Homemade Salsa? What/How do you do it?

[cwboomer]

I made some homemade salsa today. I needed to use up a lot of tomatoes and peppers in in short period of time. I am curious what people put in their home made salsa. I am also curious how people prepare raw tomatoes, with regards to "skinning", for salsa. I had a mix of Black Krim, Wisconsin 55's, and mortgage lifters. Some of the skins this year were pretty tough. The family liked it, though. I just wonder what people do.

Curious.

dan

 

[professorchaos]

I don't make salsa at home but I do make a tasty Pico de Gallo. I keep it pretty simple:

Tomatoes, seeded and cut small dice
Yellow onion, small dice
A couple of seeded, minced Jalapenos
Plenty of Cilantro, coarsely chopped
Lime juice
Salt

Let it sit for an hour or two before use. This allows the salt to draw liquid out of the vegetables and the flavors to marry.

 

[Carnivore]

Man, I miss my tomato garden. Black Krims are awesome!

Here's an easy way to peel tomatoes and other soft-fleshed fruit, like peaches. It's called blanching:

Boil enough water to cover 3-4 fruit at a time.
Submerge fruit in boiling water for 10-15 seconds.
Remove fruit from boiling water and place in a bowl of ice water.

This should separate the skin from the meat and make it peel off easily.

 

[cthip]

if tough skins are a problem, consider a roasted/blended salsa. you can scale the recipe up as much as you'd like, but a small batch would be:

2 tomatoes
1 onion
1 chile--i usually use serrano but jalapeno would work well or habanero if you're up to it

wash them, quarter the onion, coat with a little olive oil and season with salt and pepper. roast in the oven or better on the grill until soft and lightly charred. blend in a blender or food processor with fresh lime juice and cilantro.

 

[Luc]

I usually keep it simple

1 large tomato, diced
1/2 onion or 1 small onion, diced
1 jalapeno, finely chopped

salt/pepper, ~1/2 a lime (juice), I use the other half for Guacamole.

That's pretty much it.

 

[MR.BurmaShave]

I like to put fruits in my salsas particularly sweet fruits. mangos, pineapple apricots etc. What's nice too, is that if you don't snack it all up with chips, you can turn it into a spicy chutney for meats and/or fish

 

[Mama Bear]

This is one of my favorite things to do in the summer with garden produce. I use a spice package.. which is premade, but omg is it good.. and add a lot of lemon juice (my secret ;-) )

You can do it with only tomatos if you want to.. (I don't like onions) but I always add peppers.. banana peppers are real good as are jaleno if you want hotter.. you don't need a lot of them. They carry both hot and mild.. but I don't use the mild.. I just keep adding the hot until it gets where I want it to be. The mild is too mild to me. I have used a LOT of salsa spice mixes.. this is the only one I ever liked.. Concord Foods Salsa Seasoning Mix http://www.concordfoods.com/salsa-hot/ i have always made this fresh, if you can it... let me know how it does.. remember add lemon juice..

another good idea for lots of tomatos is gazpacho.. which is another favorite thing.. mmmmmmmmm

 

[Mama Bear]

bushel of tomatos
head of lettuce
8 carrots
1 bunch celery
4 medium onions
3 green peppers
3 cloves garlic to taste
3 med sized beets sliced

salt in jar

cut veggies.. microwave in water and add to tomatoes, cook until tender

this is my neighbors recipe. I havent made it.. but I have tasted the results.. and OMG!

This recipe makes 32 quart jars

 

[The Nid Hog]

Here's one that my wife likes in the summer. I've made up a couple of different stories about where I got it, but she really knows that I picked it up from an old Bobby Flay program.

3 diced avocados
6 diced tomatillos
1/2 diced red onion
Juice of 3 limes
3 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. honey
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup chopped cilantro

Combine avocados, tomatillos, onions, lime juice, oil, honey, salt and pepper in a ceramic bowl. Mix in the cilantro. You can refrigerate it for half an hour or so before serving. We like it with grilled chicken on grilled flour tortillas.

 

[Hawkeye5]

This is one of my favorite things to do in the summer with garden produce. I use a spice package.. which is premade, but omg is it good.. and add a lot of lemon juice (my secret ;-) )

You can do it with only tomatos if you want to.. (I don't like onions) but I always add peppers.. banana peppers are real good as are jaleno if you want hotter.. you don't need a lot of them. They carry both hot and mild.. but I don't use the mild.. I just keep adding the hot until it gets where I want it to be. The mild is too mild to me. I have used a LOT of salsa spice mixes.. this is the only one I ever liked.. Concord Foods Salsa Seasoning Mix http://www.concordfoods.com/salsa-hot/ i have always made this fresh, if you can it... let me know how it does.. remember add lemon juice..

another good idea for lots of tomatos is gazpacho.. which is another favorite thing.. mmmmmmmmm

My tomato crop is down to the end, otherwise I would try canning this. Are the hot water bath times on the mix package? I did 12 pints of pasta sauce, 6 pints of diced, and 14 pints of quartered tomatos this summer plus 22 pints of green beans and 8 half pints of blackberry jam.

