Fire and Ice Salsa

May 16, 2010 by Ben

I am making 2 gallons of salsa right now. That is A LOT of salsa I’ve come to find out. I have entered a salsa competition at the Wild West Fest in Carlsbad tomorrow.

I have never been in a salsa competition before. I have no idea what I’m doing. But I’m having a ton of fun doing it.

Salsa is one of those easy things to make. You really just get a bunch of onions, peppers, tomatoes and mix them all together. Its a little of this, little of that, no wrong-way to do it kind of recipe.

I’m just taking some of my favorite ingredients from different salsa recipes and throwing them all together to make some award winning (hopefully) Salsa.

Lets get started

First things first, soak the corn. Do this now. This recipe is quick, except for the corn. You must soak the corn for 2 hours and then roast in on a grill for another 2 hours. Leave the husks on. I know this sounds like a lot of time for soaking and roasting, but its worth it. Trust me.

Grab one large sweet onion, chop it up into chunks

Throw the onion into your food processor. You can use a blender if you wish

3 cloves of garlic. chop them up a little and throw it into the food processor

1 Jalapeño pepper. Slice in half.

Remove the seeds if you want less heat. This salsa has plenty of heat without the seeds but its up to you.

Chop the pepper up and throw it in the food processor

same thing with the habanero pepper and serrano pepper. remove seeds, chop and into the food processor

food processor should be full of good stuff now

Grab a couple of fresh Roma tomatoes

Quarter them and throw them into food processor

Add a 28oz can of whole tomatoes into processor and pulse it a few times. This is going to be our base for the salsa

add 1/4 teaspoon salt

add 1/4 teaspoon cumin

Add a lot of cilantro. Some people say the secret ingredient to good food is love. They are wrong. Its cilantro. Add about a cup and half of cilantro. Pulse the processor a few more times until everything is sufficiently chopped up and all mixed together.

Your salsa should now look like this. Pour the salsa into a big bowl or container. That’s a good salsa, but we don’t want good salsa, we want great salsa. This is only part 1.

Now we are going to make the second part.

Get a 12 oz can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. These add an amazing smoky flavor to it.

Also get a 7 oz can of fire roasted diced chilies. These also bring the smoky with the fire roasted flavor

Throw both into a food processor and pulse it a few times until blended.

Now here comes part of the cool flavor of our salsa. Get a large cucumber and cut it down the middle

Chop up into good sized chunks, about 1/4 inch.

grab some olive oil

add cucumbers and 3 tablespoons of olive oil into the food processor and pulse it a couple of times. You want the cucumbers to be chunky so do pulse it too much.

Add that mixture to your first salsa mix and blend together. Notice the darker color. Its looking good.

Now I like my salsa with some chunks in it. The first part we blended to give us a good base but its time to add some chunks back in. Grab a couple more tomatoes and half of a red onion.

Chop them up into good sized chunks

Mix into your salsa

I threw in a couple of RO-TEL cans of diced tomatoes and chilies to give it some more body

Remember the secret ingredient? Yup, add more. About a half cup. This time we are adding whole cilantro leaves. I tear them up a little, but we want to leave bigger pieces. This stuff is awesome.

mmmm, looking good.

Ok remember that corn you soaked for 2 hours and roasted for 2 hours in the husks. Go get it. I like my corn to have a little color so i finished it off on the stove to blacken it up a bit.

Get a good knife and slice the corn off of the cob

The corn is the other part of our cool fresh flavor. The corn and the cucumber make this recipe and give it a great fresh cool flavor before the heat hits you.

Break it up with your fingers so all the kernels are separate

Add to salsa and stir

Final ingredient; lime juice. You want about 4 tablespoons. These are baby limes so I had to use a few of them

Good trick to getting all the lime juice out is to roll it under your hand a few times before you chop it in half and squeeze it over the salsa.

Thats it… you are done. Stir it around and let the flavors all mix together. This salsa has so many flavors your mouth with love you. The smoky chipotles mixed with the fresh light cucumber and corn are amazing and then the heat from the peppers hits and its awesome. This salsa is hot, but its not overwhelming. You can cut down on the peppers if you want less heat.

Ingredients:

1 Jalapeno Pepper
1 Serrano Pepper
1 Habanero Pepper
1/2 red onion
1 sweet onion
4 Roma tomatoes
3 cloves garlic
1 large cucumber
2 ears of corn
1 big bunch of Cilantro
4 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 can fire roasted diced chilies (7 oz)
2 cans Ro-tel diced tomatoes and green chilies (10 oz)
1 can whole tomatoes (28 oz)
1 can Chipotle pepper in Adobo sauce (12 oz)

This about 1 and a half gallons of salsa, which is a lot but, this stuff will go quick at a party!

Let me know if you make this salsa and what you think of it. If you like this recipe, share it with someone you know with the sharethis button below.

Ben…

Also please take a second to sign Jamie Olivers Food Revolution petition. He is encouraging people to cook more at home and thus have healthier lives and I encourage you to do the same.