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Felix, I really enjoyed your newsletter - especially the story about Emeril and the proctologist. I live in LA and try as I may a can't find any jalapeno chiles that are hot. For the last month or so they have all been real mild. Do you have any way of telling how hot a chile is before you buy them?

S. Cross Los Angeles, CA

Dear S. Sorry, I sure don't. I've been trying to figure that one out for decades. I've tried the dark black ones, purple ones - didn't make any difference. Small ones - same story. Big ones, dark green ones, light green ones even red ones - sometimes the chiles just aren't hot. It seems to me too that the jalapenos are getting milder. I suppose our mouths could be getting desensitized with time, but I have another theory. Now that jalapeno chiles and salsas are the hip, in new thing - sales are way up. Maybe the growers are picking them earlier for shipping purposes. They've ruined tomatoes and peaches maybe their gonna ruin chiles too.

Spencer --------- Maybe one of you salsaheads out there know the secret ---------- If you do.....let us in on it

Dear Felix, We were in Cabo about a year ago and we enjoyed your restaurant very much. I was very glad to find you on the internet. Please sign me up for your salsa recipes. I remember we had a great dessert, some kind of banana crepe (I think). Any chance of getting the recipe?

You bet, George, glad to oblige. As a matter of fact I remember you and your lovely wife well. Did you guys ever find the car? What you had was 'Banana's Panama'. We take a banana, slice it and put it in saute pan with way too much butter - we add way too much sugar and saute it hot, keeping the pan moving. You want the bananas to brown but not burn and you want the sugar to caramelize and brown but not burn. When all the sugar and butter and bananas are a rich golden color we flambe the mix with about an ounce of Dark Jamaican rum. We use Myers but any would do. Be careful to take the pan away from the flame when you toss in the rum because it is highly flammable and flame can run right up the pouring liquid and catch the bottle on fire. You want enough liquid in the pan to make it syrupy. If there is not enough liquid you can add some orange juice. The sweet cream we use is just sour cream whipped with lots of sugar and a little vanilla. That's all there is to it. We put this mix into a crepe and garnish it with a little of the banana mix and a little of the cream on top with a sprig of mint (when we can get it). It is also great over ice cream or lady fingers or even pound cake.

Dear Felix, I made the salsa and it came out great, but I have a question. I've been waking up in the middle of the night with really severe leg cramps - any suggestions?

I think maybe you're in the wrong newsletter, but if you go to the nearest health food er, holistic market and pick up a zinc, calcium and magnesium supplement you'll be on the road to recovery. Then again I'm a cook not a doctor and I don't think I'd be taking any advice from me.

Hi Spencer, Got home from Cabo Monday night and was delighted to find I was already on the mailing list, thanks! Sometime in the future, would you include the recipe for that great salsa I tried when we had dinner at your place around the 11th or 12th? It was in the bowl on the first shelf about the center, had large chunks of peppers in kind of an olive oil base. You said you developed it by accident. I think the name was "Three Chili Salsa" or something like that. Your food is great! I had never heard of "Pozole", very tasty. We recommend your place to all who inquire about good restaurants in Cabo.

Thanks for the kind words. The next letter is pretty much done, but I will put the '3 Chile' Salsa in an upcoming issue.

Greetings from San Francisco! Loved the restaurant and really loved the salsa bar. Any chance that you will be including the recipe for pineapple salsa or the cucumber/dill? Or the fabulous cantelope salsa? Just wondering. Thanks for the newsletter. It's great. Adios/gracias! Beth Grace Silver and Family

You got lucky Beth Grace -- the cucumber is featured in this issue. The pineapple and cantaloupe are coming up soon.

I just read the newsletter. So you're the guy we met at the restaurant... Not that you'de remember, but on Good Friday we had the Pozole and the Panuch-something that was to die for! We came back the next day for breakfast before we left Cabo. Thanks for your hospitality and for the recipes! I am on a mission this week. Can you tell me how to make the tortilla chips or will that be in a future issue? Thanks again. Abby Sullivan

Glad to oblige. Just get a pile of corn tortillas and cut them like a pizza. Deep fry them at about 350 degrees. The results will be much, much better if you use stale tortillas. At the restaurant we go through the tortillas so fast that we don't have any stale ones around so we spread out the chips before we fry them and let them dry out for at least a couple of hours. If you use really fresh tortillas the moisture content is so high that the oil foams way, way up - dangerously so. So be careful to add the chips to the hot oil a little bit at a time. Fry them til they're crisp - check one for crispness because sometimes they look crispy before they are. Most people don't know that flour tortillas make great chips (totopos in Mexico). We don't use them at the restaurant because they're pretty fragile and a lot more expensive - but go ahead be the first in your neighborhood to make flour tortilla chips.


	*Salsa newsletter for May, 2001* *Volume 1 - Issue 2* Today's Salsas Cucumber/Cilantro Salsa Salsa Q&A Well, it's salsa newsletter time again and I'm a little surprised, maybe overwhelmed would describe it better, at the response to my stupid newsletter. I was expecting maybe getting an occasional request for a recipe from a handful of salsa fanatics...........boy, was I wrong. It seems that there are a whole bunch of folks that really want to learn to make salsas but are really put off, even intimidated by all the mystique and pretentious mumbo-jumbo being dished out by the celebrity chefs, fifty dollar cook books and the public relations hacks trying to convince us all that in order to make delicious, beautiful food one has to buy at least a million dollars worth of gadgets and order up ingredients by email from some yuppie jerk in Taos, New Mexico that swears that his special Jalapeno chiles planted by a 92 year old Hopi Indian Medicine man in the waning light of a new moon in a sacred valley known only to a few of the really hip, hip members of the foody conspiracy and picked by 14 year old maidens after a summer shower - while the chiles are still damp and then rushed to you by mounted courier are somehow better than the Jalapenos you buy at Safeway............ "BULLSHIT"! , says I! What's going on here is the same thing that architects and doctors and politicians and oh, you know who I'm talkin' about. All the people who make a living by complicating what they do so that none of us can understand it. The more complicated and arcane they can make it ........the more they think we're gonna be impressed by their knowledge. Believe me, cooking is not complicated, it's easy and it's fun. It's not particle physics, as a matter of fact it's way closer to art than it is to science. In any event, there is no way in the world that I'm gonna be able to answer all the requests individually and promptly........I will try though, and eventually you will get an answer. If your request is for something that I've got in the ol' archives I will be able to send it out immediately, but if it involves some researching and experimenting it's gonna take some time. So, starting with the next newsletter I'm adding a readers forum sort of feature. Maybe you guys can help me out by answering each others questions. Also, if you have a favorite salsa recipe or any other recipe for that matter, that you would like to share with some like minded folks .......... send it along. The only caveat will be that I will not print anything that involves the us of expensive kitchen equipment and I'm reserving the right to edit your recipe to fit my format and philosophy. For those of you who don't know.......I'm the chef owner of a couple of restaurants in Cabo San Lucas. Mama's Royal Cafe, an upscale breakfast restaurant thought by many to be the best in the whole country. I disagree. I think it's the best breakfast restaurant in the whole world. You can check Mama's out at www.mamascabosanlucas.com. My other restaurant is Felix', a dinner restaurant featuring mostly original recipes and regional Mexican dishes not generally found in restaurants. Not so incidentally, we also have one of the world's largest salsa bars with between 25 and 40 salsas at any given time. I'm working on the Felix' web site .. enlarging the recipe section. I'll let you know when it's complete, but you might want to check occasionally. That's at www.felixcabosanlucas.com. Please tell your friends about this site or even sign them up without their knowledge.......I don't care. Of course if you hate the newsletter you can always send gift subscription to your enemies, it doesn't matter to me.... even jerks gotta eat. I'm just looking for numbers here, trying to build a power base so we can undermine the yuppie foodnazi conspiracy. You can subscribe either through the Felix' web site or by email to srm@cabotel.com.mx. Hell, if we get strong enough maybe we can do something about the mess in Washington. Yeah, that's it. A populist salsahead takeover. Hmmm......might be big bucks here. After all I've never heard of any poor Senators. Okay, enough jabber. Let's make some salsa!!



Return to top Felix, I really enjoyed your newsletter - especially the story about Emeril and the proctologist. I live in LA and try as I may a can't find any jalapeno chiles that are hot. For the last month or so they have all been real mild. Do you have any way of telling how hot a chile is before you buy them? S. Cross Los Angeles, CA Dear S. Sorry, I sure don't. I've been trying to figure that one out for decades. I've tried the dark black ones, purple ones - didn't make any difference. Small ones - same story. Big ones, dark green ones, light green ones even red ones - sometimes the chiles just aren't hot. It seems to me too that the jalapenos are getting milder. I suppose our mouths could be getting desensitized with time, but I have another theory. Now that jalapeno chiles and salsas are the hip, in new thing - sales are way up. Maybe the growers are picking them earlier for shipping purposes. They've ruined tomatoes and peaches maybe their gonna ruin chiles too. Spencer --------- Maybe one of you salsaheads out there know the secret ---------- If you do.....let us in on it Dear Felix, We were in Cabo about a year ago and we enjoyed your restaurant very much. I was very glad to find you on the internet. Please sign me up for your salsa recipes. I remember we had a great dessert, some kind of banana crepe (I think). Any chance of getting the recipe? George Russell, Richmond Ca You bet, George, glad to oblige. As a matter of fact I remember you and your lovely wife well. Did you guys ever find the car? What you had was 'Banana's Panama'. We take a banana, slice it and put it in saute pan with way too much butter - we add way too much sugar and saute it hot, keeping the pan moving. You want the bananas to brown but not burn and you want the sugar to caramelize and brown but not burn. When all the sugar and butter and bananas are a rich golden color we flambe the mix with about an ounce of Dark Jamaican rum. We use Myers but any would do. Be careful to take the pan away from the flame when you toss in the rum because it is highly flammable and flame can run right up the pouring liquid and catch the bottle on fire. You want enough liquid in the pan to make it syrupy. If there is not enough liquid you can add some orange juice. The sweet cream we use is just sour cream whipped with lots of sugar and a little vanilla. That's all there is to it. We put this mix into a crepe and garnish it with a little of the banana mix and a little of the cream on top with a sprig of mint (when we can get it). It is also great over ice cream or lady fingers or even pound cake. Spencer Dear Felix, I made the salsa and it came out great, but I have a question. I've been waking up in the middle of the night with really severe leg cramps - any suggestions? Mike F. I think maybe you're in the wrong newsletter, but if you go to the nearest health food er, holistic market and pick up a zinc, calcium and magnesium supplement you'll be on the road to recovery. Then again I'm a cook not a doctor and I don't think I'd be taking any advice from me. Spencer Hi Spencer, Got home from Cabo Monday night and was delighted to find I was already on the mailing list, thanks! Sometime in the future, would you include the recipe for that great salsa I tried when we had dinner at your place around the 11th or 12th? It was in the bowl on the first shelf about the center, had large chunks of peppers in kind of an olive oil base. You said you developed it by accident. I think the name was "Three Chili Salsa" or something like that. Your food is great! I had never heard of "Pozole", very tasty. We recommend your place to all who inquire about good restaurants in Cabo. Regards, Marty Joy Thanks for the kind words. The next letter is pretty much done, but I will put the '3 Chile' Salsa in an upcoming issue. Greetings from San Francisco! Loved the restaurant and really loved the salsa bar. Any chance that you will be including the recipe for pineapple salsa or the cucumber/dill? Or the fabulous cantelope salsa? Just wondering. Thanks for the newsletter. It's great. Adios/gracias! Beth Grace Silver and Family You got lucky Beth Grace -- the cucumber is featured in this issue. The pineapple and cantaloupe are coming up soon. I just read the newsletter. So you're the guy we met at the restaurant... Not that you'de remember, but on Good Friday we had the Pozole and the Panuch-something that was to die for! We came back the next day for breakfast before we left Cabo. Thanks for your hospitality and for the recipes! I am on a mission this week. Can you tell me how to make the tortilla chips or will that be in a future issue? Thanks again. Abby Sullivan Glad to oblige. Just get a pile of corn tortillas and cut them like a pizza. Deep fry them at about 350 degrees. The results will be much, much better if you use stale tortillas. At the restaurant we go through the tortillas so fast that we don't have any stale ones around so we spread out the chips before we fry them and let them dry out for at least a couple of hours. If you use really fresh tortillas the moisture content is so high that the oil foams way, way up - dangerously so. So be careful to add the chips to the hot oil a little bit at a time. Fry them til they're crisp - check one for crispness because sometimes they look crispy before they are. Most people don't know that flour tortillas make great chips (totopos in Mexico). We don't use them at the restaurant because they're pretty fragile and a lot more expensive - but go ahead be the first in your neighborhood to make flour tortilla chips.
