Salsa

I have no idea why anyone would buy salsa in a jar. Especially for parties when you're buying in bulk and trying to impress. It's so simple to make. And the best thing about it is, there are so many varieties and recipes out there that there's really no wrong way to do it.

Came home from work tonight and wanted a spicy late-night snack. I know...I know... Don't eat spicy food before bed. Yeah, right.

Had pretty much everything I needed on hand. It's basically tomatoes, onions, garlic and peppers and a few other things you can add according to taste.

I made this batch with some plum tomatoes I bought yesterday, and a half a green pepper I had from leftover from making stuffed mushrooms a few days ago. Always have onions and garlic and olive oil sitting around. Tonight I actually had some scallions in the bottom drawer of the fridge---again, stuffed mushroom leftovers. And always have lemons and limes so was able to squeeze half a lime (with a little bit of zest for added flavor) into the pot. And lately, always seem to have jalapenos as they're so inexpensive and add so much flavor.

My secret ingredient is that I don't add any salt---just some extra Green Pepper Tabasco, which is plenty salty and spicy at the same time.

I know cilantro is a basic ingredient. But I'm one of those people with the anti-cilantro gene. I only recently discovered that this gene is the reason why every time someone sprinkled cilantro on my food, it would just taste like soap. I don't taste what everyone else tastes---which apparently is delicious. But I wouldn't know. And I'm not alone. Don't know the actual statistics, but there are enough of us that if you're cooking with cilantro for a large group---just be prepared to overhear a few people in the crowd discussing the fact that your carefully prepared dish tastes like you grated a bar of Ivory soap into the mix. I tend to substitute fresh parsley. But didn't have any of that tonight so just left it out. No biggie.

I made this salsa entirely in the blender (with a bit of rough pre-chopping of the larger vegetables and dicing the garlic and jalapenos a bit. When you make it in the blender, it does tend to turn out a little milky at first. But the color evens out to a nice, bright red in a few hours.

And yes, this salsa is from New York City. And it's delicious. Jealous?