I may have posted this one. But here's the basic salsa we make.

Basic Salsa

Ingredients:
2 lb. Green husk tomato (tomatillo) or substitute regular tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic
salt to taste
cilantro to taste (preferably fresh)
1/2 cup water
1 habanero pepper or other hot peppers to taste
1/2 medium onion

Options:
You can use a chicken bullion cube in place of some or all of the salt. This gives the salsa a different flavor.

You can leave out the cilantro or vary the amount of garlic

1. Cube the tomatoes and onion. Mince the garlic.
2. Cut the pepper(s) at least in half
3. Add all ingredients to a pot and bring to a boil
4. Boil about 5 minutes
5. Let cool (This is important! If you try to blend things hot you, and your kitchen will be wearing salsa!)
6. Blend
7. Enjoy!

George
Tahlequah, OK

I normally don't use a specific recipe, mainly because acid levels in tomatoes in always different, some are more watery...etc. Just start with a basic list of ingredients and taste as you go.
I use vine-ripe tomatoes, onion, garlic, cilantro, some fresh chiles, lime juice and salt. That's it. The main secret I think is to get the consistency you prefer. My favorite method to crush tomatoes for salsa is to use a meat grinder. Kitchen-Aid makes a nice attachment version that's affordable. The texture comes out perfectly "restaurant style". If one's not available, you could use a food processor. At the end just adjust lime juice and salt to taste.....and be careful with the fresh garlic.
A nice variation is to roast the tomatoes and chiles over a gas flame, or roast in hot oven. Skins will blacken and char. Place roasted veggies in ziploc until cool enough to peel. Peel. Process as usual. With these basic steps (I believe cooking is more about technique than recipes)I make 3-4 different salsas every year, a mild one, a super hot version for myself with fresh habaneros (not growing this year though :( and a "fire roasted" version of either one. Fruit salsas with fresh produce is fun at the end of summer, but that's a whole different project altogether :)
Happy growing and eating!
Dale

Dale, if you are ever near Tahlequah, come late summer or fall, I could get you an "Habanero fix." I put put five or six plants every year. They produce like crazy and I end up hanging them in one of our out buildings during the winter ("picking" peppers until March). One thing I've done with excess Habaneros is to boil/steam them, seeds and all, with some vinegar, add salt and process them in a Vitamix. I add salt, to taste, and can the resulting hot sauce with the label Habanero Magma." I have used this hot sauce, and it's fine, if I only use a little at a time. But I've found the main thing I like it for is spicing up other hot sauces which aren't hot enough for my taste. My son, in his twenties, and his buddies, pride themselves on using the stuff like regular salsa and his buddies comment (brag) about sweating while they eat it :)

Still, I always have some left over. My wife commented that I should consider not growing Habaneros for a year. But they are one of my great joys in the garden. They are so beautiful, productive and trouble free! Anyway, I'd be happy to help you out.

"My favorite method to crush tomatoes for salsa is to use a meat grinder." - This is probably a "higher tech" method to accomplish the same thing folk in Mexico do with their stone mortar and pestle. Many down there comment with pride that they don't use a blender but rather their "metate" (pronounced met-awt-ay) because they don't want "to fill their salsa with air." Of course, the "air" will settle out in short order, if one uses a blender. Nevertheless, this does make for a different texture.

I almost mentioned on my first post, about Jerreth's favorite salsa, which uses dried, smoked Chile Rayado peppers. But, though I grow this pepper, I have never smoked them, and don't know that I'll ever have time to try it. I bring them back from my yearly teaching stint in Hidalgo Mexico. Smoked peppers really add a different flavor to salsa. Probably, in the USA, the closest thing one could find, perhaps in a little Mexican grocery, would be chipotle, which is smoked Jalapeño.

George

Here's my salsa recipe:

3 c. tomatoes, diced
1 c. onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, fresh minced
2 jalapenos, diced
1/4 c. cilantro, chopped and optional
salt to taste

You can add more or less to your liking.
We like to mix it up and let it rest overnight but it doesn't always last until then.

My hubby likes it over eggs.

Hope you like it.

Teresa

George, If Dale doesn't take you up on the invitation to visit and view/taste habaneros, I would like to. Never raised them. And didn't raise Poblanos this year either.

Like Dale I adjust my salsa as I make it. But lime juice is a must for me. And because I don't like it too hot, I add in a regular bell pepper as well as jalapeno.

Last year I had so many Armenian Cucumbers early in the season that I chopped one in my salsa. I know it isn't authentic, but it was good.

Macmex hit upon something I seldom hear any one els mention, and that is the Habanero, they grow large, make a beautiful plant and they are very productive, they will look and produce good even if they are neglected.
They are my favorite pepper to grow, they make me feel like I know how to grow peppers, LOL. people have often commented on how healthy the plants look.
It seems like just about any thing you use peppers in, if you add just a little bit of Habanero it makes it tast just a little bit better.

