I had a small, daytime housewarming party when I first moved to Brooklyn and was finally settled into my new studio apartment. I served a breakfast burrito buffet, which is pretty classic behavior, especially since it always goes over fabulously well. Since everything but scrambling the eggs and heating the beans and tortillas can be done so far in advance, I decided that I'd use every last resource in my new, tiny kitchen the morning of the party. It was fun to make unexpected aspects of the meal from scratch, and I had time to clean up before everyone arrived.
I'm pretty sure that I found a cooked salsa recipe in one of the beloved Moosewood cookbooks originally. I may have even sort of followed it for that burrito buffet housewarming brunch. It's nearly the same ingredients as a classic tomato sauce made from canned tomatoes, but you use cilantro instead of basil, and instead of carefully caramelizing the onions and garlic to a toasted golden brown, you stir fry them very briefly, so they maintain their crunch in the finished salsa. With lots of chopped cilantro, the salsa gets really truly flavorful.
In the photo below, you can see the batch I made for a dinner fajita buffet--we grilled chicken and striped bass--but otherwise the components were the same as for breakfast. This time, however, the seamless advance preparation almost turned to disaster. I knew I was going to have to make the salsa in two steps, since we hadn't yet made the supermarket run for cilantro, lime, and chiles. But then I slightly over-softened the onions and mistakenly opened cans of tomatoes that were already flavored with basil. When I tried the salsa it tasted like tomato sauce.
After going to the supermarket though, to pick up what I was missing, I minced lots more garlic, toasted several jalepenos, chopped up an entire bunch of cilantro, squeezed the juice out of three limes, and my Italian pasta sauce became a (cooked) Mexican condiment. It was a peculiar moment in taste transformation, but it made me realize just how experimental you can get. The size and flavor of your tomatoes and your hot peppers matter a lot; how long you cook and cool the salsa for matters too. Then there's the concept of adding fruit, beans, or corn. Start thinking about other fresh herbs, and you're on your way to salsa infinity. I don't think I have to give instructions about how to serve and eat salsa, especially during the week of Cinco De Mayo. And, if you want to supplement your salsa (and chips!) with some guacamole, check out our recipe here.
Cara Eisenpress of Big Girls, Small Kitchen
Homemade Cooked Salsa
Makes 5 cups
Ingredients
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 small onion, very finely diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 bunch cilantro, minced
2 jalepenos, green parts finely diced, a few seeds added (depending on your view of spice)
2 28-ounce cans of diced or crushed tomatoes
juice from 3 limes
In a large saucepan heat the oil over medium-high heat. When the pan is quite hot, toss in the onions. Stirfy for a minute or two, then add the garlic and jalepeno and stirfy a minute or two more. Everything should have become slightly more translucent but should by no means be cooked through. Add half the cilantro, let it wilt, then add the tomatoes. Bring the whole thing to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the lime juice, taste for salt, and let cool to room temperature. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours, until chilled. The salsa will keep 1-2 weeks in an airtight container in the fridge if you don't eat it all, straight from the spoon, before them.