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UnOrthOdOx
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Hello....
Jun 2002
time: 22:30
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My search for a good Salsa began more than a year ago when in passing I was given a recipe and I made it to the letter only to discover that I hated it. The onions garlic and peppers totally overpowered all taste of tomatoes.
It was time for me to try to fix it to my tastes. This is not a recipe for the weak, though, and will take well into 4-6 hours to prepare.
Not following my own advice and acting on a tip that there were some great tomatoes at a local farm, I went out and acquired a 1/2 bushell (4 qts) of Early Girl Tomatoes. They were indeed fine tomatoes, but they also were the cause of 90% of the failure. We will get to that later, though.
With the tomatoes in hand it was time to secure the heart of the salsa. To my dismay, local Jalepenos were not all quite ready and I was forced to acquire some brought up from the south. These are typically shipped green and ripen along the way which detracts somewhat from the taste, so I grabbed up 10 and continued my search.
The previous recipe had called for 4 large yellow onions and a ton of bell peppers. Both were overpowering in the end. So, I decided on the fly to use 3 small WHITE onions a single Green Bell pepper and a single Red Bell Pepper. I left the amount of Garlic at a full bud, though.
Wrapping up the vegetable hunting I found some fine Anaheim Chiles and called it a day. All together the shopping trip was under $20. Not bad for the amount I was about to make.
Peeling and coring the tomatoes is not an enviable task. By far the most tedious and the most messy process of this whole affair. The best method I have found of peeling is to blanch the tomatoes. IE, boil them for approx a minute or so, then the skin comes right off, but this will leave you handling the meat of the tomatoe and getting it all over if you are not carefull.
With the tomatoes peeled and cored its time for the chopping. A task I thuroughly enjoy. Dicing tomatoes, bells, onions, jalepenos and anaheims all into a large stock pot.
Now it was time to decide what I wanted from my salsa. The previous recipe had simply called for adding some celery salt and stewing. I was not happy with this either, though, and wanted at least some herbal flavoring for the tomatoes. Gazing at the spice rack I debated it over in my head and finally decided in adding 2 tablespoons each of Rosemary and Marjoram.
The concoction did not quite smell right yet, however, and I grabbed up 2 more tablespoons of Lemon Juice, 1 of black pepper, 1 of celery salt, 2 of chile powder and 2 of ceyenne pepper.
It finally smelled how I wanted and we set about the process of stewing. And stewing. 3 hours later I was satisfied with the consistency of the sauce.
Results: Failure
The Early Girl Tomatoes, while very flavorfull on their own, are just not very suited for salsa. They're not really meant for stewing all together, frankly. I had misgivings about it before I even began, but was following advice handed down to me. I should trust my instincts more.
As a result, the salsa turned out a bit watery in taste instead of a fine tomatoe flavor. I think this could easily be remedied through the use of Roma Tomatoes instead. Other than that it is a bit on the mild side, but that is also easily remedied for the next time, and partly due to the fact that they were imported Jalepenos, not ripe local.
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19-08-2003 22:07
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