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Glenn Andrews - Salsas!

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Since 1973, Storeys Country Wisdom Bulletins have offered practical, hands-on instructions designed to help readers master dozens of country living skills quickly and easily. There are now more than 170 titles in this series, and their remarkable popularity reflects the common desire of country and city dwellers alike to cultivate personal independence in everyday life.

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Salsas!

Glenn Andrews

Contents
Introduction

What is salsa, anyway?

To begin with, its the Spanish (and also the Italian) word for sauce. But sauce is pretty vague, covering everything from hollandaise to spaghetti, and usually implying something thats served warm and is quite liquid. What weve come to think of as salsa, however, is commonly served cold, and its brimful of ingredients, with very little liquid. Its often fairly spicy, but you can control the amount of heat to suit yourself.

In the beginning, all salsas were based on classic Mexican recipes red- or green-tomato-based hot and spicy condiments. But then chefs, food writers, and restaurateurs began to have fun with the concept. Suddenly menus featured Thai or Indian salsas. Fruit salsas began turning up, as well as salsas made from such diverse ingredients as roasted corn and even macadamia nuts. The current thinking on salsas seems to be that theyre a condiment useful not only for chips but also for topping many different kinds of dishes, adding color, taste, and fun and that they can be made with just about anything.

Whatever salsa is, we love it. In the past year or two, grocery store sales of salsa have beaten out those of ketchup, the all-American condiment! Many of us especially enjoy the fact that most salsas are fat- and cholesterol-free, and very few contain any added salt. Theyre health food with verve and pizzazz!

When you wander through the Mexican-food section of your local grocery store, or even the snack-food aisle, youll see a vast array of bottled, professionally processed salsas. And they can be very good but they really cant hold a candle to the ones you make yourself.

A Few Words about Chiles

Many, if not most, homemade salsa recipes center on fresh chile peppers. Before we begin, then, heres a brief look at the sorts of fresh chile peppers youre most apt to run across, arranged roughly from mild to scorching. Canned peeled green chiles are also an excellent product, as are canned jalapeos and sliced, pickled jalapeos. All three can be found in most supermarkets. Canned chipotle peppers (smoked jalapeos) are harder to find, but well worth a search. Theyre usually spelled chilpotles on the can labels. These are packed in adobo, a smoky, spicy sauce thats worth the price of the cans all by itself.

Anaheim (Capsicumannuum var. annuum Anaheim). Sometimes known as the New Mexico chile or the Californian chile, this is the one of the mildest in the chile family its not terribly hot and has a somewhat sweet flavor, similar to that of a bell pepper. The Anaheim matures from bright green to red, and usually grows to about 7 inches long and 2 inches wide.

Poblano (Capsicumannuum Poblano). This dark green or red chile is also relatively mild, although a bit hotter than the Anaheim. It has a triangular shape and ranges from 2 to 6 inches long. When the poblano is dried, it becomes known as the ancho.

Jalapeo (Capsicumannuum var. annuum Jalapeo). The jalapeo is probably the best known of all hot peppers, and its available almost everywhere. Some are a lot hotter than others you cant tell by looking. Jalapeos are thick fleshed, and grow to about 2 inches long and 1 inch wide. Green jalapeos will ripen to shades of yellow or red. When a jalapeo is smoked, it becomes a chipotle, which many people think the tastiest of all chiles. (To substitute for a chipotle in a recipe, use a jalapeo and a few drops of liquid smoke.)

Serrano (Capsicumannuum var. annuum Serrano). Serranos are short (about 2 inches long), fairly thin, smooth skinned, and quite hot. Theyre usually used green, although theyre sometimes available in red.

Tabasco(Capsicum frutescens). Tabascos are shorter, thinner, and hotter than serranos. They ripen from yellow to red (theyre especially tasty when yellow) and grow to about 1 inch in length.

Bird or Thai pepper (Capsicum annuum var. glabriusculum ). These peppers are tiny (about 1 inches in length) and very hot. They ripen from green to red and have an elongated, pointed shape. Theyre often used in Caribbean, West Indian, and Asian cuisine.

Habaero(Capsicum chinense). Searingly hot! These small peppers (about 2 inches in length) are shaped like Chinese lanterns. Theyre available in light green, orange, red, or deep purple. True, experienced chile fanciers talk about the fruity flavor others just scream. Be sure to wear protective gloves when handling.

The Source of the Heat

Capsaicin, the source of the chiles heat, is concentrated in the inner seed-bearing membranes, not the seeds themselves. When a recipe calls for a chile to be seeded, this membrane should be removed as well. However, if you want a greater degree of hotness than the chile will normally yield, simply leave the seeds and membrane intact.

Preserving Your Salsas

Fortunately, salsas are very easy to make. Most of them dont require any cooking, and even the raw salsas will keep nicely for three or four days under refrigeration.

However, if you want to keep your uncooked salsas on hand for a longer period of time or to give them as wonderful gifts you will have to process them. To do this, simply add a little moisture something in keeping with the sort of salsa in question (tomato juice, for instance, or pineapple juice, or even water). Just a tablespoon or two will do. In a nonreactive pan, simmer the mixture for five minutes, and then follow instructions for the boiling-water method of preserving (see the box at right).

Its also possible to successfully freeze your salsas (except for fruit salsas theyll still taste good when thawed, but will have lost some of their texture). Just put the salsas into zipper-top freezer bags and pop them into your freezer. To use, let them defrost at room temperature.

Note also that salsas made from dried chiles will usually keep longer (up to about three months) in your refrigerator.

Standard Directions for Boiling-Water Processing

Excerpted from Herbal Vinegar, by Maggie Oster (Storey Publishing, 1994)

1. Pour, ladle, or pack the prepared ingredients into clean, hot half-pint or pint jars, leaving inch of space at the top of the jar.

2. Wipe the rims, put on two-piece lids, and fasten the screw bands.

3. Put the jars on a rack in a deep kettle half full of boiling water, and add more boiling water enough to cover the lids by 2 inches.

4. Cover the pot, bring to a hard boil, and boil for 15 minutes, lowering the heat if necessary. Remove the jars from the boiling water.

5. Cool, remove the bands, label, and store.

6. Refrigerate after opening.

Salsa Recipes

Many of these recipes call for a certain variety of hot pepper (though some just give you an idea of what size or color hot pepper to use). But this doesnt mean you have to have that particular variety on hand. Substitute at will and enjoy the variety of flavors. A good rule of thumb is to substitute a hot pepper of the same size as the one called for. Also, reread the descriptions of hot peppers beginning on page 3 to make sure you arent introducing more heat than you had in mind!

Another good point to remember is that peppers, even within the same species, may vary in heat. So unless you have a true tolerance for chiles of any temperature, err on the cool side when estimating how many hot peppers to use in your recipe. You can always spike up the warmth at the end with a little ground cayenne or hot sauce.

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