Cooking Basics: Salsa

This is one of the easy ones that can turn you into a gourmet chef in no time.  Here's a basic primer on salsa that can enhance any dish.

I am going to assume that everyone has tasted a basic, old tomato-based salsa.  Take your pick of grocery store brands.  Here is the essence of it:

1/2 medium-size yellow onion  
2 cloves of garlic
1 t salt
juice of one lime
1/4 C of chopped fresh cilantro

3 medium-size tomatoes (base ingredient)
1 jalepeno (heat ingredient)

Toss it all in a food processor and pulse a few times.  Voila!  Fresh salsa, just like on the infomercial.  Here's where it gets fun.  This can be the basis of any salsa.

Salsa Base
1/2 medium-size yellow onion  

2 cloves of garlic

1 t salt

juice of one lime

1/4 C of chopped fresh cilantro

The rest is a base ingredient (like tomato) and some kind of heat (like jalepeno).  Replace tomato with avocado and you get guacamole.  Instead of tomato, try mango for mango salsa.  Any kind of fruit or mix of fruits can work.  Try pear and pomegranate.  Try pineapple or papaya or peach.  Anything can be a base.  Even carrots or beets or mushrooms.    

Then you can play around with the heat.  Instead of a jalepeno, the smoked variety is chipotle which can add a great flavor and heat.  Think of other hot stuff like black pepper, fresh ginger or wasabi.  Anything strong to wake up your guests.  

Another piece to play with is the lime juice.  Any citrus will work.  Lemon juice and orange juice work too.  

You can also play around with the onions.  Sweet Vidalia onions or red onions impart different flavors than yellow onions.  Try green onions too.  They will all work.  

For a fun meal, multiply the Salsa Base recipe by four or six.  The change the base ingredient and heat ingredient to make four to six different salsas at the same meal. 

These are all for fresh salsas.  I'm not a big fan of cooked salsas, but I'm all for cooking certain ingredients.  If you have a smoker at home, try smoking tomatoes or mushrooms and adding those to the base of fresh ingredients.  Play with colors too.  Carrots, jicama, pomegranate, etc.  

The more colorful your salsa, the more appetizing it will be.  Have fun!  Salsa is one of the great playgrounds of cooking as long as you know the basics.