DIY: Homebrew: Mexican Style Homemade Salsa

When I commented how store bought salsa tasted salty and too much like vinegar, a friend noted that many salsas -- homemade or store bought -- add too many ingredients. She boasted of her own salsa recipe which despite being in the family for years, only consisted of two ingredients (plus salt/pepper).

I asked her to come over and show me how to make DIY homemade Mexican style salsa.

Ready for the ingredient list? This DIY homemade Mexican salsa consists of:

2 large beefsteak tomatoes
1 Serrano or 2 small jalapenos (added or reduced for spice)

That's it! Of course, you'll want to season with salt, pepper, and maybe even some garlic powder for taste. I've experimented with a tad of onion for taste, and actually, for the recipe walk-though below, I've added a bunch of green tomatoes.

When you normally make this recipe you can skip the green tomatoes, and you can actually use two large beefsteak vine tomatoes. I used three tomatoes here because they are smaller than normal. I decided to add the handful of green tomatoes because as I was pruning out garden, I accidentally cut a stalk of one of our tomato plants. So rather than toss it, I picked the green tomatoes and added them.

Here's the ingredients Like I mentioned above, two large beefsteak tomatoes are fine, and feel free to skip the green tomatoes.

Start by washing the veggies/fruits (tomatoes are a fruit), and removing the stickers. It amazes me that organic stuff comes with stickers on it. Is the adhesive organic too?

Heat up a pot of water to preboil.

Then, just before it starts boiling, add the tomatoes and peppers.

After a little while, you'll notice the tomatoes skin start to split.

Prepare a small amount of onion, for taste while you're waiting.

Once the boil has been going for 10-15 minutes, pull out the tomatoes and peppers one by one. You can turn the boil off while you do this. Strip the skin from the tomatoes, and then core them (take out the core/stem area, as shown below).

Do all of this on a tray or in a pan, since the juices will leak and flow out. You'll want these juices for the salsa. If skilled enough, you can skin the jalapenos although I just cut off the stem and leave them whole. Those who want little or no hotness can de-seed them.

Add salt and pepper, although you'll add these later to taste.

Add a little olive oil.

And a little garlic powder. Why not real garlic cloves? I find that they don't break up as well into the salsa. The powder mixes into the salsa very evenly.