Wednesday, February 16, 2011

{Recipes} Salsa - the food not the dance

Eagerly I watched Taylor as he poured over my new blog format.

Me: Do you like it?

Tay: It's great!  I love how the "nest" looks twiggy.  And that effect on our picture looks so cool, but what's up with your "recipes" button?  That is just sad.

Fair enough.  I guess one recipe doesn't quite cut it for a whole button, so let's beef it up.

This weekend we had dinner with some new friends from the States, so naturally Tex-Mex was on the menu -  Chicken Enchiladas to be exact, so chips and salsa was basically a mandate.

Now I figured out really quickly back when we lived in North Carolina that nobody knows how to make salsa like they do in Texas.  Well I guess they probably do in Mexico too since that is the sole reason Tex-Mex exists in the first place - on that note:

Gracias Mexico, for seeing tomatoes, jalapeno, onion, and cilantro as a sufficient vegetable side for a meal. Now if only you could convince my husband...

I had to remedy this lack of edible salsa by making my own.  Mind you this was back when it took me hours to complete a 30 Minute Meal by Rachael Ray, so I wasn't too confident in my ability to make up a recipe by myself. For this, I turned to our good family friend and amazing cook, Kathe Baker. I flipped through her cookbook born out of cooking for loads of people at a time at Camp Redcloud, and voila!  Salsa.  Really good salsa.  I'm actually waffling on whether or not I should give it to you after all so that when I make it for you, you are really impressed with my blender skills.

I am very particular about my salsa.  Give me Lupe Tortilla's fajitas all day long.  Papasitos' enchiladas hit the spot too.  But warm salsa?  I don't think so. In my opinion Guadalajara's is the best.  Cold, chunky, and fresh.  Wow, maybe I should go into writing cheesy commercial jingles - geez!

Kathe's recipe fits the bill. Plus, it's really easy - no chopping required if you want to test out how good your blender is.



I did modify it a bit due to lack of some ingredients and a love for garlic:

Tex-Mex Salsa:






  • 2 roma tomatoes
  • 1 can of diced tomatoes, drained
  • 1/2  medium sized onion (I do actually quarter this ahead of time since I have to chop it in half anyway.  This does help so that you don't have to blend too long which makes the tomato too mushy)
  • a handful of cilantro (coriander for those of you in the UK - why do they call it that?  Cilantro just sounds tastier and more exotic... Nevermind.  I answered my own question.)
  • 1 jalapeno (I take out some of the seeds if guests are coming to dinner.  If it's just Tay and me, I leave them all in - we are big fans of food that makes our noses run.  Taylor calls it full contact eating.)
  • 1 tsp kosher or sea salt
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • dash of garlic salt
  • a couple of shakes of tabasco


Blend it in your blender or food processor till desired consistency (not long!).





Salud!

3 comments:

Christi Bennett @ pisforparty said...

Hi Robin! I am so glad you used Carolyn! Don;t you just love her?! I have marked your cute new blog and will definitely follow along. =)

XOXO old friend!

Sarah said...

ah! this brings back fun laurel walk memories! thanks for teaching me how to make real salsa! :-)

Erinn said...

So.. you asked.... coriander is the French term for the plant (coriandre) which of course was derived from Latin and before that, Greek. There are many food words in British English that are French- Aubergine, Courgette, etc. Cilantro is the Spanish word for the plant- and thus used in American English- for obvious geographical and historical reasons. However, when the plant is used as a spice[it's seeds] instead of an herb[it's leaves] it is pretty much universally referred to as coriander. Now that I haven't a clue about!
Thanks for the amazing recipe.

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