My favorite time of year has arrived. My chile pepper plants are getting heavy, and the markets have all kinds of heirloom tomatoes to choose from every week. This means I make tons of salsa. Today after work, I made a batch of grilled heirloom tomato salsa with grilled habaneros for extra heat. For the less heat-tolerant, I also made a grilled tomatillo and roasted pepper salsa with plain old serrano peppers. In each case, I used my own chile peppers, but they were from last year’s harvest and had to be thawed. In a few weeks I will be using nothing but fresh, home-grown peppers for months! In any case, since I make about a quart with each batch, I split them into halves so my wife can take some to work to share with her colleagues. It will be interesting to hear how they deal with the hab-tomato salsa tomorrow.
Anyhow, I have a handful of standard salsa recipes in my repertoire that consistently deliver good results, and I play around with them a little each time. I would be glad to post my general blueprint for some salsas if anyone is interested. I would be interested in seeing some of your go-to recipes.
Jorge – Ancho is a dried Poblano. They make a great base for enchilada sauce. If you want to use them fresh instead of drying them, they are excellent for chile rellenos. Sadly, I can’t make that dish often because my little girl is allergic to dairy and egg (among a few other things), but it is pretty easy to make.
Nancy – I usually freeze my habs and serranos because they tolerate being frozen much better than drying. Besides, if you dry the habs it seems like they get even hotter when ground. I dry most of my extra Cayenne-style peppers – I usually grow two or three different ones each year – and they perform very well reconstituted or even used dry to make chile oil or in stir-fry. As for the heirloom tomatoes, our farmers markets tend to sell 8 or 10 different kinds for $3 to $4 per pound in high season. It’s pretty great. I have four Cherokee Purples left over from my salsa exploits tonight, and I intend to slice them, salt them lightly, dust them with a little dill and eat them as an app tomorrow night.
They’re poblanos until they’re dried. I can’t believe I have to give chile lessons to a wetback.
Make chile verde de puerco. Use lots of cilantro and a couple of tomatillos. Either that or stuff them (that means chiles rellenos if you’re confused) or make chicken, corn and poblano chowder.
Here is the one I made last night --Fire Roasted Tomato Salsa:
About 4 lbs tomatoes, preferably heirloom with low seed and pulp ratio
A few poblano or similar peppers
Garlic (4 to 6 cloves, roasted)
Half-cup chopped cilantro
Large onion
Salt
Sugar
Cracked black pepper
EVOO
Red wine vinegar
Either 8 or 10 Serranos OR 2 or 3 Habaneros OR 6 to 8 Chipotles (keep in mind, I like mine hot)
This recipe requires a grill, but it is easy. To roast the garlic, place the garlic cloves, with husks still on, in heavy pot with a little olive oil and set the burner to the lowest setting. Cover and roast for about 40 minutes, turning the garlic occasionally. While the garlic is roasting, roast the tomatoes, onion, poblanos and (if using the serranos or habaneros) the hot chiles over a very hot grill until the skins blacken and peel easily. Let them all cool afterwards. Peel and seed the Poblanos. Get rid of the seeds and pulp from the tomatoes, but keep the blackened skin. For the hot chiles, it’s up to you whether you want to remove the seeds or not. The salsa should be hotter if you don’t. After the garlic is through roasting, remove the husks (the garlic should slip right out and be dark brown and very aromatic). Place the tomatoes (with skin), chiles, garlic, onion and cilantro in a blender and mix to the texture you like. I prefer mine a little chunky. Add a tsp of sugar, salt and pepper to taste, tbsp of EVOO, and tsp of red wine vinegar. Taste and adjust the seasonings.
I was aware that an ancho is a dried poblano. Nonetheless, these were labeled as anchos at the nursery. No, not a hand-written label by one of my countrymen, but a full color, plastic stake label with the image, sowing and harvesting instructions…and it still said “ancho”. In any case, a follow up question for Brad: to dry these babies, oven @ 200F? How long?
You could do it that way. I have a food dehidrator, so I don’t use the oven much for drying. Without getting into exact times, I tend to like my dried chiles to be dried just short of brittle, so they are still a little soft. Just check once in a while. It probably won’t take more than an hour or two.
Same here. We are going to be giving away some chiles this year. I love fresh Habaneros – the fruitiness marries really well with fruit salsas, especially mango and banana based salsas.
Jorge, cut the stem and cap off, take out ALL the seeds, dust the inside with a little salt, put a little vegetable oil on them and throw 'em on the grill. (Sometimes I smear a small amount of beef bullion paste inside instead of salt.)
I go anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour and juggle around on the high grill, occasionally basting them with vegetable oil. I usually have them in an area around 200, but it varies. I cook them till softened, sometimes w/ carbon blistery skin.
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