclude the juice to keep the heat reasonable. Usually one pepper is sufficient. Make sure you have a good, high-quality garlic crusher because, unless you freeze and thaw the habaneros first to soften them, a lot of force is needed and cheap garlic crushers will break.
14. Mix thoroughly with rubber scraper or wooden spoon. Let out at room temperature, stirring every 5 or 10 minutes, for 15-30 minutes before serving. Taste the mixture; adjust salt or hotness as desired. Refrigerate leftovers. (image: all done)
Notes:
The recipe I roughly based this on said it is best up to 2 hours after mixing
and that it would be too oniony and less crunchy after that, but I didn't think
so. I thought it was good the next day, but you do need to use a strainer to
drain the excess liquid before serving. Using a knife instead of a food processor
also helps preserve the texture.
