-EDIT-
Said friend commented on the link I posted to her facebook and here is her review:
"Forgot to tell you, but we did make this salsa!! It was delicious! Matt was working 12hr night shifts when I did and he took it to work and everyone there raved over it too! Huge hit!! Thank you for sharing!!"
I do all of my prep work first. It makes for easier clean-up along the way.
Know this up front: you need a food processor. It's a great investment. It does all the hard work for you and makes for super easy clean-up. Just...get one. DO EEEET.
Start off by removing the seeds from your jalapenos. I always cut the stem side of the jalapeno off, then slice it in fourths. I then remove the seeds by slicing the whole white part off of the pepper. Make sure that you have removed all seeds! Even if you think you did, double check. Set the peppers aside. (As you can see, I went all pro-status and had my little glass bowls ready.)
I, then, take four cloves of garlic and peel them and cut each of them in half. Set those aside as well. (If you're anything like me...you never know what part of the garlic is the clove. Lol, jk. But seriously. When you go to the store, you'll see garlic bulbs in a crate. Buy just one of those. Then you break the bulb apart and each little segment is the clove.)
Grab your tomatoes next. Slice off where the stem grew on the tomato. I prefer to take the tomato and chop it up into pretty big chunks. I don't leave it whole before throwing it in the food processor because I don't like my salsa chunky. If you like your salsa chunky, by all means, leave them whole. Either way, set the tomatoes aside. (I am now singing the "I like 'em chunkay" song that the dude rhino sings to Gloria in Madagascar 2. Join in!)
Open your can of diced tomatoes and drain them. More or less, however much you want. I drained them as much as possible because the salsa turns into soup very easily. So the less liquid to add, the better. (I think this also goes along with the chunky-ness of the tomatoes. "I like 'em big. I like 'em chunkay. I like 'em big. I like 'em plumpay." Ahhh. Don't google the song. Don't do it, k?)
Take a good handful of your cilantro bunch. Cut the stems off right at where the leaves begin. Then chop these up a bit. (I always like moving my knife around like they do on all the cooking shows. I feel so special when I do.) You want the cilantro to be pretty finely chopped. You don't want to use the processor to chop these up because then all of your other ingredients become super thin.
Cut your lime in half. Take in the sweet, sweet smell of the lime. Do not taste the lime. Just. Don't.
Make sure to have all your other seasonings on the work space with the correct measuring tool available. (AKA use the same spoon for everything.)
Directions:
Combine your jalapenos and garlic. Process these two ingredients together until they are finely chopped. Scrape down the sides of the processor bowl and then process them some more.
Now. For the tricky part:
Add all other ingredients to the food processor. Pulse in very brief pulses until everything looks good. Move the salsa to a bowl. Squeeze your lime juice over the salsa, then mix with the scraping utensil. Taste salsa. Probably add a smidge more lime juice. Revel in the wonderful smell of salsa. Eat all the salsa before anyone else has a chance to. Don't forget to sometimes eat salsa with chips.
Ingredients:
2 fresh jalapenoes, seeded
4 garlic cloves, halved
2 large vine-ripened tomatoes
1 (28oz) can of diced tomatoes, drained
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp cumin
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cayenne pepper
Juice of one lime
Enjoy!
-Erin
