one ingredient
Julie Van Rosendaal
Salsa
I can’t write about salsa without mentioning how much I love to say the word salsa. I’m a product of Generation Seinfeld – “I said I wanted seltzer, not salsa! You have the seltzer after the salsa!” It was during the Seinfeld era – in 1992 – that salsa surpassed ketchup and reined supreme as the bestselling condiment in the US. This year, it’s mayo.
r e s ta u r a n t & l o u n g e
Although salsa is the Spanish word for sauce, Canadians don’t really think of it as a sauce. We consider salsa to be, for the most part, made up of chunkily diced tomatoes kicked up with jalapeño and maybe some onion and garlic or cilantro and a squeeze of lime. We scoop it up, rather than drizzle or dip. If the rest of the world is anything like my house, ninety percent of salsas are delivered from bowl to mouth by nacho. In Mexico, salsa is less a Stanley Cup-style food item and more a staple of everyday cuisine, used as an ingredient for cooking as well as a finishing touch. Fresh salsas are made for almost every meal, wide-ranging in colour and texture, barely bound by their common denominators – tomatoes, chiles and onion. They can be made raw (cruda) or cooked (cocida), with thousands of variations, depending on the region and its terroir. Every home has its own salsa recipe – and likely more than one. While we most often buy it jarred, with a range limited to red or green, and from mild to hot, salsa should fall within the realm of DIY – it’s one of the quickest, simplest ways to make use of fresh, seasonal ingredients. There’s no particular technique required for salsa-making; all you need is a knife and a bowl, or a food processor, to speed things up or make a more finely textured salsa. With tomatoes and peppers at their peak, fall can be considered salsa season – a great way to get your veggies when you’re tired of salad.
Contemporary French
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Classic Pico de Gallo At its most basic, salsa is a mulch of fresh tomatoes, onion, chiles and lime juice, a combination that comes together in five minutes, by hand or blender. 2-3 ripe tomatoes, finely chopped 1/2 sweet onion, finely chopped 1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and minced 1/2 c. fresh cilantro, finely chopped (optional)
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CITY PALATE.ca SEPTEMBER OCTOBER 2014
juice of half a lime (or to taste) big pinch salt
Chop and combine everything in a bowl, or pulse it in the bowl of a food processor until it’s as coarse or smooth as you like, adjusting the salt, lime and jalapeño as needed. Makes about 3 cups.
Mango Salsa Sweet-tart mangoes make a salsa worthy of loading onto a fish taco. With a kick from purple onions and jalapeños, it’s also delicious on grilled chicken. 2 mangoes, peeled, pitted and finely diced 1/2 c. chopped fresh cilantro 1/4 c. finely chopped purple onion 1 jalapeño, seeded and minced juice of half a lime
Stir everything together and let it sit for half an hour or so to allow the flavours to blend. Makes about 2-1/2 cups.