I have been playing around with home made salsa for about a year now and I have finally got it down. The couple last times I have made this everyone wouldn't even touch the store bought salsas and raved about it a lot.
So here it is! I call it Gringo Salsa!

Gringo Salsa!

Take two jalape�os and cut down the middle length wise put in iron skillet.
Three cloves of garlic peeled into iron skillet(smash flat with side of knife blade and skin will just fall off and it will roast better too)
1/2 teaspoon of olive oil in iron skillet (regular skillet is OK for stove but I do this on grill as on stove you will cry from the fumes and it tastes better with the smoke)
Throw in Jalape�os and garlic cloves and olive oil set on grill until one side is roasted charred brown and the other side is just kinda roasted.

Now in a blender (I use a bowl and hand blender) put one can of stewed tomatoes and one can of Chili Ready stewed tomatoes. Make sure one can is Chili Ready but not both. (The Chili Ready tomatoes is one of the secrets so don't tell anyone)
Squeeze a lime or two depending on how juicy they are.
Add about 2/3 of a bunch of Cilantro to the blender.
Add about 1/2 of an onion (I use Red onion if I have it but whatever color you have will do)
Add the roasted jalape�os and garlic.
Add about 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
Now grind up until smooth and taste for salt etc. When it is to your liking add the rest of the Cilantro and about 1/2 of the remaining onion (Or all if you like) chopped coarsely. BRIEFLY grind the last ingredients (onion/cilantro)so they are still decent sized pieces. Serve or chill. No preservatives so it will only keep for about 4 or 5 days w/o getting funky. This is about the best salsa I have ever had. I thought it was just me because I made it like I like it but everyone else is raving on it too so I thought I would share!

Good luck and let me know what you think!
mark@afm.net

Did you take the all or any of the seeds out of the peppers?

No just fry them in the pan. You can take them out if you like as the seeds and membrane inside is where most of the hot comes from. Play around to suit your taste!

Mark, I tried your recipe, its good, I cut out some of the cilantro though. To me a little goes a long way, I also added a little more garlic and another pepper without the seeds and membrane. Again, everyone has a different taste. Its a good one either way!!! I'll be using it more too, thanks for sharing!!!!

What are "Chili Ready Tomatoes"?

Thanks Kingfisher. Yea like I said it is just a base and the secret is in the just one can of Chili ready tomatos and to roast the dog outta the garlic and peppers. I tried it with two cans of Chili ready and it was too strong on the chili flavor.

Russell Chili ready tomatoes are canned tomatoes with some chili seasoning pre -flavored.

When I make Chili I use regular chili powder. We accidentally bought the chili ready can of tomatoes and it sat around in the pantry for awhile. Glad I decided to use it in the salsa!

Yum

Recipe sounds good, I am gonna give it whirl, hate the store bought stuff.

The recipe is very good! Here is my experience, start with one pepper if you leave the seeds and membrane one was plenty for my taste. I also cut down on the cilantro. By all means DO NOT COOK THE PEPPERS IN THE HOUSE! The whole house will become a danger zone! I think next time I will roast them whole and avoid the hell steam. Thanks for the recipe.

I hear ya about the WPD Weapon of Pepper Destruction. I have blown up the house a few times frying Jalapenos!

Clears the sinuses for sure!

Hey Mark made this last night. Man it is good We made a few changes. We used red and white onions(more red) threw in a couple habanero peppers and we multiplied all of the ingredients x5. We were making it to give away for Christmas along with beer we have been brewing. It filled exactly 8 mason jars. Then we got to the end of the recipe and read that it didn't have any preservatives. Went to the Food TV website and found that cooking the sauce after it is done(all ingredients mixed) in 2 cups of lemon juice is all it takes. Man great recipe

bump

Mark, tried it, great stuff!

Russ, this happened to me. My boss had a great crop of Habanero peppers one year. I took a sack home to try in some recipes. They were just too hot to use in anything but hot sauce. Well they sat around for a while and I got this bright idea to dry them out and grind them up and put them in a spice jar for use latter. I got out the six layer food dehydrator and sliced them puppies up and put them on the trays, turned them on and went to work. When I came home, eight hours later the whole house was like a gas chamber test room. I walked in and my lungs collapsed and I went blind. DUMB! DUMB! DUMB! It took a week to air the place out. I was living alone with no pets at the time, but I didn�t see a roach for months. To this day I can�t stand to look at those orange devils.

You said 2 cups of lemon juice. Is that correct? It seems that 2 cups is an awful lot. I tried to find it on Food Network, but couldn't.

Yes sir. The Food network said to cups but we multiplied everything in the recipe by 5. I don't know if it would still do the trick but I would try a 1.5 cups.

Thanks for the positive comments. I love this stuff. I actually forgot the peppers and garlic was on the fire and scalded it to death one time. I almost started over but I really didn't have time so I just used them blackened totally. It was real chipotle-ish if that is a word. Don't be scared to scald the dog out of the japs and garlic.

Yes I have tried the purple onions and such it is all good. I just end up with what ever we have at the time. As long as you follow the base recipe you can't hardly mess up.

I may go down the salsa road this weekend for some christmas snacking.

Merry Christmas