The Best Salsa

Submitted by Chef #607519

"This recipe is for a fresh, hot salsa that will blow away what you get in most Mexican restaurants. You will not see canned tomatoes and/or canned tomato juice in this recipe. Good salsa is relatively expensive to make due to the Roma tomatoes which is why it is rare that you will ever get good salsa in a restaurant and never in a can or jar. It is much cheaper and easier to use some canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, a few sprigs of cilantro, a couple of lonely pieces of onion, some garlic powder, and then say you have salsa. That is kind of like using a sweet and sour mix instead of fresh squeezed lime juice to make margaritas."

 

• Ready In: 45mins
• Ingredients: 10
• Serves: 8-10

ingredients

• 12 roma tomatoes
• 1⁄2 large white onion
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1 bunch cilantro
• 1 tablespoon sea salt
• 1⁄2 teaspoon white pepper
• 1⁄4 teaspoon Mexican oregano
• 4 serrano peppers
• 1 jalapeno pepper
• 1⁄2 lime, juice of

directions

1. Roast the 4 Serrano peppers on your grill or oven at 350F until they start to blacken and set aside.
2. Cut 1/2 of a large white onion into slices and then dice and put in a large mixing bowl.
3. Using a garlic press, mince 4 large cloves of garlic and add to the mixing bowl.
4. Wash the Roma tomatoes and cut each tomato into slices 1/4" thick and then dice each slice and place into mixing bowl.
5. Pull the leaves off of the bunch of Cilantro and be careful not to include the stems.
6. Chop up the cilantro and place in the mixing bowl.
7. Next, cut the stems off the Serrano peppers and then dice each Serrano and add to mixing bowl.
8. Now dice the uncooked jalapeno pepper and add to the mixing bowl.
9. Cut one lime in half and squeeze all the lime juice from the lime half into the bowl.
10. Add the TBS of sea salt, 1/2 tsp of white pepper, and 1/4 tsp of Mexican oregano.
11. Mix well with a large spoon.
12. Next, spoon the now chunky salsa into a blender.
13. Very slowly, pulse the blender until you see the color change from vibrant red to a pale red.
14. You are not trying to puree the salsa, you still want to have some small chunks of tomatoes.
15. Pour the salsa into a clean bowl and cover and refrigerate until chilled.
16. Unlike recipes for salsa that you have seen where it states that the salsa must sit in the refrigerator over night for the salsa to gain enough flavor to eat, the opposite is true here.
17. This salsa will be at the peak of its freshness and flavor on the day you make it.
18. Recipes that call for canned tomatoes and tomato juice need all the help they can get in the flavor department which is why they usually call for the 24 hours in the refrigerator rule.