Drunken Roasted Salsa Recipes

FIRE ROASTED SALSA

Steps:

• If you are grilling, get your grates hot and scrape them clean. Place your onions and tomatoes cut side down on the grill. Place the chiles and garlic cloves on the grill, too. If you are broiling, arrange everything on a baking sheet, cut side up.
• Let the onions and tomatoes grill a solid 5 minutes before trying to move them. You want significant blackening. Turn the garlic cloves as the peel blackens, and rotate the chiles so their skins blacken. Remove the garlic when several sides of the cloves have some char, when the skins of the chiles are well blackened, when both cut sides of the onion quarters are charred, and when the cut face of the tomatoes are well blackened. You will want to use a thin metal spatula to do this. If you are broiling, simply wait until you get good char on most of the vegetables.
• Put the chiles into a plastic bag to steam. Chop the onion roughly. Peel the garlic and if the cloves are large, chop into a few pieces. Remove the skins from the tomatoes. After 10 minutes or so, peel the chiles with the back of a butter knife, then open them up and scrape away their seeds. Chop them roughly.
• If you are grinding your salsa in a molcajete, add the salt, oregano and garlic and pound to a paste. Add the onion bit by bit, grinding and pounding all the way. Next comes the chiles, then the tomatoes. Finally, grind in the chopped herbs into the salsa. If you are not using a molcajete, simply put everything into a food processor and blitz it a few times. You want this salsa to have some texture. Add salt if you need it, and you are good to go.

QUICK-ROASTED SALSA

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
• Place the tomatoes, garlic, onion, jalapeno and poblano onto a baking sheet. Drizzle with the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast until charred in spots, about 15 minutes. Set aside and allow to cool slightly, about 5 minutes.
• Transfer the roasted vegetables to a blender. Add the lime zest and juice and puree until smooth, being careful not to fill the blender too full. Transfer to a bowl and stir in the cilantro. Taste and adjust the seasoning if needed. Goes great with chips or alongside enchiladas.

CLASSIC ROASTED SALSA

Steps:

• Heat broiler, with rack in top position. Place tomatoes, onion, jalapenos, and garlic in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet.
• Broil until vegetables are blistered and slightly softened, rotating sheet and flipping vegetables frequently, 6 to 8 minutes (garlic may need to be removed earlier, if it is browning too quickly).
• Discard garlic skins. In a food processor, pulse garlic and vegetables until coarsely pureed. Add lime juice, season with salt and pepper, and pulse to combine.
• Transfer salsa to a bowl and stir in cilantro. Refrigerate up to 3 days, freeze up to 3 months.