Salsa...Every Tomato's Dream

My BFF, Peanut, made this salsa for me when I visited her one evening...I've been hooked ever since.  Here are some key words that may help as you build this recipe:

Diced - Chop ingredient into small pieces, about the size of a pencil eraser
Minced - Same as diced but about 2x smaller.  The best way to mince something is to take a sharp cooking knife & keep chopping it over & over until it's all teeny-tiny


The Stuff

• 7 ripe Plum Tomatoes, diced small
• 4 slices of jarred jalapeños, minced-minced-minced (you can add more if you like your salsa a little hotter)
• 5 or 6 whole garlic cloves (or you can use 2 tbsp of pre-minced jarred garlic if you're in a hurry)
• 1 big bunch of fresh cilantro...DON'T cheat - the dried stuff won't work
• 1/2 of a medium red/purple onion, minced
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Apple Cider Vinegar (or whatever you have in your pantry)
• Salt (I like kosher salt)

Making it Work

1. Place the diced plum tomatoes in a medium mixing bowl (don't cheat & try to use canned...ewwww)
2. Add the minced jalapeños
3. Over the bowl, press the garlic cloves through a garlic press.  If  you don't have one, please do yourself a favor & get one...until then, you can mince the garlic.
4. Chuck the minced onion into the bowl
5.  Have a sip of Guinness...it makes cooking much more fun ;o)
6. Grab the bunch of cilantro by the stems & using your cooking knife, scrape off the leaves onto your cutting board.  It looks like a lot, but trust me, it's OK.  Don't stress if you get some stems in there, they're just gonna get chopped up anyway.  Holding your knife in one hand & place the palm of your hand on top of the blade, rock the blade over the cilantro to chop it into itty-bitty pieces.  You'll need to re-pile the green stuff several times & continue chopping until you have a pile of finely chopped, incredible smelling cilantro.
7. Dump the cilantro into the bowl
8. Add a glug of the Olive Oil (about a tablespoon)
9. Add the same amount of vinegar
10. Liberally add salt.  I like mine a little on the salty side, so I guess it would be about 2 teaspoons. You can add more or less according to how you like it.
11. Stir well & taste (that's the best part of cooking ;o)
12. Celebrate with a nice pint of Guinness or wine...You just made freaking Salsa!!!!!

Faerie GothMother's Notes...

This salsa is yummy with a nice tortilla chip.  It's also wonderful spread over chicken breasts, then baked in the oven.

You can use this recipe to make a wonderful topping for toasted Italian bread...just replace the Cilantro with Basil.  You can also add chopped black or calamata olives to it.  Take toasted Italian bread rounds & rub them with a garlic clove.  Drizzle with a very small amount of olive oil & top with the tomato mixture.  Place in the oven on 350* for about 5 minutes.  Yummmmmmm.  This one is also good on top of baked chicken.