Traditional Salsa
Ingredients
- 1 bunch green onions, trimmed, cut into 1-inch pieces, and/or 1/3 cup red onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro leaves
- A 4-ounce can chopped green chiles
- A 28-ounce can tomatoes, with juice (or better yet, about 2 cups chopped fresh vine-ripened tomatoes, in season)
- 1/4 Cup each red wine vinegar and sugar
- Juice of 1 lime
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon seasoned salt or Cajun seasoning blend
- Additional hot stuff as desired - Tabasco, jalapeņo, whatever you like... name your poison!
Using a food processor, place the onion, garlic and cilantro leaves in the work bowl, and pulse a few times to chop. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula and add the remaining ingredients. Pulse a few more times - enough to achieve a uniformly chunky consistency. Let the salsa ripen at room temperature for an hour or longer. If you like a traditional "soupy" salsa, stir in 1/4 cup ice water at serving time. Adding ice water to cool the salsa is preferable to refrigerating it, since that changes its flavor and texture for the worse. Makes about 1 1/2 to 2 cups.