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salsa virgin no more
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February 02, 2002
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« these salad days | Main | small steak innovation »
Rebecca hates onions. No, she doesn't "dislike onions" or "prefer not to eat raw onions" or think they're fine as long as she can't taste them; Rebecca hates onions in all of their myriad forms, raw or cooked, whole or chopped, purple or sweet. Ditto scallions, shallots, and leeks.
Combine this with an indifference to tomatoes, a complete intolerance for spicy foods, and a complete and utter lack of respect for all things Mexican, and one can easily calculate the food that Rebecca is least likely to consume: Salsa.
So you can imagine my surprise when, last week Rebecca suggested that I make salsa.
I tried to make sense of it all. She has been warming up to the humble tomato over the past few months, I've noticed. And she figures that she can get me to omit the onions, and to not make it particularly spicy (sheesh!). Her personal sacrifice will be to ignore the Mexican Food Issue.
I threw together something on Saturday. I don't have an exact ingredients list, but I know it involved:
Fresh tomatoes Canned tomatoes Tomato paste Red bell peppers Poblano peppers Pineapple Pears Fresh cilantro Minced garlic Tabasco sauce Balsamic vinegar Honey Salt Roast the poblanos briefly using your oven's broiler until the sides char. Peel them. (I've heard that it helps to loosen the skin if you cool them in a resealable plastic bag.) Chop the tomatoes, tomato paste, cilantro, bell peppers, roasted poblanos, and fruit in a food processor or chopper. Add the garlic, vinegar, and honey, and mix. Add tabasco to taste. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Salt to taste.
This was my first attempt at making salsa. I was happy with the result. I tried to emphasize sweetness in this salsa, since I couldn't make it too hot. This may have proven to be a mistake, since my test subjects weren't expecting a sweet salsa -- I think they expected something more like "regular" salsa but without the onions. And without the spiciness. Which are two of the three things that make regular salsa worth eating.
But I'm not bitter. They seemed to like it pretty well anyhow.
I have enough tomatoes and cilantro to make another batch, so I may do it again soon. I'll have to figure out how to make it interesting without the fruit and the sweetness, especially given that the fresh tomatoes aren't all that good. Hmmm...
February 2, 2002 in old_site, recipes, sauces | Permalink
