:-) Thanks Linda! Tabasco is Aloe vera compared to this!

Cheers

PC

Hi PC

It looks very fiery and probably tasty for you.:) I discovered some time ago the secret to a perfect salsa all the time. Fresh homegrown tomatoes, meyer lemons, red limes from the garden, fresh red onions and garlic that I am harvesting now, cilantro from the garden, sometimes if it is too sweet, I add red wine vinegar and no more chopping hot peppers for me, I use the prepared hot sauce in the picture and depending on who is going to eat it, I add the amount.

Yesterday I made some salsa and my favorite roasted tomatoes for the freezer.

Silvia

SO yummy Silvia. I'm a spice wimp, and I cannot grow lemons/limes, but I CAN grow cilantro, garlic and tomatoes so I might try my hand at a mild salsa, but it won't be for a few months :(

Linda

Thank you Linda, sometimes my Meyer lemons are not acid enough that is the reason to have a good vinegar at hand, I like the red vinegar from the Sacred Olive. The Sambal Oelek will be perfect for you, then you can add just a little for spice. I like to taste the flavors coming through, if it is too hot for me then I cannot appreciate the taste.

In my experience, everyone that I know and like tomatoes love the salsa and the jars go quick when is tomato season in my garden, makes it easy to share the bounty.:)

When is tomato season for you, my tomatoes would be only the ones that I have roasted and put it in the freezer, I like to put a big slice in my homegrown avocados, the season is coming up!

Silvia

Hello Silvia and thanks for the wonderful photos and ideas. To control heat to add a standard amount of "hot sauce"! :-) You only live once, why not dangerously ... when it comes to salsas?! I'm the oddball here regarding the garlic, onions and fresh coriander. They are wonderful to add for munching on totopos chips, or with beef, but all three are probably endemic to Asia and in my case it was a Mexican salsa with elements I like to call "pre-conquistador".

No onions, only a minor amount of fresh garlic let me walk around feeling more Aztec. Of course the mild post-conquest European fusion with the native cultures is what dominates the world of salsa's here & now, but this is exactly what makes it wonderful to have something more unique and different spanning the ages, and made for wild pimp tomatoes like Everglades which I'm not sure even reached Europe in colonial times.

As for the heat, in moderation it is delicious and a little bit goes a long way, so there may be lots of vitamin A but otherwise it isn't a liquefied or rooster-pecked Spring salad. Maybe I should have called mine mole? The problem with that is the Mexican word mole, which is the authentic word molli in Nahuatl for salsa, has sort of taken on another meaning through the Spanish word to grind, to have and addition of perhaps some chocolate, peanuts, sesame or such, except with guacamole which still means avocado salsa. (sort of, but I won't go into that with the fair members of our forum :-)

And then there is "hot sauce" another modern refinement to distinguish what a wimpy palate can and can't risk, but otherwise a further needless label lol. Tabasco originally was and still is simply labeled just "Pepper Sauce", another kind of salsa de ají = pepper sauce.

So, time to put my tomacuauchilmolli aside and make that good stuff in the pics jajaja!

Kidding aside yours does look more yummy at the moment than my Mission Control mole, such inspiration by example and great pointers!

Cheers

PC

My tomato harvest is usually mid-July onwards, if all goes well. I'll have to get some Sambal Oelek. Sounds great!

I almost wish I had some Everglades tomatoes to toss in the salsa, but I have many other varieties to choose from. Perhaps Piennolo del Vesuvio will give it a more European twist :)

Linda

Hey PC and Silvia, Thanks for heating up the forum. hehe

I am set for salsa. I've got lots of Fresno, Jalapenio, Cyanne, Poblano, plust some more hot and sweet to blend in. Fresno and Jalapenos are loaded and have many finger size pods. I am munching on the right off the hand/off the bush.

Now to make salsa, I would need tomatoes, of course. I am getting a few now and then but the incident is on the rise.

Gi,me 2 more weeks !

Sey

Linda "Piennolo del Vesuvio" LOL!!! If you survive the attack of the Neapolitan Agenti di Protected Designation of Origin polizias you will get through some real Italian flavor ;-) I can't wait for your Vesuvius Volcano salsa!

Sey, not all salsas have tomatoes, my favorite of all, green sauce (salsa verde) is made from tomatillos, and Italian salsa verde is an incredible salsa .... herbs, no tomatoes. There are wonderful pepper salsas out there with no tomato and you can make them with low to no heat peppers. But being a tomato forum I do look forward to see what you do with some of those interesting peppers. I have one ghost pepper with a few fingers hanging off it, but I'm not sure what to do with them yet other than needing to pollinate them more I am getting so many blossoms dropping and nailing an unexpected neighbor with a gift (or at least an offering to that garden thieving squirrel). One of these days I dare you to add some chile piquín to the corral ...

Cheers

PC

Hi All

I found a better recipe for tomatoes, the ultimate Greek salad, so simple and so good! but you need the best tasting tomatoes for flavor.

While I was in Greece last week, everyday I ate a Greek salad, yum!

Tomatoes at the market

Silvia

Silvia that and you are awesome! Greek salad in Greece ... I'm so hungry now. Seriously it is time to travel. My friend is gallivanting on the Catalonian Costa Brava at the moment and I am trying to get her to bring back some true heirloom tomato seeds - which is a challenge to do even if you know what you are doing!

An hour ago I just received this photo of the salad she had for breakfast on site. The tomato appears to be a variety from Alcalà de Xivert, local from neighboring Castellón, though the rest of the salad is, well, ok if you were there!

Yesterday my fair explorer was kind enough to take me to the village Catalonian market and look for the elusive heirlooms. I believe these are the 'Monterosa' commercial hybrid based on a local heirloom crossed with a 'Costoluto Genovese' and not an heirloom:

Then, yesterday another jaunt there and some long-keepers, the hanging type tomatoes, tomates de colgar like the Italian Pomodorino del Piennolo or there called 'tomata de Penjar'. A look at the stems and you see they've been hanging a long time!

By now, I'm hungry and what do I wake up to in my phone but these, mislabeled and unlabeled!!! The top is getting warmer to the tomato quest! But the bottom is a local heirloom I think.the real local heirloom, 'del Pebrot'! These were in the open air market in the street!
I am squirming in my seat to travel to the Mediterranean now you guys are killing me. So I keep up with the Joneses and make some tapas of Pa amb tomaquet haha! With my freshly smeared garden tomatoes on toasted bread, the works with real imported 12-month Mancheco añejo cheese. And for fun some paella valenciana! hehehe


So what do I get messaged back a few hours later? Yeah, "authentic" paella. But I'm sure they didn't get real saffron :-P. Gosh it looks appetizing!
Cheers

PC

PC, all your tomato photos are great! I came back with Greece in my mind and my suitcase.:) the people, the music, the food and of course tomato seeds.

I shopped at the open market and tried all the products, nuts, fruits, cheese. I am having the best pistachios in the world! almonds, sultanas and figs, the tomatoes at my house are like an explosion! so many and so good! trying hard to roast them for the freezer.

I feel sorry to cut up beauties such as these....

Silvia

Oh my goodness, my husband would pay good money for your salsa. It looks soooo good, (I am a bit of a wimp when it comes to spiciness, sadly.) Let me know if you want to start bottling and shipping!