Salsa with a Kick
I used to live in the United States for a few years while going to University. There are many things that I miss from living there but there was one thing in particular that I kept missing a lot. My favorite Salsa.
On The Border was my favorite restaurant that served pretty good Mexican food and absolutely heavenly salsa. I used to go there and just buy a bag of chips and a big jar of fresh salsa and hog it down for dinner until my mouth was too injured from the chips to continue. After I moved to Norway (which was probably a blessing for my waistline) I found myself repeatedly craving for their salsa. After many disastrous attempts I had given up all hope of ever being able to make it on my own.
Until I came across a copycat recipe (which I unfortunately cannot find again) that put me on the right track. One of the tricks was to give up on using fresh tomatoes and go for canned. Maybe had something to do with the vampire tomatoes here in Norway. They are just to tasteless and boring to work.
I have applied a couple of other tricks of my own to the recipe so it isn't completely like the original and I have tried the real thing afterwards (in South-Korea of all places) and there is something still missing. But it is enough to get me through the days. As I have gotten couple of requests for it I thought I should hereby kick start my food blogging with my On The Border Copycat Salsa and maybe save some other tortured taste buds that have had to move away from their drug... uhummm I mean their favorite salsa.
On The Border Copycat Salsa
Be very careful not to run the blender for too long as the salsa should look red and fresh. If you run it for too long it will be brown and frothy. This can be tricky as we are talking about few seconds each time.
1/2 white onion, chopped
Juice of 1-2 limes
1 box canned tomatoes (minus some of the liquid)
12-15 branches fresh coriander
12 slices of canned jalapeño
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp dried red chili flakes
1 small clove garlic, crushed
Salt
Marinate the chopped white onion in the lime juice for approximately half an hour. If you don't have enough juice to cover all the onion, stir couple of times.
Put half of the tomatoes into a blender together with the onion. Try to get rid of most of the lime juice when you scoop the onions into the blender. Throw away the rest (or use in guacamole). Run the blender for few seconds until the tomatoes and onions are crushed. Chop the jalapeño and coriander coarsely and add them into the mix together with the cumin, red chili flakes, and garlic. Now add the rest of the tomatoes but try not to use all the liquid or it will get a bit too watery. Run the blender again for few seconds or just long enough to get it all chopped and mixed. Move to a bowl. At the end add the salt, stir and taste until you get the right amount of salt. It should be a little bit salty. It is best to let the salsa sit for half an hour before serving.
If you want a salsa that kicks your butt more than this one use 15 slices of jalapeño and 1 tsp red pepper flakes. If you want a milder variant reduce the red chili flakes and jalapeño down to maybe 1/4 tsp and 8 slices. Anything less than that doesn't count as salsa!
Finally! Can't wait to try
Finally! Can't wait to try it.. tonight:)!
Brilliant
That sounds great, I'm going to try to make it myself. Love to have some really nice Salsa.
As always curious :)
Very curious if you like it or not. I am addicted :D