Transcription
Today it's two versions of Mexico's most iconic salsa.
You probably know this salsa is pico de gallo, but to tell you the truth, in Mexico, most of the time it's just called salsa mexicana, Mexican salsa, because it is so incredibly iconic that it is really associated with Mexico. And, um, it always has the same basic ingredients in it, a few variations. But, um, there are the tomatoes and onions and green chili and cilantro, things that we all like. But each one of those things contributes a different aspect, a different flavor and texture to the finished salsa. So there's no real recipe here. This is something you will make to suit your own taste. And as we work through each ingredient, I'll explain to you what it brings to the party.
So obviously, tomatoes is the number one thing here. You want to make this with really ripe tomatoes. When I can't find really ripe tomatoes, I'll probably use cherry tomatoes and cut those up. You need a sharp knife to cut tomatoes because they have a very tough skin. What I usually do is cut each side off of the tomato like that, and then use the tip of my knife to cut out the little, the place where the stem connected, because that's tough too. So you want to get that out of there. And then I slice the tomato like this, and then cut each one of those slices into dice.
Now, this may seem really laborious to you, but I will tell you that making great pico de gallo, salsa mexicana, is really a labor of love. And the smaller the pieces, the better the pico de gallo, because all of the flavors will come together then, and they'll all speak in unison. And that is what we do when we're chopping things small, is to bring them all, all of the flavors together. So cutting down into strips and then cutting those strips at a 90-degree angle to the first cuts into little dice. So that does, it takes a little while to do it. I got started ahead of time here. Last piece here to cut up. And again, I will say, working with a sharp knife, this whole thing goes way, way faster.
Okay, I'm going to scoop all of this now into a bowl, and we're going to go to the second ingredient. Well, I guess I should tell you what tomatoes bring to it. And if you've ever had a great summer tomato from the farmer's market or picked off of a bush in your own backyard, you know that there is that beautiful balance of sweet and tanginess, okay, sweet and tart. And that will give, that's what this is bringing to the, the salsa, but also a very melting, tender texture. So we like those things for that.
Now, well, let's talk about the onion. In Mexico, they don't use the white, the yellow onion. They use the white onion because the onion, this onion, the white one, is crisp in texture. So that's one of the things it's going to add. But it's really bright in flavor. It doesn't add more sweetness like some of the Vidalia type onions, the sweet onions, would do. Now, the amount of onion that I like to this amount of tomato is not a lot, okay? I like to cut, well, so this is a large onion here, so I'm going to take about a third of it off here, and that's going to be the right amount for me. You may like more, so feel free to add more or less. So I'm going to cut this across in strips like that, and then go the opposite direction. Again, working with small pieces because we really want the flavor of the onion to be evenly distributed through this salsa.
Okay, once that is all chopped up, I'm going to scoop that now into a strainer because this is the most important thing that I can teach you about making this salsa, is to rinse the onion. We have created a sulfurous compound when we cut that onion up. We can get rid of that sulfurous compound. And that, remember, that's the stuff that makes your eyes water and it gives you that onion breath or maybe upset your stomach. We created it, we can get rid of it. We're going to rinse off under cold running water, rinse all of that off. And this is going to, as they say in Spanish, deflame the onion. It's going to take all of that really strong flavor away. So I usually just tap the strainer on the side of the sink to get all of the water off of it. Put that in the bowl there with the tomatoes.
Now let's talk about chilies. Any kind of green chili will work in this. Most people will go for serrano or jalapeno, but if you like it extra spicy, habanero could work in this, which we'll talk about a little bit later. But also, any kind of green chili that you perhaps are growing in your garden, you can always use them. Each one will have a different flavor and a different heat level. So I'm working with a very common, uh, chili that you can buy in grocery stores, which is the serrano, which is my go-to green chili because it is reliably spicy. Uh, jalapenos are not really. And I'm going to cut it up just like they would in a typical Mexican kitchen.
Now, in here, in the middle, you can see that there is this seed pod here, and the seeds are all embedded into it. There are some veins. This is, we would call it a vein here. That part of it is where all the heat is. If you want to get a lot of green chili flavor without a lot of heat, you want to cut that whole seed pod out and the vein, because that's the concentration of capsaicin, the hot part. I want the heat here, so I'm simply just going to cut these lengthwise like that, and then cut those across. But that's still going to leave these pieces of serrano too big for me. So I want them to be very well distributed through this salsa. So I'm going to just rock and chop across several times to actually mince this serrano chili here. Okay, that's getting much smaller now and about where I want it to be. So I'm going to stop and scoop all of that up and put that into the bowl.
Now, if you just look in that bowl for a second, doesn't that remind you of the Mexican flag right there? Red, white, and green. And that is one of the reasons that this salsa is called salsa mexicana, because it really embodies the, that beauty of the Mexican flag, the red, white, and green. And those three ingredients that are so incredibly iconic, um, in Mexican cooking.
