Fiesta! Summer Salsas for Al Fresco Dining

In Santa Barbara, "June gloom" normally settles in for the first part of summer--maritime fog moves takes up residence in town for weeks. But, this year, the record heat experienced by most of the country has translated to outstanding June weather in Southern California, with abundant sun but moderate temperatures. Kitchen gardens have flourished and tomato plants are pumping out a record crop. My kitchen counter has been overflowing with an ocean of shiny red fruit and I've been chopping, roasting, and stewing tomatoes into nearly every dish. Salsa fresco has been on the top of the list--served with chips and guacamole and a nice glass of Syrah.

The Aztecs were the first civilization to cultivate the tomato--a plant native to South America. It's unclear whether Christopher Columbus or the Spanish explorer Cortés first brought the tomato to Europe, but its popularity is indisputable. Imagine Italian cuisine without it!

Though salsa is common in many South American countries, Mexico is usually associated with the condiment. Since Mexico is a very mountainous country where travel was difficult before the advent of modern transportation, the country's cuisine is extremely diverse. Regional differences in the types of food produced, made for diversity in the types of salsas.

Some of the best known categories of Mexican salsa are:
Salsa fresco--(also known as salsa cruda) made with raw tomato, onion, garlic, chili and cilantro
Pico de gallo--(means “rooster’s beak”), a drier version of salsa fresca
Salsa roja--made with cooked tomatoes
Salsa negra--which is made from dried chipotles
Salsa verde--which is made from tomatillos
Salsa tacquera--(translated: taco sauce) a smooth, blended sauce made from tomatillos and morita chili (smoked Jalapenos)
Salsa ranchera--which is like a salsa tacquera, but served warm
Mango salsa--popular in the tropical region of Yucatan where mangoes are grown
Mole--a sauce made made from unsweetened chocolate, almonds, and chili
Chimichurri--ingredient include oil, vinegar, parsley, onion, garlic, and oregano. Originally from Argentina
Taco sauce--the Americanized version of salsa tacquera, usually made with  tomato paste instead of fresh tomatoes.

Try the three recipes in the photo:

Salsa Fresca:
2 cups fresh, ripe tomatoes, chopped*
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 medium shallot, minced (about 2 tablespoons)
1/2 ancho chili (about 1/2 tablespoon)
1/4 cup chopped cilantro leaves
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
juice of 1/2 lemon

*Use the homegrown or farmer's market tomatoes if possible--they will be sweeter and more flavorful than store-bought.
Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Top your grilled cheeseburger with salsa fresco or serve the salsa with chips and guacamole and a glass of Syrah.

Yucatan Mango Salsa
2 ripe mangoes, peeled and chopped (about 2 cups)
1/4 red onion
1/4 cup cilantro leaves, chopped
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
juice of 1 lime
1 tablespoon orange juice

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and serve over grilled fish or in shrimp tacos.

Roasted Garlic and Tomato Salsa Roja
2 large tomatoes, cut in half
1 head of garlic, unpeeled
2 Anaheim or Serrano chiles
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 tablespoon lime juice
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon salt
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Slice off the bottom off the garlic head so the inside is exposed, then wrap in tin foil. Cut a slit in each chile, removing the seeds if you want a milder salsa and leaving them in for fiery salsa. Line a baking dish with tin foil and put the chiles and tomatoes in it, without letting them touch. Put the wrapped garlic on the oven rack next to the baking dish and roast until the chiles and tomatoes are soft and charred. Remove them and set aside to cool, let the garlic stay in the oven for a total baking time of 35 minutes. This can be done on your grill set on medium, with the lid down.

Add the tomatoes, chiles (without the stems) and garlic to a blender. The soft, cooked garlic can be squeezed out of the bottom of the head. Add the cilantro, lime juice, and pepper and mix until smooth, stopping and scraping down the sides of the blender so the consistency is uniform. Adjust seasonings to taste with salt. Makes about 3 cups.

