Salsa

For those of you that don't live near one, Lone Star is a Tex-Mex restaurant (think Mexicali Rosa's mated with a steakhouse) and they have a terrific salsa that you have with your chips while you wait for your main order. My co-worker Victoria was talking about how she wanted to make her own salsa, as the bottled stuff lacks the freshness of homemade (true). We got to talking about yummy Lone Star salsa, so I tracked down the recipe (thx Google). She made it, brought it into work so I could sample, and she nailed it…I think it's perfect.

4 fresh tomatoes (peeled and diced)
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
2 small jalapeno peppers (seeded and minced)
2 minced fresh garlic cloves
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, minced
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 red onion, minced (or more, per your taste)

1. To easily peel tomatoes, cut an X into the top or bottom of the tomato and place in boiling water for a few minutes remove, let cool slightly and remove skin.

2. Dice tomatoes, place in food processor add tomato paste, chopped peppers, minced garlic, cilantro, salt, onions and oil. Process until mixed.

3. This mixture usually fills my food processor, so I empty this into a bowl; add the can of diced tomatoes and process to chop the tomatoes a little finer. I then put this into first mixture and mix.

4. At this point the salsa is ready to serve, but if left to sit in refrigerator for a few hours the salsa will thicken and the flavours will intensify.

5. This method produces a fine textured salsa. I you like a chunkier salsa, I sometimes place onions, seeded peppers, cilantro, garlic in the processor whole and process until chopped. I then take the tomatoes and pulse them until I have the texture I like.

No photo until I make it myself. Naturally, we have like 6 jars of salsa lying around to use up first.