Recipe: Salsa
Posted: July 12th, 2010, 16:08
Posting this now, so I don't lose it. Photos to follow once my internet and flickr stop being TOTAL SHIT.
Right, this is my bog standard run of the mill salsa for going with stuff, there's not a lot of ingredients, and the prep is easy... but I'm going into silly detail, as it's good practice for knifey fun.
Ingredients:
2 Nice ripe tomatoes
Red onion
Coriander*
2-3 Spring onions*
Lemon or Lime
Tabasco
Oil
Salt
Pepper
*Are optional, they make it better, but it's fine without.
Tools: Clingfilm
Method:
Excessive detail: ENGAGE.
Act 1: The tomato
For a start, approach your tomato with its stalk end up or down, it doesn't make much difference, but the stalk side is slightly easier to cut into, as it's nearly flat.
Now cut all the sides off your tomato, so you end up with a little square tomato core, cut the bottom off it, dump the rest, it's crappy.
Scoop all the seeds and gunk out of the tomato bits and bin them.
Get all your tomato lumps skin side down (it's easier to slice this way) and slice them into strips, then across the slices into squares-ish.
Lob the tomatoes into a bowl.
Chapter 2: The Onions
The onion is bloody simple to deal with really, just can be a bit of a pain in the arse until you get the hang of it.
Lie it down so you have the top and root ends easily accessible, then cut them off.
Now wrangle the skin off, I like to use the heel of my knife to do this.
Put the onion down root end first (that's the end that looks like it's made of wood)
Slice across the top of the onion, being careful not to go all the way through.
Turn it 90 degrees, and do the same.
Now slice down through the middle of the onion, to give you 2 easy to handle bits.
Place them cut side down, and cut through them, you should end up with a lot of nicely chopped onion, and a couple of bits of root. You can get more onion off from around the root if you want, just pull it off and attack with a knife.
Lob the onion in with the tomato.
Now's a good time to add a few teaspoons of oil, salt and pepper and a few drops of Tabasco. Also taste your salsa to be, it'll certainly need some citrus in there...
Episode 3: The Citrus
The Citrus is easy, just pet it and roll it around under your hand pretty firmly, it makes the juice come out easier.
Lop the fruit not quite in half longways, this gives you a bit of lemon that's much easier to squeeze, which is good.
Squeeze the bastard! watch him bleed!
Taste the salsa a bit more, add citrus blood. Sorry, Juice and season until it tastes right. sometimes a pinch of sugar can help
Realise you have no coriander, and it looks a bit dull.
Other stuff:
Tescos failed me, so there's no coriander, but if I had some, I'd've pulled the leaves off, and roughly chopped them.
I do however have some spring onions, so a few of them went in for extra colour and stuff.
Stick clingfilm over the bowl, lob in fridge for an hour or 2.
Oh, and if you're using a metal bowl, don't use foil, it'll dissolve.
Right, this is my bog standard run of the mill salsa for going with stuff, there's not a lot of ingredients, and the prep is easy... but I'm going into silly detail, as it's good practice for knifey fun.
Ingredients:
2 Nice ripe tomatoes
Red onion
Coriander*
2-3 Spring onions*
Lemon or Lime
Tabasco
Oil
Salt
Pepper
*Are optional, they make it better, but it's fine without.
Tools: Clingfilm
Method:
Excessive detail: ENGAGE.
Act 1: The tomato
For a start, approach your tomato with its stalk end up or down, it doesn't make much difference, but the stalk side is slightly easier to cut into, as it's nearly flat.
Now cut all the sides off your tomato, so you end up with a little square tomato core, cut the bottom off it, dump the rest, it's crappy.
Scoop all the seeds and gunk out of the tomato bits and bin them.
Get all your tomato lumps skin side down (it's easier to slice this way) and slice them into strips, then across the slices into squares-ish.
Lob the tomatoes into a bowl.
Chapter 2: The Onions
The onion is bloody simple to deal with really, just can be a bit of a pain in the arse until you get the hang of it.
Lie it down so you have the top and root ends easily accessible, then cut them off.
Now wrangle the skin off, I like to use the heel of my knife to do this.
Put the onion down root end first (that's the end that looks like it's made of wood)
Slice across the top of the onion, being careful not to go all the way through.
Turn it 90 degrees, and do the same.
Now slice down through the middle of the onion, to give you 2 easy to handle bits.
Place them cut side down, and cut through them, you should end up with a lot of nicely chopped onion, and a couple of bits of root. You can get more onion off from around the root if you want, just pull it off and attack with a knife.
Lob the onion in with the tomato.
Now's a good time to add a few teaspoons of oil, salt and pepper and a few drops of Tabasco. Also taste your salsa to be, it'll certainly need some citrus in there...
Episode 3: The Citrus
The Citrus is easy, just pet it and roll it around under your hand pretty firmly, it makes the juice come out easier.
Lop the fruit not quite in half longways, this gives you a bit of lemon that's much easier to squeeze, which is good.
Squeeze the bastard! watch him bleed!
Taste the salsa a bit more, add citrus blood. Sorry, Juice and season until it tastes right. sometimes a pinch of sugar can help
Realise you have no coriander, and it looks a bit dull.
Other stuff:
Tescos failed me, so there's no coriander, but if I had some, I'd've pulled the leaves off, and roughly chopped them.
I do however have some spring onions, so a few of them went in for extra colour and stuff.
Stick clingfilm over the bowl, lob in fridge for an hour or 2.
Oh, and if you're using a metal bowl, don't use foil, it'll dissolve.