The Many Types of Salsa

I traveled to Mexico once or twice a year for 18 years as a kid, usually in the very back seat of the lumbering turquoise panel truck we called "Chamuyo". The Dodge was like a friendly beast, colorful and expressive with two great headlight eyes and a hint of a smile under the massive front hood. My mother told me the name meant "Green dragon" in Spanish which delighted me for some reason. I loved to tell people the his name. As an adult, I discovered "chamuyo" is street slang for "bullshitter". Thanks, Mom, for once again fooling me with your wicked sense of humor and colorful personality!

My mother was a raconteur and the life of the party. With a brilliant mind and ever present sense of humor, my mother charmed and amazed everyone she met. In our travels throughout Mexico, she made friends everywhere--from poor fishermen living in shacks on the beach who shared their caldo de tortuga with us, to the film director Emilio Fernández whom she met in Chapultepec Park; he invited our family to dinner that week. She was forever making instant best friends and had loyal and devoted friends throughout her long life. But, as a mother she was confusing. Her love of a good story led her to embellish the parts that got a good laugh, to the extent that I never quite knew what was real or fabrication when it came to her life. Pale white Anglo, she was a master of disguise with her dark wig and colorful sarape. Her amazing facility for languages meant she could speak fluent Spanish and pass as a native, accompanied by her dark husband--my dad--full Japanese but with a mustache she had carefully penciled on to turn him into a local. He looked the part but was the polar opposite when it came to languages--he had to keep his mouth shut or blow his disguise. One time the sight of a wild herd in the distance broke down his reserve and he pointed them out to our new Mexican friends" "Horse-o, horse-o!".

Chamuyo carried us all over Mexico, often getting stuck in the sand while my mother quickly found a nice truck driver to help us out--another instant friend. We camped along the way, though "camping" in the sense most people know it has nothing to do with what we did. There were no cushy mattress pads or stoves. I slept in the stuff sack instead of a sleeping bag when I was young and often there was no tent. I remember waking up one morning on a dung heap surrounded by cattle after we literally rolled out of Chamuyo late at night in the dark. We cooked our meals over a fire and the youngest one--me--was sent out of the tent in the morning to make the coffee. My mother used to boast that I could make a campfire and coffee when I was 4, oblivious to the unhappy expression on my face as I recalled the dread of that onerous duty. My daughter and boyfriend have heard all these stories of my privations and secretly thought I was exaggerating until I found photos of those days. The black and white images seem to be of 1930s Dustbowl Okies with us dirty from subsistence travel with our motley collection of tin pots over the fire. Chamuyo was resolutely steadfast in the photos, witness to the ardors of "dirt camping" but also witness to the many laughs and jolly times we had on the road.

A wide range of diverse regional cuisine developed in Mexico due to the country's mountainous topography and the difficulty in travel. Historically, the north produced wheat and pork and the south more corn, dairy and beef. The Yucatan Peninsula, is rainy and lush so bananas, avocados, coconuts, mangos and black beans were available. Ubiquitous is the use of salsa. Some of the best known general categories are salsa fresca (also known as salsa cruda) which has raw tomato, onion, garlic, chili and cilantro, salsa verde (see below) which is made with tomatillo, pico de gallo (means “rooster’s beak”) which is a dry version of salsa fresca, salsa roja which has cooked tomatoes, salsa negra which is made from roasted chipotles, salsa tacquera (taco sauce) a smooth, blended sauce made from tomatillos and morita chili (smoked Jalapenos), salsa ranchera which is served warm, mole poblano which is made from chocolate, almonds, and chili, and mango salsa. Click the salsa name for more recipes off the web! Salsas are used as toppings, fillers and side condiments. Below are two of my versions:

YUCATAN MANGO SALSA:
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup chopped red onion
1 large mango, peeled and diced
1 Habanero or 2 Jalapeno (for hot salsa) peppers, seeded and minced
1 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
1 Tbsp. fresh orange juice
1/8 tsp. white pepper
salt to taste
Mix all the ingredients in a glass or ceramic bowl, serve immediately. Makes about 2 cups.