Now, the last is another green ingredient here, and that's going to be the cilantro. Again, as much or as little of, of this as you want to put. I'm kind of a cilantro freak, so I put a fair amount of it in here. I'm going to do the standard Mexican chop on it, which is really just a very thin slice. So you, I sort of tuck some of the top leaves under, and then I'm holding everything tight. I'm going to cut across this cilantro, stems, leaves, and all, just inching bit by bit my left hand back until I pretty much just run out of leaves and I really just have mostly the stems left there. And I'll get rid of those guys. I've got a couple of big leaves here at the end that I want to chop up, and then we'll put that into the bowl with all the rest of the ingredients.
When it comes to seasonings, it's a salsa, so you want everything to be seasoned highly. And there are two seasonings that go into this. One is lime juice to perk everything up, to give it a nice zing, because any kind of condiment, we usually think will have sort of a tanginess to it. And the second thing is salt. I'm going to put the salt in there first. Now, this amount of salsa for me takes a scant teaspoon of salt. So I'm just going to measure in that scant teaspoon of salt, and then cut open a lime. I highly recommend that you do this with fresh squeezed lime juice. Grab a lime, use a Mexican lime juicer, and turn that lime half inside out and give it a good squeeze of fresh lime juice there.
Now, this may surprise a lot of you, but I will tell you that I think this salsa is way, way better after it has set for about an hour or so. The onion will integrate, it will change a little bit of its texture, softening just a tiny bit, but all the flavors will come together really, really nicely. I'm going to see about flavor on this. So I'm going to take just a little taste to see if my salt level and my acid level from the lime juice are about right. It's a great place to be. I may come back and re-season a little bit. It's spicy, it's crunchy, it's sweet, it's herbal, it's all the things that a great salsa mexicana should be.
So, um, put this into a serving bowl just so that you can see how beautiful it is when you've chopped everything very nicely into small pieces here. And you can stop just at that, giving it a little time, but wait, there's more.
Now, down in the Yucatan, they don't call it pico de gallo or salsa mexicana. They call it Xnipec. But basically, it's just a variation on that theme. And sometimes it could look very much like what you would find in central Mexico, but oftentimes they make a couple substitutions. So I've got my tomatoes chopped and the cilantro chopped. And then I have red onion that is substituting for the white onion. It's in the strainer because I just rinsed it off. So I'm going to put that now into the bowl. And the, instead of the serrano chili, I'm going to use habanero chili, which is incredibly aromatic. You may think of it as incredibly hot, which it is, but I think of it as having a very unique flavor.
Now, this, I'm going to put only a half of one of these in here. And because I'm fairly cavalier, you might want to use some sort of latex gloves or something when you're doing this chopping, because then you can take those off, and all the capsaicin from the chili won't be on your fingers. There's no way to get it really off of your fingers. Some people say a mild bleach solution, but I don't know if you really want to stick your hands in bleach. But basically, it'll just rub off. So washing your hands a whole lot will take it off, but it will stay there for some time. So I'm going to cut this half up. Again, I'm doing the, the seed pod, veins, seeds, everything, cutting crosswise, and then doing that rock and chop.
Now I can already smell it because this is, to me, one of the most aromatic chilies in the world. And it always smells like tropical fruit to me. Some people would say kiwi or strawberries, but I think it's a little bit more like guavas, something that's got a more tropical aroma to it. Okay, so that is, I'm going to put into here. And then we're going to add to it another ingredient that is not super common in everybody's Xnipec out in the Yucatan Peninsula, but I really like it because it gives you another flavor and texture, especially texture, and that is some radish. I've already cut up some of the radish here. But the radish, I'm going to treat it more or less like I would the, the tomato, by slicing it crosswise here, and then taking each one of those little radish slices and chopping those into small pieces.
Now, I like these to be small too, because they really will add a beautiful texture to every bite of salsa. But they also give you that sort of radish spiciness. It's a very different kind of spice than a fresh chili will add to it, but I kind of like that too. So you want about, well, I want about a half a cup. You can put as much or as little of this in, or just leave it out if you wanted to. The, about a half a cup is what I usually go for in the chopped radish. And then I'm going to scoop all of that into our bowl here with the ones that I've already chopped up here. This was just three radishes that we have here. So I'll scoop all of that in there.
Now, the, the citrus in the Yucatan is typically sour orange for something like this. Sour orange looks like a knobby orange, and it is. It's sort of the, this root stock that all sweet orange trees are grafted onto because it's incredibly resistant to any kind of disease. So lots of times you will find that root stock, but then when they graft on sweet, it produces sweet oranges. But if they let that just grow, it would produce this sort of knobby looking orange that is as sour as a lemon. So you could use that if you can find it. I'm going to do a kind of cheater's version of it, which is to put some lime juice in here, and then I'm going to cut up an orange and squeeze a little bit of this orange juice in there, because when you taste a sour orange, it's not very orangey. It has hints of orange, but not a whole lot. So I'm just going to squeeze in some orange juice here. We of course have to have this salt again. I'm going for about a scant teaspoon. After it sits for a little while, I would reseason it if I thought it was necessary.
And there you have Yucatan-style salsa mexicana called Xnipec. I'm just going to put it over it. You, it, it doesn't look that different from a regular salsa mexicana here, but it really tastes a lot different because of the habanero chili in there and that little hint of orangey like flavor. Two versions of salsa mexicana to level up your taco game, I think, or any kind of grilled food. Salsa mexicana, especially in the middle of the summer when the tomatoes are so good, there's nothing that beats that.