Good times with Inev's Mum.

[Doc]

Hoping this title will get his attention.

I was inspired by Dan's references to his Mum's delicious home-made salsa to cook up my own salsa and tortillas for dinner/lunch yesterday, and they were pretty good but I can't get it out of my head that they could have been better.
I thought I'd send a message to Dan asking for his mother's recipe then I thought why not make a thread of it since we haven't had a recipe thread for a while. So yeah, can I have your Mum's salsa recipe Dan? Also, any other cool recipes you guys have done up lately?

I'm figuring I was close-ish based on how this salsa has been described elsewhere, I went off this recipe but omitted the tomato paste on the basis that I didn't have any and I didn't want it to be too crazy sweet and then drained off the excess balsamic at the end so I could keep it in the fridge for a couple of days without it getting too gloopy and gross. It's just not good enough though, I have to taste the delights of Inev's mother's salsa if I'm ever going to be satiated. I used this recipe for the tortillas, which I understand is fairly non-standard but it was easy and fairly tasty and it's not like I share a border with any South American countries that can yell at me for bastardising their heritage anyway.

[theinevitable]

That is pretty close. The biggest issue is that she didn't give me any measurements, just "about this much onion." Maybe next time I make it I can take pictures.
I would say for 6 roma tomatoes she uses 1/4 of a red onion. It is important to get really firm tomatoes. But maybe I'm already mixing everything up, portion-wise. It may have been 4 tomatoes?
Grind in a ton of salt and pepper, and plenty of cilantro. She says using the stems of the cilantro is important. I dice them up really small.
She uses pickled jalapenos, and I basically just added more and more until I could smell that it was spicy. Both times it came out WAYYY too spicy.
I think I also use too much balsamic, but hers is pretty juicy too. It gets better after sitting in the fridge for a while.

Yeah, next time I make this I will take pictures.

Her tortillas are this recipe:
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup canola/vegetable oil
2/3 cup warm water

... and now is the part where I realize that I took a picture of the recipe written out, without noticing that it says "mix ingredients in the method described on page 15." Well shit.
Then:
divide into 12-15 equal-sized pieces, roll into balls, cover with plastic wrap and let rest 30 minutes before baking.
She uses a tortilla press, but I plan on just flattening them out and frying them in a pan I guess.

I guess what I am saying is: I will call my mom and straighten these things out.

The first time I made the salsa it looked like this:

The tomatoes and onions are chopped way too big. Also maybe it needs a bit more onion.

[Doc]

Delicious, thanks Inev.
Yeah I used way more onion than that, and I need to dice the tomatoes finer so that the chilli and the onion doesn't end up sitting near the bottom. I also didn't add salt and pepper but that's partly because I was fresh out, will try that next time. I'm having some more for dinner tonight so we'll see if it improves after a day of flavours diffusing and so on.

Cooking the tortillas, yeah I just rolled them out and chucked them on a dry hot cast iron pan for 30 seconds to a minute each side. I had it too hot for the first batch and they all got a bit charred before the outer edges were cooked properly, but I just dialled it back a notch and was fine after that.

[KeithHernandez]

This is coming from a guy who eats Quinoa for weeks at a time and doesn't eat for finacial reasons at least a day or two every two week period-  how the hell do you not have salt and pepper?  I can understand not having one, maybe you ran out?  But both?  That is ridiculous.  Is this an Australian thing?  Like here, salt and pepper is everywhere, all the time.

[Doc]

Actually I did have pepper, just no salt. The salt ran out a week or so ago and I just haven't bought more yet. I rarely add salt to food after it's cooked and only think to add it to cooking if I'm following a recipe. Not sure why, it's just not something I grew up with and a lot of the time I don't think I can tell a difference after I add it anyway.

[Nabubrush]

I've only started adding salt recently, because my wife uses it. Before that I never did, during or after making food. I definitely would not put tomato paste in salsa.

Coincidentally, we had little soft tacos last night. Black beans, brown rice, beef with diced onions & peppers, salsa/sour cream/avocado. Pretty tasty.

[side_show]

I never used salt for many years either, and often I still don't.  There are definitely some foods that just work better with salt though - meat and giraffe are just so much more tasty with a nice rub that includes salt and seasonings.  One thing that's really odd is that I work with someone of Carribean ancestry who puts salt on fruit - which she says brings out the sweetness.  I can understand how this might work.  Apparently it's especially good with fruits that are acidic like pineapple.  I'll have to try it some time.

[greenkoolayd]

...I work with someone of Carribean ancestry who puts salt on fruit - which she says brings out the sweetness.  I can understand how this might work.  Apparently it's especially good with fruits that are acidic like pineapple.  I'll have to try it some time.

i dont know if its anything to do with acidity, but i know people who sprinkle salt on their watermelon...

[pmcd9]

Yeah, salt on watermelon is a thing around these parts.  It's not my thing, but it's a thing.

[jaydub]

Cantaloupes.

[Asherdan]

And their more delicious cousins, honeydews.

[pmcd9]

And their more delicious cousins, honeydews.

That is an incorrect statement.

[Asherdan]

To Paul, it ain't easy being green.

[AugustWest]

I had an incredible Crenshaw melon on Saturday.  I was floored by the flavor.

[Asherdan]

It's good to see the cultivation of those is back on track after the riots and the earthquakes.