Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Fire roasted tomatoes and chili salsa!

During our trip to Mexico, we had lots of wonderful food.  This is my first attempt to recreate some of the things we liked best. 
Click on the picture to the left to view the ingredients in larger form if you like.  Add 6 large, or 10 smaller tomatoes and 2-4 Anaheim chiles in a bag with olive oil (I like the Spanish olive oils best, and sunflower or grape seed oil may also be used).  Insure each one is covered with a layer of oil.  Heat the grill on high, then then turn to low or medium-low, depending on your grill.  If using charcoal, keep the grill at the highest level possible.  Turning often, let them get a little charred on each side, not overly so.  Should be nice and even all over.  Remove when this is achieved, and let cool.  This can be done a day or two ahead. 
Dice a sweet onion, or as they did, a red onion to desired size and put to the side.  Dice 3 or 4 large garlic cloves or the equivalent (more or less can be used as desired).  Wash cilantro by swishing in lightly soaped water, then rinse and rinse again, using lukewarm water.  Insure all the soap is rinsed off.  Place the cilantro on a piece of paper towel, spreading it out over one regular sheet (no more than 10 sprigs are usually enough).  Cover with another towel (as shown without the corner down) and roll the paper towel to the size of a big cigar.  This will dry the cilantro well.  Remove the leaf clusters from the larger stems and roll or gather into a ball as shown above.  Being careful to keep the fingers safe, slice using an 8" chefs knife that has been sharpened properly.  A smaller size can be made by chopping again using a rocking method with this knife by holding the tip down and chopping with the portion closest to the handle.  It's all personal preference as to size of the ingredients. 
 The ceramic mortar and pestle I purchased broke on the ride home from Mexico, however this picture shows the method I used to make the tomatoes and chilies into a nice size for eating.  The chili may be sliced lengthwise first and the skin will remove easily if that's what you prefer. 
Ok... now let's put it all together.  Into the diced tomatoes, add the amount of  chilies desired (if not diced in the bowl as I did), cilantro (about a tablespoon), 1/4 cup of diced onion, garlic, 1 tsp. fresh oregano (1/2 tsp. dried Mexican oregano will work), 1-2 tsp. of cumin (to taste), and salt and pepper to taste (I use fresh ground multi color pepper and fresh ground gourmet salt).  Use kosher salt if you don't have a grinder.  Mix together and re-season as needed.  I made the mistake of adding lime.  This made the salsa very bland.  Save them for the tequila.  As with most everything I make, ratios of ingredients is a preference, so feel free to adjust as you like.

Serve with your favorite chips or along with your Mexican dinner. 

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