Salsa Recipe from Mexico: The Cookbook by Margarita Carrillo Arronte adapted for healthy beaver bags below for making it without a mortar and pestle.
Margarita Carillo Arronte is a chef with over 30 years experience researching and sharing the beauty of fresh local ingredients of authentic Mexican cooking at home and with a global audience. In interviews and through her work she dispels the myth that Mexican food is unhealthy explaining that many people first picture the restaurant food they have eaten, that while delicious, doesn’t represent authentic Mexican home cooking.
Salsa Recipe and Instructions:
- Two tomatoes
- 3 serrano chilies
- 1 garlic clove
- salt
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Wash Tomatoes and Serrano Chilies. *Note: 3 chillies will bring some heat. You can make it with 1 serrano or all 3.
- Arrange Tomatoes, Chilies, and 1 garlic clove still in the paper on a pan. Bake for 15 minutes.
- Allow to cool slightly, peel the skins from the chilies and tomato with your hands. Remove the paper from the garlic.
- Using a cutting board, cut the top woody core from the top of the tomatoes. Remove the stems from the peppers. You can choose if you would like to leave the seeds from the peppers to keep their hot flavor, or remove them and 3 chilies will still leave plenty of heat.
- The next step is to crush the roasted ingredients into salsa. If you have a mortar and pestle use that, a blender could work, don’t over blend though. In the photos, you can see the veggies ground with a clean jar in a sturdy bowl. Add the tomatoes, garlic, and peppers to a sturdy bowl. Sprinkle with a little salt. Grind the veggies crushing to desired consistency. To blend in some of the bigger tomato pieces that didn’t want to crush with the jar, using two knives in the bowl like scissors worked just fine.
- Serve with a quesadilla, tacos, or meats. Store in the refrigerator for 1-2 days.
To make a quesadilla:
Heat a shallow pan on the stove. Heat a tortilla to be able to fill with cheese or other ingredients. Brown the tortilla in the pan being careful not to burn it.
Serve filled tortilla with the salsa.
Options: You can add cooked veggies, meat or beans to a quesadilla too.
Original Recipe:
