well,…………

………………it’s about damn time 

I know, I know, it’s been quite a while since you’ve received one of these stupid newsletters.  I only hope you found something productive to do with all the time you saved by not having to read my mad ramblings.  Anyway, I‘m back. The last few newsletters I went off on a tangent and many of you wrote me in a snit.   “what’s this crap!  I want the Mexican recipes I signed up for”…..and “ I thought this was a salsa newsletter”…. and many more. I get the picture.  I was gonna give you my recipe for  home-made lobster ice cream with hot licorice sauce and real lobster chunks, but you want Mexican salsas so here we go with some great – and easy to make – Mexican salsas.   But first, -  as usual, I’m gonna make you read a whole bunch of stuff that you don’t care about.

 A few years ago the food channel showed up in Cabo and did a show at my place.   The host seemed amazed at my salsa bar and referred to me as the ‘SALSA KING’  I knew I was just an old hippie who happened to be a real good cook, but if they wanted to call me the ‘SALSA KING’ I could  live with it.  Then somebody at ChilePepper Magazine decided to do an article on the ‘SALSA KING’.  They printed an interview with me entitled ‘Meet the Salsa King’, they did  a brief biography and a bunch of my recipes.  So now I was officially the ‘Salsa King’  The organizers of a big ‘Cinco de Mayo Days’ celebration in Reno contacted me to see if I would be willing to be a celebrity judge at their salsa contest.  They said they’d fly me and a friend up and comp us at a nice hotel – so, whore that I am – I said sure.  They did some publicity about the ‘Salsa King’ coming to town, so when I arrived all the morning TV shows wanted to interview me. 

They wanted me to make some salsas and give the recipes to the viewers – ‘okay’,  I said ‘but there’s one problem………I didn’t bring a kitchen or pots, pans, stoves or even a knife’……… Not a problem!......they gave me the run of a huge hotel kitchen with a staff of about 50 or so. I made 5 or 6 salsas that looked and tasted completely different – and I made them with exactly the same ingredients.  While I was working in the kitchen all the Gringo Chefs(culinary snobs all) and kitchen help(mostly Mexicans) stood around to watch the ‘Salsa King’ in action.  It was amazing! All the big deal chefs were amazed and congratulatory with my skill while the Mexicans didn’t understand what the big deal was.  The Mexicans weren’t impressed by the Salsa King because they all knew how easy it was.   All they saw was some raggedy ass old hippie making the same salsas their mom’s made at home.  I made Pico de Gallo, Salsa Vera Cruzana, Salsa Asada, Salsa Roja, a Red enchilada sauce and an original fresh Tomato Salsa using exactly the same ingredients.  Most of these recipes are already on my web site, and rather than repeat myself I’m gonna show you how to make 5 or 6 different green salsas using exactly the same ingredients.

Everything you’ll ever need to know about making salsa verde

When I last lived in the states, if you actually made ‘homemade’  salsa you were considered pretty hot stuff.  Salsa was an ’exotic’, ­to be enjoyed  in restaurants or purchased in jars for special occasions.   Then salsas and southwestern ‘cuisine’ became incredibly popular and all of a suddenly everyone was making salsa.  However they were all making the same salsa – pico de gallo-also called salsa Mexicana or salsa fresca.  Green salsa seemed to retain its mystique and hardly anyone makes it at home.  A damn shame, I say, because it’s a great salsa- probably the second most popular salsa in Mexico.  There’re a few good reasons for you to make it at home.  First, it’s really good.  Second, it’s easy to make. Third, it will be really cool to be the only non-Mexican you know who makes homemade ‘salsa verde’.  All your friends will consider you an expert on salsas and ask you for your recipe.  Maybe you’ll get a reputation locally as the ‘Salsa King’ and you can start writing a stupid newsletter and acting like you know what you’re talking about.  Here’s how you do it. 

Ingredients

12 or so tomatillos………………….with the papery husk and stem, if any, removed. 

Tomatillos run in color from deep purplish black, through dark green, to yellow when completely ripe.  I usually use the darkest green ones because I think they have a tangier flavor and make a darker colored salsa but that may be just my imagination – it probably doesn’t make any difference.  If you live in some place where they just don’t have fresh tomatillos you can use canned without fear. If you can’t get fresh or canned then, I’m sorry to say, you are totally screwed because you just can’t make traditional salsa verde without them.  Read on anyway because I’m gonna give you a couple of salsas verde that do not use tomatillos

1 medium onion…………………….peeled and cut into blender sized pieces.  I use a white onion    

because that’s what’s available here.  You can use any kind of onion         you want, it just don’t matter.

A couple of cloves of garlic ………or more, or less.  You don‘t really need any garlic in this but I put                                                             garlic in everything

1 jalapeno chile………………….....seeds and all, but with the stem removed.  I

like a pretty hot green salsa so I use a lot more chiles but I don’t know about you – so start with one –  you can always make it hotter, but you can’t get the chile out after it’s made.

Fresh cilantro………………………just a little chopped up to add in at the end

Here’s how you make it

This is really a no brainer.  Just toss the chiles onions, garlic and tomatillos into a pot and add some water.  Bring the water to a boil then turn it down to a bare simmer.  Put a lid on the pot and let it simmer until the jalapeno has turned from a bright green to an olive drab color like a canned jalapeno.  We simmer at a low temperature because we don’t want the tomatillos to roll around and split open.  When it has all turned a rather ugly drab color turn it off and let it cool.  When its cool put all the stuff except the water (save the water because you might want to thin the salsa) into a blender and blend it.  – you really want to make sure it’s cooled down before you blend it because horrible things can happen with hot stuff in a blender. Don’t blend it too much – we want some texture. Taste it.  If it’s not hot enough – just steam another chile or two and add it.  If it’s too hot -  add some more tomatillos.  I don’t usually add salt but you can if you want.  I now add some chopped fresh cilantro – you should too.  Okay, you have just made some traditional Mexican salsa verde.  You’ve made it exactly the same way virtually every single Mexican homemaker, cook and restaurant makes it – and no one in the world can make it better. Oh, they can make it hotter, thicker, or more garlicky but not better! 

 2 more versions

  However, my favorite version of this ubiquitous salsa is slightly different. I can’t claim it as original because I stole it from a funky Mexican restaurant on east 14^th St. in Oakland, Ca. -  the Jalisco Café to be exact.  It uses exactly the same ingredients but the result is quite different.  Cook up the tomatillos and let them cool like above but without the onion or chile or garlic.  Blend the tomatillos like above then chop the raw onion and garlic and chile (seeds and all) and add them to the tomatillos along  with some chopped cilantro.  There! You’ve just made another great salsa verde just as good as any made by Emeril or any of those other morons.  For yet another great variation – make the cooked version and add a ripe avocado (ripe, meaning soft but not all mushy) chopped into a size that pleases you. I chop it into pieces about twice the size of a pencil eraser. You can call this Guacamole salsa, salsa verde or you could make up your own name – I doubt if any of your guests have ever had this sauce unless they’ve eaten at my restaurant.

And another version

This one starts out just like the first cooked version but put the avocado in to cook along with all the other stuff.  When it’s cooled you will blend this one a whole lot more than you would the first one.  We want a smoother, more velvety blend­ so puree the heck out of it.  This salsa is great heated up as a topping for enchiladas or tacos and as a table salsa for pork, chicken or fish and is the traditional sauce for enchiladas Suizas

Oh……… I’m not done yet

We use exactly the same ingredients on this one but we get an entirely different salsa – different color, different taste and distinctly different aroma.  Just toss all the raw ingredients including some cilantro into the blender and you have made a salsa that is a beautiful bright green color and has an earthy aroma that reminds me of a morning in the country and new mown hay.  Unfortunately, I don’t particularly like it – but I make it at the restaurant because it’s so damn pretty and the customers like it. You can call this one ‘Salsa Verde Fresca’

Oh, dear God, not another version

Yeah, another one, but we’re almost done.  This time instead of putting it all in a pot with water, you put it in a skillet with just a teeny bit of oil to barely coat the pan. Don’t pile the stuff up, just a single layer in the skillet. Over medium heat, let the stuff cook without stirring or turning until the bottoms blacken and start to burn – then turn the onion, tomatillo and chile over and burn another side. Keep doing that until it’s all well blackened.  When it’s all pretty burnt, turn off the heat and while the pan is still hot pour in a little water and de-glaze the pan (fancy chef talk for scrape up the burnt stuff) and let it cool.  When cool – toss the whole mess in the blender.and when done add some chopped cilantro.  You’ve just made some great Smoky ‘Salsa Verde Asada’

And………………………as long as we’re at it

There’s a thin green salsa served at almost every taco stand in Mexico.  They usually just call it Guacamole.  To differentiate it from what us gringos call guacamole I’ll call it ‘Taqueria Guacamole’.  It’s made thin enough to serve in a squirt bottle and it’s great on tacos – especially fish or carne asada.  It is usually mild enough for kids and I always wondered how to make it.  One day one of my kitchen help made some for the employees and it was good so I asked her how she made it.  She looked at me like I was really stupid and put an avocado in a blender with a little water and pushed the button.  I’ve been serving it ever since, but I put in a little lime juice and some salt.  If you want it spicy add a chile and a clove or two of garlic.  You can turn it into a great Green Goddess salad dressing by adding a little onion and an anchovy to the mix. Or you could blend it with some bottled Italian dressing and a little salsa Mexicana and call it Mexican Guacamole Ranch Dressing.

Let me know how it turns out.

Spencer