George, thanks for the invite! I actually used to visit Tahlequah regularly 10-12 years ago when I had a friend there in college, but don't make it that way much anymore. I'll let you know if I'm headed that way anytime soon and most certainly take you up.
Growing and using fresh chiles is a passion (obsession), and I'm very upset with myself that I'm not growing any this year. Instead I made room to try out some new cucumbers and tomatoes. Last year the yellow habaneros were the very last thing producing in the garden. Very pretty indeed, how I miss them already. Not the case with next year! All these online seed catalogs have such a mouth-watering array of chiles, it's almost too much to take in all at once! I need to stop now before I go on all day.....

Dale

P.S. I meant to add originally that salsas always taste better the next day after the flavors have had a chance to blend and get happy. Like Teresa mentioned herself, having any the next day is never guaranteed though!

I always grow habaneros for Tim because he likes the hot peppers. I like milder ones myself. This year I only grew the regular orange ones because I was anticipating drought and was "cutting back". Normally, though, we grow the orange, peach, mustard, red, white and chocolate ones. I grow them in the regular veggie garden and in the flower beds as well. I think all peppers look very attractive in mixed borders, but especially Fatali with its deep green leaves and gorgeous bright yellow peppers.

If anyone is looking for seeds of the various colors of habs, you can usually find them at Tomato Growers Supply, Seed Savers Exchange and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (linked below). And, by the way, if anyone is interested in stocking up on seeds for next year, Baker Creek is offering free shipping through June 15, 2009.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Hot Peppers at Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

I've used "Annies" recipes for 2 years and both (peach & plain) are really good. I canned 60 jars last year varying the degree of heat. Really good.

Good luck!

Laura

Salsa! A subject near and dear to mt heart! I have salsa running through my veins.

I'm not a recipe person, either. I love fresh salsa, not cooked at all, so I freeze batches throughout the summer to last me through the winter. I just pulled two more gallons out of the deep freeze today. Salsa is a beverage.

I use tons of tomatoes, several onions, gazillions of garlic cloves, bunches of radishes, truckloads of cilantro, and at least three different types of chiles in order to layer the heat. (The first layer is an immediate but tolerable heat; second layer is on a different level and you start to sweat; third layer is most delayed but it takes you to a higher plane of being -- and cussing -- and you can't stop eating for more than a second because the cause is the cure. It's exquisitely pleasurable agony that you must have again and again. Did I mention I love salsa??)

Anyway, take all of those fresh ingredients and smoosh 'em up in your preferred way to your preferred consistency/texture, then stir in some tomato paste for color and body, then several glubs of vinegar and some palms of salt, all to taste.

YUM!

Cures the common cold, flu, and pestering neighbors.

Diane

Anyone would be welcome to drop by. We have a very full "schedule," so it is important to arrange the details ahead of time :)

The Rayado pepper we grow is also one of those easy growers. It's easy to see why it's the most popular "commercial" variety out in the sierra of Hidalgo, Puebla and Veracruz (my old stomping ground), where conditions can be rather extreme. The plants are hardy, fast growing and early producing. The peppers, a type of Jalapeño, are large and extra hot. Yet, the Habanero is king when it comes to beauty.

Some years ago a GW member in MA sent me seeds to what he believed were Red Savina, a kind of Habanero. Well, he had a small garden and had grown many kinds of Habanero that summer. He saved seed. When I grew out the seed I had several sizes and shapes as well as red, yellow and orange colored fruit. I started to select back for red, when it dawned on me, "I like the variety!" So I kept seed from them all. But, I'm afraid, with only growing five or six plants a year, that I'm going to lose that diversity. Oh well, they are all good!

All these tips are great! I've seen most of them "in action," in Mexico. For instance, lemon is a MAJOR ingredient in many dishes down there. I'm sure I've had salsa which included lemon. But I didn't recognize it. They have MANY salsas. Even Guacamole, in Mexico, is a type of salsa and is often HOT.

George

AH! SALSA! Love it! We have a favorite in this family, green tomato salsa. We go to Hot Springs, Ar. many times during the year to visit my husband's parents house. When we do, we always eat at The Hacienda there, and they've got the BEST green tomato salsa! I had to find a recipe for it! This is the closest I could find on the internet...

6 green tomatoes, coarsely chopped
- 1 jalapeno, large, seeded and finely chopped
- 6 green onions, finely chopped
- 1 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice or red wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1/4 cup sweet onion, finely chopped

This is a raw salsa, which I'm learning I really like. I take about 3/4 of it and blend it and leave 1/4 of it chunky. Last year I played around with the recipe and added half an advocado! REALLY GOOD. Hot and cooling! This year I'm thinking about fire roasting part of the ingredients... that sounds yummy to me!

Another thing in salsas that I'm interested in is the fruit salsas. Last year for my birthday I made a basic raw salsa with red tomatoes, and added some blackberries! Blended 3/4 of it like I like to do... and I LOVED IT! Sure, it had a purpley tint to it... LOL! But it was visually interesting and rather yummy!

I'm excited about salsas this year, since I've got hot peppers growing (didn't last year). My own jalapenos! I do have two other kinds (Santiago and Hot Portugal, these seeds were given to me), it'll be interesting to see how hot these get. I'm going to let these mature as much as possible tho... my husband is getting to where he can't handle super hotness... LOL! Too many habeneros, his tummy can't handle it anymore. :)

Beth