Dangit, I need to get in the habit of posting here. If I’m going to stand up in a meeting with people and proclaim my blogging longevity I need to actually own some semblance of regularity here. So I attempt again to not get bored of blogging and have something moderately interesting to say.

I had Friday off work, and I’d like to say it was for some grandiose idea but really it was to BBQ, drink, and watch Batman. I kinda just wanted a day off and my friend, Mike, offered up his home. I decided to try making a rustic-style salsa with traditional ingredients as a bit of a snack around the BBQ Mike would be producing. That meant fresh tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, cayenne peppers, garlic, limes, and cilantro:

Garlic and peppers roasted in a cast-iron skillet

After washing the veg were laid – notice the papers on the garlic, because we’re going to roast them inside there – in a cast-iron skillet over a slightly less than medium heat. They would rest here, flipped periodically, for about 3o minutes until everything was black and blistered. Once they’re at this stage, put them in a bowl and seal it with plastic wrap to allow them to steam their skins free. Once they’ve done that you can easily peel them all, seed the peppers, roughly chop and toss them in a blender or food processor, pulse away and turn into a bit of a paste.

In the meantime, I took some fresh vine-ripened tomatoes, sliced the top off, cross-hatched the bottom, coated them in grapeseed oil and salt, then into the oven uncovered on 300 degrees for 45 minutes. Once that was done, they looked something like this:

Roasted tomatoes for rustic salsa

 The final stages are fairly easy – puree the tomatoes (I only needed half of these for the batch I made) with the peppers and garlic, then fold in some crushed tomatoes (about a 15-oz can), the zest of a lime, the juice of a lime, and about half a handful of chopped cilantro. If you were being authentic you might add a spanish onion, best done by dicing, rinsing in cold water, and allowing to dry. And that provides a perfect rustic salsa, Mexican style, perfectly paired with blue corn chips. Good luck!

Mexican Rustic Salsa