I have always loved me a good batch of fresh salsa on . . . anything. And generally would make a "pico-de-gallo" mild version. But since we've moved west, I have made friends who would laugh at the thought of eating something like my "fresh salsa." They say "sin chiles, no tiene sabor!" (without hot peppers, there's no flavor!) I do still appreciate the flavor blends of pico de gallo, but I think I am finally beginning to understand that hot peppers really do give flavor . . . they're not just meant to burn your lips and throat.
A neighbor taught me how to make this delicious salsa a few days ago and Armando and I are both hooked. The first [huge] batch only lasted about 3 days and I've made about 3 batches since then.
So, this is what you'll need:
About 10 roma tomatoes10 dried chile de arbol (you can find this in the Mexican spice section of your local grocery store)
a bunch of cilantro
1-3 cloves of garlic
a thick slice of onion
3-4 avocados
Salt (to taste)
Place about 10 Roma tomatoes in a large pot with water.
Remove the stems from the dried chiles de arbol (my neighbor explained that if you leave these on, they leave a bitter taste).
Drop the tomatoes and chiles into a pot of boiling water and leave them in just long enough so that the skins break on the tomatoes.
Put a little cold water in the blender (around a cup). Then add all of the ingredients and chop/blend until you don't see big chunks of the chile pepper.
(Note that my pictures are of me blending two tomatoes and 1 chile at first . . . I was so chicken . . . so I blended the chiles separately and added them little by little until I realized that the expert that was teaching, indeed was right. The more chile pepper, the better. We ended up putting the rest in! That's right . . . 10 peppers with 10 tomatoes!)
The consistency should be about like this...quite watery I think with just a little tomato that remains on the spoon.
Now for some flavor boost: Cilantro. My friend instructed me on choosing quality cilantro - she said "the smaller, the better!" You don't want the larger, overgrown leaves because they are so much more bitter.
Chop a bunch. Leave out the stems.
Dice the avocado to your liking. I like chunkier. Armando likes smaller. It's all up to you. The second time around, I didn't have avocados, but I still made the salsa and we ate it all up.
Dump it all in.
Stir slightly.
Serve on just about anything.
I made some for my mom and she said, she'd just like to eat it as a cold soup. I like it with chips, tostadas, jicama, tacos, enchiladas hondureñas, you name it. No matter what you eat it with, it's delicious!
