I love me some salsa. Tons of it. Give me a bag of tortilla chips and a jar of mild, even medium salsa and I'm in heaven. When the recipe for quesadillas that I made this evening (see next blog) called for salsa, I took it as a chance to make my own.
Now, part of the problem of being a novice cook is that you don't always predict how things taste. I mixed together the fresh tomato / salsa fresca / pico de gallo ingredients into my favorite bowl: tomatoes, a jalapeno (my first!), onion, garlic, and fresh parsley. I do have to admit that it looked beautiful. I was so excited I even texted my husband boasting how pretty it looked in the bowl (and I can now understand how people can think food is pretty). I poured in the tablespoons of lime juice, swirl it around with my rubber spatula, grabbed a bite....and spat it back out. I don't know what in the combination made it taste so badly, but it honestly tasted like grass (I'm guessing the lime juice). I thought it was just me and when Kevin came home, he even cringed. I let it sit overnight, thinking the flavors had to come together, but when my mom came to care for our toddler in the morning, she even had to ask what the horrible smell was. Let's just say it made it straight to the compost pile.So, while this recipe experiment didn't pan out to what I had hoped, I did get more practice. I cored and seeded a tomato and jalapeno pepper for the first time...and I can't wait to plant the pepper's seeds soon! I may give this recipe another shot and this tie puree it in the Magic Bullet blender. Until then, I'll stick with the jar stuff....
It's the parsley that gives it the grass flavor, nice time try cilantro. Much, much better! Great job with the cooking. So very proud of you.
ReplyDeleteit was the parsley (if that's really what you used) - you needed cilantro! and maybe a little bit of salt too. The effort is definitely worth it though - once you get it down, fresh salsa is way better than the jarred stuff.
ReplyDeleteThanks guys! I definitely used parsley....I've learned the hard way to take my time in choosing herbs.I will definitely try the cilantro next time. And thanks, Marla! You and your cookbooks were part of my inspiration! :)
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