Salsa and Sam.

A friend at church gave us some really good stuff from her garden (thanks Sarah!) and Sam and I decided to make some salsa. Now I learned to make salsa from a friend who had learned to make salsa from her old, Mexican Grandmother-in-law. So somewhere back there, this is the real deal.

We started with lots of fresh, organic chilies (Serrano, pablano, jalapeno and there might have been an Anaheim in there somewhere), a few tomatoes, a whole white onion and lots of garlic. We cut 'em into big chunks and, well, it was beautiful.



Sam decided we should seed 4 of the 8 Serrano chilies to cut the scorching heat a bit. The heat in a chili is mostly in the seeds and the white, meaty bit inside. Then we threw everything in a dry, hot cast iron skillet (no oil, no nothin) and let the sweet veggies get nice and seared.



Sam did a great job of turning the hunks 'o goodness to get a sear on all sides...



Last in the hot pan is some whole cumin seeds. This is the spice that makes stuff taste Mexicany...mmmmmmm.



Then everybody goes in the blender with a little salt to taste.



When it's all flowing together nicely, cool it off in the fridge and it's some good salsa. We got some good reviews at our 4th of July doins we went to. It's nice and spicy, flavorful and good. Ours came out a little green as it was mostly chilies. Salsa is fun because you can play around with heat and different chilies, textures and whatnot. This took us about 20 minutes and was so easy. Next time you're reaching for another boring jar of Pace, maybe go over to the produce section (or better yet, the farmers market (or better yet, your friend's garden!)), get yourself some stuff, sear it, blend it, cool it and eat it! Yummy.