Return from the Road

I’m back in the frozen north after a week in Boston and points south; regular blogging will probably resume tomorrow.

In the meantime, have a recipe:

Fresh Salsa

• 1 onion, quartered
• about 1/4 of a bunch of fresh cilantro (depending upon taste and how big your grocery’s bunches are)
• 5 or 6 nacho jalapeño rings
• red pepper flakes to taste
• 4 or 5 cloves of garlic, peeled
• 1 can of diced tomatoes with green peppers, drained (you could use fresh tomatoes, if you live where fresh tomatoes are plentiful and cheap and good.  I live in northern New England, where the local cookery tradition has a lot of recipes for what to do with green tomatoes that haven’t ripened by the time the first frost comes around.)
• cumin, to taste (start with about a quarter-teaspoon and work up)
• pinch of salt

Put the onion, garlic, cilantro, jalapeño rings, cumin, and red pepper flakes in the food processor.  Run it on pulse until the onions and other stuff are at the state of chunkiness you prefer for your salsa.  I like mine chopped fine but still recognizable as separate substances, not a unified puree.

Add the can of drained diced tomatoes.  Pulse once or twice more, carefully — you don’t want the tomatoes turning into a mush.

Remove the salsa to a container with a lid.  Add the pinch of salt.  Stir gently, put the lid on the container, and refrigerate it.

This will keep for several days in the refrigerator, probably longer — I’ve never had it stay around long enough to go bad, anyhow.