Return to top This is one of the most popular salsas at the restaurant. And it is what I call a 'BASIC'. Once you have this one down - with just slight variations in ingredients you can make dozens of great salsas. After the recipe I'm gonna give you some of the many variations. We are constantly changing our salsa selection at the restaurant but this is one that we always have on hand....by popular demand. It's real popular for a number of reasons - 1. It has no chiles, so folks that don't like - or can't eat - the fiery stuff still get to enjoy the ritual....even little kids can enjoy it. 2. It tastes really good. 3. It actually seems to work to cool your mouth off after you get a bite of something too hot. You'll notice that I play it pretty loose with the amounts of ingredients - that's on purpose. As I said this is not science - the amounts just don't matter very much. As a matter of fact if you stick to exact measurements it won't be as good - because some lemons/limes are sweeter/more sour than others.....sometimes the cilantro is stronger tasting than other times. So as you make the salsa - taste the salsa and adjust it to taste the way you like it. It just doesn't make any difference if it's a little more or less lemony. Also I'm giving you instructions for making a very small batch if you like it you can just double up on the ingredients and if you hate it you haven't lost much. You really should make and try a batch before you do a whole bunch and serve it to your friends. This salsa is great on chips ..... it's wonderful as a refreshing substitute for the same old boring tartar sauce and it's absolutely great on anything breaded and fried from shrimp and fish to fried chicken, jalapeno poppers or chicken fried steak. This one is pretty much a no-brainer but it's really cool and refreshing - perfect for summer time fare. Here's what you're gonna need. 1 cucumber -- peeled 1 cup (or so) sour cream 1 bunch of cilantro a couple of lemons or limes a little salt - if you think it needs it okay - let's rock and roll . Chop the cucumber and put it in a bowl. Now the food experts all tell you to scoop the seeds outÉ..nonsense! Use the whole thing. I slice the cucumber into thin strips the long way first - makes for easier chopping. Add the sour cream - one big spoonful at a time...stir. Look at it. Do you like the consistency? Hey, add some more sour cream... Now squeeze a lemon or a lime into the bowl...taste it. You want it to be lemony/limey, if it's not, squeeze another one. Chop the cilantro pretty fine and add it to the bowl.....stir it around, taste it - add some salt if you think it needs it, sprinkle something green (chives, parsley, cilantro, green onion - whatever) over it......... and bingo! You have a great, refreshing salsa. Easy, huh? Thin the salsa out with some milk and you have a wonderful salad dressing. Use fresh or dried whole tarragon instead of cilantro and add some buttermilk, or for that matter regular milk, and you have 'Aunt Maggie's Tarragon Buttermilk Ranch Dressing" (if you use the dried tarragon - let it sit for a while before using it to let the flavor of the herb spread a little). Take a table spoon or two of the salsa and put it in the blender with a jalapeno chile - give it a spin or two and add it back into the bowl. Taste it. Not hot enough? Do it again. Too hot? Add some more sour cream, cucumber, and lemon/lime. Put the whole thing into the blender and whip it up good. It'll taste the same but it will be a real pretty green color. Go ahead and call it your 'Secret Cucumber and Cilantro Green Goddess Dressing" I won't tell. Put a couple of cloves of garlic into the blender with a little of the sour cream and beat it up good -- add it to the salsa/dressing and make up a name for it. If you want to use it in place of Tartar Sauce for fried fish - add some toasted slivered almonds and call it "Mom's Cucumber Cilantro Tartar Sauce Amandine" Slice the cucumber into thin rounds instead of chopping it - add some very thinly sliced onion rings and a touch of some vinegar and serve it as a salad. Use unflavored yogurt instead of sour cream and dill instead of cilantro . Make a chicken salad - the best you've ever tasted - by using tarragon instead of cilantro and cutting the cucumber into bite sized chunks. Add cooked chicken cut into the same size as the cucumber and serve it in a half an avocado on top of a mixed green saladÉÉ.it's incredible, easy too. If you use yogurt and dill - try adding some cayenne pepper. Very Indian. So go ahead, fool around with this one, and if you come up with some more tasty variations - send them along. I'll print them up. Maybe with your help we can put some of these high priced waddies out of business.