ROASTED GARLIC AND TOMATO SALSA TACQUERA:
2 medium tomatoes, cut in half
1 head of garlic, unpeeled
2 Anaheim or Serrano chilis
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 Tbsp. lime juice
1/8 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. salt
Preheat your oven to 350°F. Cut the bottom off the garlic head and peel the loose skin off but leave the cloves and their skins intact. Wrap in a piece of tin foil and put in oven. Make a slit in the side of the chilis--remove the seeds if you don't want very hot salsa. Place the tomato halves and chilis on a piece of tin foil on a baking sheet and turn up the edges to catch any juice as the tomatoes bake. Put in the oven and roast about 15 minutes until cooked through and charred.
Put the tomatoes, the chilis (minus the stems) into a blender. When the garlic is soft, you can unwrap the head and squeeze the cooked garlic meat out into the blender. Add the cilantro, lime juice, pepper and salt. Pulse until smooth, stopping and scraping the sides down with a spatula if needed. Season to taste with salt. Makes about 3 cups.

Celebrate Cinco de Mayo! Tangy tomatillo spices mouthwatering crab enchiladas to pair with the 2009 Chateau Julien Monterey County Gewurztraminer.

CRAB ENCHILADAS WITH TOMATILLO SALSA VERDE:

SALSA VERDE:
6 medium tomatillos
2 large green chilis (Anaheim for mild spice, Jalapeno for hot)
1/4 medium onion (for cooking only)
1 clove garlic (for cooking only)
1/2 cup chopped onion (uncooked)
2 clove garlic (uncooked)
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1/8 tsp. cumin
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. salt
Put the tomatillos, chilis, 1/4 onion and clove of garlic into a medium saucepan, cover with water and boil until the chilis are tender.  Remove chilis and tomatillos and let cool. Remove the seeds and stems of the chilis (no need to peel either). Put them into a blender with the uncooked onion, garlic, cilantro, cumin, lemon juice and 3/4 cup of cooking liquid. Blend until smooth, adding part of the cooking liquid if needed for the proper consistency.
CRAB ENCHILADAS:
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup minced onion
1/2 cup minced celery
2 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp. cumin
1/4 tsp. chili powder
1/4 cup peeled and minced raw potato
1 cup crab meat (2 6 oz. cans, drained)
1 Tbsp. minced parsley
1/8 tsp. white pepper
salt to taste
1/2 c. sour cream
1  cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese or 1/2 cup goat cheese + 1/2 cup Monterey Jack
olive oil
12 corn tortillas

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter in saucepan over low heat, then cook the onion, garlic, celery, cumin, chili powder and potato in it until cooked (about 5 minutes), stirring occasionally. Potato should be minced, not diced, so it will cook easily. Remove from heat, let cool for a couple of minutes, then stir in the crab meat, parsley, sour cream and either 1/2 cup of goat cheese or 1/2 cup of shredded Monterey Jack. The goat cheese will be creamier, with a slight tang; the Monterey Jack will be richer and milder.

Spread out a couple of squares of paper towel, three layers deep, on your counter or cutting board. Coat the bottom of a large frying pan with oil and put over medium heat (don't let the heat get too high where the oil will smoke). Place as many tortillas in as you can without overlapping and cook them briefly so they are soft but not browned (about 15 seconds). As they are done, place them on the paper towels to drain. In a 8" square casserole, pour a thin layer of the salsa verde over the bottom. Dip a tortilla in the salsa verde then place about a heaping tablespoon of crab meat mixture in the middle and spread it out to the sides with the spoon, roll up, then line up in the casserole. (This process is easiest done in the casserole itself so the sauce stays in the dish and doesn't drip on the counter.) Spoon the remaining salsa verde over the top, sprinkle with 1/2 cup Monterey Jack and back for about 30 minutes or until cheese is lightly browned.

Serves 4-6. Pair with the crisp 2009 Chateau Julien Monterey County Gewurztraminer.