Looking for a really good salsa (tastes, best, make)
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I want to try the first one, because he (like me) generally prefers a salsa with fresh tomatoes, but he says he can't improve on this one which his friend gave him. It uses canned tomatoes and dried guajillos, which are available at any supermarket in Texas or California, your mileage may vary.
Store salsa will never be as good as homemade salsa because store-bought MUST use vinegar to preserve it. As a result, store-bought always has a vinegar-y taste to it.
I love salsa. I put it on everything from eggs to burgers.
But, for some reason, at home, I usually just settle for the boring grocery store stuff from a jar. I've tried a number of the national brands from our nearby major chain grocery store (Ralphs), and I've tried pretty much everything Trader Joes has to offer. They are mostly okay, but nothing great.
I use Tapatio often, and I enjoy it immenesly, but I'm looking for a more true salsa (less of a sauce).
I prefer smoother salsa (relative to the real chunky stuff, or a pico de gallo). If given the choice, I usually prefer a green or black salsa, but enjoy all varieties.
I need something that is available in Orange County, California, where I live, or on the internet.
I don't know what brand is best because we make our own. Our son in law eats it on about everything, just like you, so he makes a batch about every week and keeps it in the fridge, we can ours every summer. I will say, there is a lot of chopping and mixing but once it is canned it is worth every second it took. I also make a few jars of pinapple/mango salsa to use on pork, chicken, etc. Yes, we use a tab amount of vigegar but almost none. Our regular tomato and pepper salsa get acid from the lines we use.
How long does homemade salsa keep in the fridge? I've wanted to try making my own but I'm super busy and I have only myself to feed. I don't like spending money on ingredients for a gallon of salsa and have 3/4 of it spoil because I got sucked into eating dinner elsewhere the rest of the week. I also don't like having to make an individual serving every time I want some
It'll keep awhile, but you're better off making it in small batches. You don't have to buy enough ingredients for a gallon of the stuff. I don't. You can even get frozen cubed minced cilantro (aka coriander) at Trader Joe's - it comes I think 10 cubes to a package, and you use only 1-2 cubes and the rest stays perfectly frozen and ready to use another day, for like - a year. You pop them out just like ice cubes from their little plastic tray.
So - here's what you use, for a 1-person household, to last 3 days:
1 small vine-ripe tomato, chopped.
1/2 of a red onion, chopped.
The juice of 1/4 of a ripe lemon.
10 slices of pickled jalapeno from a jar, minced.
2 of those cubes of cilantro, OR if you grow it in your herb garden, just 1-2 tablespoons fresh finely chopped. Or, you can buy it from the produce section of the supermarket. It -cannot- be dried cilantro, it must be either fresh, or fresh-frozen.
Mix it all up together. Eat.
The only thing that you'll have, that you can't consume within 3 days, is the rest of the jar of jalapenos. You can use those on burgers or in salads, and they'll last around 6 months in the fridge. Canned has to be transferred to a different container once opened but if it's airtight will last around 4 months in the fridge.
Since you're looking for a pureed salsa, not chunky, it will work fine to freeze it. You can freeze it in ice cube trays and then put the frozen cubes in a ziplock bag once they've frozen hard, so you have individual serving cubes to pull out.
This is my recipe for fresh salsa:
One white onion
9 roma tomatoes
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded
1 serrano pepper, seeded (if you like it hot)
cilantro if you like it
juice of one lime
salt
pepper
Dice onion, tomatoes, peppers. Put tomatoes, onions, peppers, and cilantro in the blender and puree to desired consistency. Pour into a fine mesh strainer and let the excess liquid drain out. Squeeze lime juice over the salsa, season with salt and pepper if desired, stir, and refrigerate at least one hour to let the flavors blend before serving.
Here's my roasted tomatillo salsa recipe:
1 lb tomatillos
3 jalapeno peppers
1 serrano pepper
2 small white onions, diced
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with nonstick spray. Remove tomatillo husks, rinse the sticky stuff off, cut in halves and put on baking tray, seed side down. Remove stems and seeds from peppers, and put them on the baking tray too. Bake them 15 minutes, then check and remove the ones that are starting to brown. When all of your tomatillos and peppers have browned a little bit, take them out and let them cool, then put them in the blender, add the onions, and puree until smooth. This one doesn't need the liquid strained from it, it will thicken as it cools. Add more serrano peppers if you want it hotter. It can be mixed with sour cream as well.
If you ever ate at Baja Fresh, this is what I like. They are either non existant or rare anymore.
The key to homemade salsa is that the tomatoes must be fresh and good. Everything else is readily available.
I make my own and this is how I do it. Fresh tomatoes (about 6), a large sweet Vidalia onion, 1/2 bunch of cilantro, 1-2 jalapeno peppers, juice of a lime, salt and pepper, white vinegar. You can add other stuff, like jicama or tomatillos if you want.
Use a mini chopper to chop everything, little by little, and plop it into a bowl. That's it.
I have heard that the fresh salsa at Sam's Club is good.
Herdez salsa casera for the chunky. Pico Pica hot sauce the smooth.
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