John Ash Cooking One on One Private Lessons in Simple, Contemporary Food from a Master Teacher

salsas America's Favorite Fresh Condiment In most of America today, we take salsas almost for granted. The news that sales of salsa had passed ketchup, making it America's number one condiment, was a major sidebar topic a couple of years ago. It was an indication of both how the ethnic balance in America was changing and how much more adventurous Americans had become in their eating. (Of course, it's also because no one eats a jarful of ketchup in one sitting, but, hey, who's counting?) But while supermarket salsa is a narrowly defined condiment with limited uses, the wide world of homemade salsas is a great adventure in flavor and texture. The word salsa is Spanish for "sauce" and covers a wide range of recipes, from fresh, raw, chunky salsa frescas, salsa crudas, and pico de gallos to cooked and sometimes vinegared smooth sauces, including mysterious and complex moles of many colors. For most of us, however, salsa has come to mean the chunky, Mexican tomato-based condiment-cum-salad, and that is the focus of this lesson. Salsas are easy to make, can be made ahead, and are the perfect healthy topper to all manner of quickly prepared dishes, enlivening the most unlikely foods-everything from roasted potatoes to seafood cakes, grilled meats, and poultry. They can be used like any relish or served in larger portions like mini-salads. Best of all, salsas give terrific bang for your buck: with minimal effort from you, a salsa can deliver an incredible blend of flavors and sensations-sweet, sour, hot, herbal, cool, crunchy-in one tiny mouthful. Good salsas are easy to make: generally it's chop, mix, and eat. Great salsas demand little more-the biggest difference between a good salsa and a great one is the quality of the ingredients. A little restaurant that I like puts out the simplest salsa fresca and tortilla chips when they bring the menu. I never leave without having eaten the entire bowl, because they always use the most amazing tomatoes, and the flavor impact of that one ingredient is incredible. Use top-notch raw materials full of flavor at the peak of freshness and you'll have great salsa. How can I make salsa if chopping onions makes me cry? If you harvested your own onions, you wouldn't have this problem. "Young" (recently harvested) onions are generally sweeter, with less of the sulfur compounds that make some onions taste funky and set you weeping. Most of us, however, have little control over the age of our onions. You can minimize this problem-and have better tasting salsa-by immediately throwing your chopped onions into a bowl of ice water. Try several changes of water for best results. Unless I've got a Walla Walla or a Vidalia or one of the other super-sweet varieties, I do this soak-drain-repeat process not just for salsas, but whenever the onions are going to be eaten raw. Is salsa a good "make-ahead" food? The "freshness factor" means that salsas are at their best soon after they are made, although most benefit from a little sitting time so the flavors can develop. That's not to say that you can't make a salsa today and store it in the fridge for dinner tomorrow or the next day; you can. But long before it goes bad, a salsa will start to wilt, losing that bright, crisp quality that makes it so irresistible. Once you realize how many uses there are for salsa beyond tortilla chips, I doubt it'll hang around your refrigerator long enough for it to be a problem. basic salsa fresca or cruda Makes about 1 1/4 cups The simplest of the salsas (and the most familiar to us all) is the classic New World combination of tomatoes, onions, chiles, and garlic, to which other seasonings can be added as desired. The basic recipe follows, along with some suggested additions. You can certainly eat this straight out of the bowl with tortilla chips, but you can also use it to top various cooked foodAsh, John is the author of 'John Ash Cooking One on One Private Lessons in Simple, Contemporary Food from a Master Teacher' with ISBN 9780609609675 and ISBN 060960967X.