I got the gist of this recipe from Chili Pepper Madness, adjusted the proportions on the fly, and used Meathead’s technique for grilled salsa. It’s absolutely good enough to share with my Pitmaster Club brothers and sisters!
1 lb Green Hatch chile peppers
3 1/2 lbs really good summer tomatoes
2 habanero peppers (optional, obviously)
1 medium white onion
4 large cloves garlic
juice of 1 lime
1/4 cup cilantro
salt to taste.
I want to stress one thing: the only thing I measured was the peppers. And of course, I counted one onion, four garlic, one lime, etc. Everything else, I just did what looked right, and, at the tasting, what tasted right. Even with the counts, the size of the garlic, onion, etc varies. I think you’ll make a better salsa by eyeballing things here. I picked a big juicy lime. That kind of thing.
The next part is pretty obvious. My garlic cloves are huge; use your best judgement. You might want 6 small, or 4 small, or 6 large. I eyeballed the cilantro, I didn’t measure it; I used about 3/4 of what you see there. Use more, or less, or none if you have the cilantro gene. That is about 3lbs of tomatoes; at the end the salsa was a little unbalanced, so I grilled and added another half tomato. Notice, I cut the tomatoes longitudally rather than laterally. I didn’t want the seedy, juicy part running out. Yeah, the end product gets a tad watery. You have a strainer, right? You’ll see, at the end.
Roast the peppers, put them in a bag to steam.
While the peppers are steaming, roast the tomatoes, onions, and garlic. My sister got me a couple of those cool vegetable mesh things. I don’t use them often, but when I do, I have to say they’re pretty handy! Flip the tomatoes, get both sides.
Then peel the peppers and the tomatoes (the tomato skin falls right off and it is delicious), cut the onions and tomatoes into chunks, and toss everything into the food processor. I didn’t have any guidelines for how much salt to use, so I thought about it, and I decided to use as much salt as if I were making 2 1/2 tomatoes worth of Caprese salad. In this case that’s about 1 1/2 teaspoons of Morton’s kosher.
Buzz that sucker up until it looks about like this!
This is where I tasted it. The salt is fine, for me, right there; use that guideline, “whatever I would use on that amount of tomatoes”, for yourself. You don’t want to go this far and then it’s too salty, right? IMO it was really good, but too unbalanced toward the pepper. So I did the other half tomato. (I was happy with that consistency, so I emptied this, grilled and puréed the tomato, and stirred it into the salsa, to keep from making salsa mush.)
How much salsa does this all make? Interestingly, it makes exactly this much!
It is a little watery, but the solid-to-liquid ratio is pretty good! It is on a par with the fresh salsas you get in the grocery, maybe a little meatier even. I’m used to straining those, and draining them on paper towels. This is fine. Heatwise, well, that’s going to depend mostly on your Hatches. Mine were advertised as “medium”; I think they’re medium, most people would call them hot. This is hot, by supermarket standards, and light-medium by chili head standards. It has a quick bite, but very little sustain; the heat doesn’t stick around long. But again, it’s going to depend on your Hatches, and whatever other hot stuff you might think of adding.
And… finished right before the rain set in! That is important, don’t make salsa in the rain. It would DEFINITELY be too watery then.
1 lb Green Hatch chile peppers
3 1/2 lbs really good summer tomatoes
2 habanero peppers (optional, obviously)
1 medium white onion
4 large cloves garlic
juice of 1 lime
1/4 cup cilantro
salt to taste.
I want to stress one thing: the only thing I measured was the peppers. And of course, I counted one onion, four garlic, one lime, etc. Everything else, I just did what looked right, and, at the tasting, what tasted right. Even with the counts, the size of the garlic, onion, etc varies. I think you’ll make a better salsa by eyeballing things here. I picked a big juicy lime. That kind of thing.
The next part is pretty obvious. My garlic cloves are huge; use your best judgement. You might want 6 small, or 4 small, or 6 large. I eyeballed the cilantro, I didn’t measure it; I used about 3/4 of what you see there. Use more, or less, or none if you have the cilantro gene. That is about 3lbs of tomatoes; at the end the salsa was a little unbalanced, so I grilled and added another half tomato. Notice, I cut the tomatoes longitudally rather than laterally. I didn’t want the seedy, juicy part running out. Yeah, the end product gets a tad watery. You have a strainer, right? You’ll see, at the end.
Roast the peppers, put them in a bag to steam.
While the peppers are steaming, roast the tomatoes, onions, and garlic. My sister got me a couple of those cool vegetable mesh things. I don’t use them often, but when I do, I have to say they’re pretty handy! Flip the tomatoes, get both sides.
Then peel the peppers and the tomatoes (the tomato skin falls right off and it is delicious), cut the onions and tomatoes into chunks, and toss everything into the food processor. I didn’t have any guidelines for how much salt to use, so I thought about it, and I decided to use as much salt as if I were making 2 1/2 tomatoes worth of Caprese salad. In this case that’s about 1 1/2 teaspoons of Morton’s kosher.
Buzz that sucker up until it looks about like this!
This is where I tasted it. The salt is fine, for me, right there; use that guideline, “whatever I would use on that amount of tomatoes”, for yourself. You don’t want to go this far and then it’s too salty, right? IMO it was really good, but too unbalanced toward the pepper. So I did the other half tomato. (I was happy with that consistency, so I emptied this, grilled and puréed the tomato, and stirred it into the salsa, to keep from making salsa mush.)
How much salsa does this all make? Interestingly, it makes exactly this much!
It is a little watery, but the solid-to-liquid ratio is pretty good! It is on a par with the fresh salsas you get in the grocery, maybe a little meatier even. I’m used to straining those, and draining them on paper towels. This is fine. Heatwise, well, that’s going to depend mostly on your Hatches. Mine were advertised as “medium”; I think they’re medium, most people would call them hot. This is hot, by supermarket standards, and light-medium by chili head standards. It has a quick bite, but very little sustain; the heat doesn’t stick around long. But again, it’s going to depend on your Hatches, and whatever other hot stuff you might think of adding.
And… finished right before the rain set in! That is important, don’t make salsa in the rain. It would DEFINITELY be too watery then.
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