Got to the farmer’s market early enough yesterday to get an awesome haul. I couldn’t resist the freshly picked tomatoes so I loaded upon them. Then I hit the onions, garlic and peppers. So it looked like I was making salsa!
I make an awesome–if I do say so myself–fresh salsa. I’m going to attempt to share the recipe but it’s a challenge because I don’t measure anything. Nor do I think you should. Fresh salsa–especially if using homegrown veggies–means that you have so much variation in size, shape and flavor that having a recipe is like wearing shackles. A good salsa should be made to taste.
Grab a large bowl and set it next to your cutting board. You’re going to start adding things one at a time.
I start with 5-8 roma tomatoes. In this case, the farmer’s market offered tomatoes about the size of a roma but they weren’t actually roma. That’s no biggie. Roma’s do have a je ne sais quoi when it comes to salsa, but they’re not imperative. Start with as many tomatoes as you want salsa. Dice your tomatoes and toss them into a food processor for a quick pulse or two.
Next, start chopping an onion. Again, the farmer’s market offerings were much smaller. So I used 4 very small bulb onions. I’d say start with half a medium onion and mix that in to see if you want more. I like a pretty even ratio of onions vs. tomatoes.
Next up, your jalapeno or pepper of choice. I chop one up at this stage, but I’ll reevaluate the hotness after all the flavors are mixed to decide if I’m going to add another. Since this is a fresh salsa, dice VERY finely.
Since we had farmer’s market garlic, we again added several small cloves rather than 1-2 supermarket sized cloves. I’d say I put in 3-4 small cloves. Mince and smash with the blunt of your knife.
Next, cilantro. I really believe that the secret to great salsa is in fresh cilantro. I’ve used dried in the past and it works but it just doesn’t have that punch. I like my salsa heavy on the cilantro so I grab a few leaves and give them a chiffonade. Toss ‘em in.
Squeeze the juice from half a lime in there.
Okay, so we’re now going to bring it home with our spices. Now’s the time to open the bag of chips because you’re going to need to taste as you go. Start with a heavy pinch of kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Now, dump in the cumin. Go easy on this one. Unlike garlic, there is such a thing as too much cumin. But cumin really brings out these flavors so you want to make sure you can taste it. Just sprinkle, then sample and repeat until perfect.
Taste it one more time for heat. Is it hot enough for ya? If not, add another jalapeno.
I have two secret ingredients in my salsa and I’m only going to share one of them. Sometimes, when available, I’ll add some fresh chopped jicama in there too. Mmm….jicama.
If you have the patience, chill in the fridge for an hour to let all those flavors mingle. We have no such patience. My salsa fiend was tucking in before I could even grab the camera to take pictures. We loaded ours up with some chips and turkey burgers last night and it was DELISH! And it was all locally grown, too! Everything except the lime!
Get yourself a bowl of salsa one last time before summer’s over! Nom nom!
