Award Winning Salsa Recipes

AMETHYST'S AWARD WINNING SALSA

Steps:

• Drain half of the tomatoes. Retain juice to thin salsa if needed in the end. Cut the jalapenos in half lengthwise and remove seeds and ribs. This is easiest to do with a spoon, scraping away the insides. Roast the jalapenos and 10 cloves of the garlic, in their papery skins, in a dry skillet until blackened in spots. Place lemon juice, green tobasco, both the raw and roasted garlic (with skins removed) in food processor, run until garlic is almost pureed. Add the jalapenos and pulse until finely chopped. Chop cilantro bunches in half, add stem ends into processor and run to finely chop. Add the leafier half of the cilantro and briefly pulse a few times to chop but leave in larger pieces. Finely slice the green onions including the green parts. This is the only part I insist on doing by hand. The processor would chop too finely and unevenly. Mix everything together. Salt, Lemon juice and remaining juice from the tomatoes can be adjusted to taste and desired thickness. Keeps for a few weeks in the fridge and gets better over the first few days. Serve with tortilla chips for an addictive snack. We've been known to add it to salads, sandwiches, burritos, burgers, tacos... anything. Roasting the peppers and some of the garlic does make a big difference and is well worth the time!

SALSA - AWARD WINNING

Steps:

• 1. Add the following ingredients to a food processor fitted with blade: white onion (peeled and quartered), peppers (removed of seeds),1/2 can of whole tomatoes -- pulse until desired consistency -- I like pretty small pieces
• 2. Pour contents of food processor into large bowl and combine with crushed tomatoes
• 3. Back in food processor, add remaining 1/2 can of whole tomatoes and cilantro. Pulse until cilantro is well distributed.
• 4. Combine tomato/cilantro combination with first tomato/pepper combination. Add can of crushed tomatoes, lime juice, salt, pepper and sugar to taste.
• 5. Serve or refrigerate for several days as needed.
• 6. Note: For chipotle peppers, I prefer to the dried kind if possible, but they can be hard to find so it is okay to use the canned ones in sauce.
• 7. Note: Change the number of peppers per your taste for heat. Removing the seeds helps keep the heat down so handle as you like.