 

[FreezerBurns]

I don't make salsa at home but I do make a tasty Pico de Gallo. I keep it pretty simple:

Tomatoes, seeded and cut small dice
Yellow onion, small dice
A couple of seeded, minced Jalapenos
Plenty of Cilantro, coarsely chopped
Lime juice
Salt

Let it sit for an hour or two before use. This allows the salt to draw liquid out of the vegetables and the flavors to marry.

+ 1, and chopped Jicama is a nice addition to this.

 

[FreezerBurns]

Black Bean and Corn Salsa

In a big bowl combine:
1 can of corn (drained)
1 can of black beans (drained)
2 chopped scallions
1 chopped challet
1 clove chopped garlic (granulated garlic also works)
Handfull of chopped cilantro
Juice of one lime
1 or 2 seeded and chopped green chiles (or jalapenos)
Sea salt and pepper

**Vary the amounts of the ingredients to suit your taste of course. Sometimes I'll add some chili powder and ground cumino for a change.

Cover and put it in the fridge for awhile before use.

 

[cwboomer]

I believe the blanching is what I was wondering about.
The homemade V-8 juice is an awesome idea.
I am not a fan of corn in anything, unless it's "meal", but that's just a personal preference.
Putting it on fish, meats etc., whether you call it a salsa or a chutney, no matter what state it's in, is what I tend to do, when the chips are gone.

Dan

 

[Mr. Clean]

We have a small hand cranked salsa maker. We are on our second in 25+ years. Very simple to reach your desired consistency.

We have found that the meatier tomatoes make the better salsa for us. Romas are plentiful and are generally quite flavorful for store boughts.

Other than the tomatoes, fresh garlic, white onion, jalapeno peppers, cilantro, and salt make for an outstanding, straightforward salsa.

 

[Mama Bear]

We have a small hand cranked salsa maker. We are on our second in 25+ years. Very simple to reach your desired consistency.

We have found that the meatier tomatoes make the better salsa for us. Romas are plentiful and are generally quite flavorful for store boughts.

Other than the tomatoes, fresh garlic, white onion, jalapeno peppers, cilantro, and salt make for an outstanding, straightforward salsa.

Where did you get this????

Awesome! I need one!

 

[Mr. Clean]

Where did you get this????

Awesome! I need one!

It'll take some travel, but if you get on the road now you can make it to the Great State Fair of Texas, which opens Friday, September 25 and runs through Sunday October 19. There you can sample some great food and see first hand the operation and sample the results.

Yes, we bought both of our "machines" after watching the demo. They are really great and are pretty robust machines. The gears on the first one finally became a bit too weak to work without doing much more prep work, so we bought a new one several years ago.

 

[thebikingengineer]

2 tomatoes
36 habaneros

chop roughly

Somewhat hot, very tasty

BTW, I am somewhat crazy and like my chiles.

 

[cactusbrush]

My salsa;

2-3 medium size tomatoes, peeled (seeds are up to you, I leave them) diced.
1 small onion, white or yellow depending on how hot you like them; diced
2-3 cloves of garlic, diced.
1-2 fresh jalapeno peppers; the heat is in the seeds and membranes, your choice whether to leave them in or not. Diced or finely chopped. Around here, using canned or pickled jalapenos is a hanging offense. You can try 1 habanero pepper if you are really brave.
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cumin or chili powder
Juice of one lime.
1 tsp vegetable oil; I like cottonseed oil but canola will work. Seems to smooth out the salsa.

Ole'

 

[Mr. Clean]

2 tomatoes
36 habaneros
chop roughly

Somewhat hot, very tasty

BTW, I am somewhat crazy and like my chiles.

Could be the understatement of the year! How do you taste anything?

PS - I love hot peppers, but 1:18 tomato to pepper ratio would even task my relatively heat resistant mouth.

 

[thebikingengineer]

Could be the understatement of the year! How do you taste anything?

PS - I love hot peppers, but 1:18 tomato to pepper ratio would even task my relatively heat resistant mouth.

To be fair, habaneros are very small, and I used heirloom tomatoes which were fairly large. It's pretty devastating at first, but a bit of conditioning and you get wonderfully complex flavors from the chiles. Such conditioning also puts you in a prime position to win any wing-eating bet your friends can come up with.