Recipe: Basic Salsa

Recipe

Basic Salsa

Recipe By: Fonds de Cuisine
Categories: Sauces, Cold

1/4 each onion red—diced fine
3/4 each onion, Vidalia sweet—diced fine
1/4 each pepper, red sweet—diced fine
1/4 each pepper, green—diced fine
1/4 each pepper, orange or yellow—diced fine
1/2 each pepper, poblano, seeded (hot)—sliced paper-thin
1/3 cup cilantro—rough chopped
1 each tomato, beefsteak—peeled and diced
3 each lime juiced
2 tbs vinegar
6 fluid ounces V-8 vegetable juice or tomato juice
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup Additional Ingredient (optional)—diced

Mix everything. The proportions are widely variable, depending on what you have and what you want. This is especially true of the hot peppers. This recipe is set up as a very mild salsa, but just ONE Scotch Bonnet pepper changes that forever! After making it mild, you may want to set some aside and add tabasco or cayenne to make a hotter version. The only general rule is to cover the chopped ingredients with tomato juice, or my favorite, V-8. Lime juice is what you should use, but having an orange tree in the back yard, I frequently use slightly unripe juice oranges, which I think have a wonderful taste. The vinegar I use is a seasoned vinegar made with sour oranges, like Soy Domenico that I told you about in "Sunshine in My Hand."

Notes: For grilled breast of chicken, I like to grill some fresh pineapple slices, and dice them hot into the cold salsa. Just brush it with the same marinade you are using for the chicken. Remember that the sweeter it is, the quicker it will burn. The caramelized sugar flavor on the fruit works well against the spicy salsa. Don't be afraid to try other fruits and melons, or even to grill the peppers and onions for the salsa. Smoked hot peppers are especially different and interesting variations. I have even used smoked roma tomatoes from my smoker and Balsamic Vinegar to enliven the salsa. Pico de Gallo is the Mexican term, I believe.