Fresh California Restaurant Style Salsa
It's been more than 5 months since I've made a proper post! Some may think I've given up on blogging, but as you know, dear readers, I was preparing for my wedding. A new chapter has begun in my life: I married Petit Copain (now Mon Mari... French husband), man of my dreams, and I found a wonderful job and career in France. Plus, planning a wedding is not easy. At all. I'll have to write a more detailed post on that later.
Life has finally settled and since it's finally tomato season in France (my favorite season ever), I had to get my tomatoes on and make some salsa. Since I'm deprived of proper Mexican food here, I often have to make my own. So why not make delicious salsa when the sun is finally out? It's like coming out of a cave after months of darkness to taste the sunshine.
The best tomatoes I've ever had are from Mon Mari's mother's garden in the South of France. I spent many weekends there planning our wedding and gorged myself on tomate farcie (my recipe here) and Mediterranian salads.
Our wedding took place on the French Riveria, Mon Mari's birthplace. All our closest friends and family were there to celebrate with us. It was magical.
Of course, there were some hiccups and bumps along the way, but that's always to be expected. The most important thing was that we were happy and everyone else was happy too.
Looks like Big Sur in California, doesn't it?
While I had my dream wedding in France, I still dream of tacos, nachos, and fajitas. Just as we had to improvise on some wedding stuff, I had to improvise with this salsa. Boy oh boy were the results good. Based on the salsa recipe by my favorite restaurant in my California hometown and what I could find here in Paris, I've made a perfect blend to satisfy my homesickness.
In this recipe, I use a blend of three tomatoes: cherry tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes, and my secret weapon: stewed Italian tomatoes. Obviously, if you were in California, you'd probably use stewed tomatoes from Mexico, but I don't have that here. The result is still the same: damn good salsa.
For Americans abroad, if you can't find jalapenos or spicy peppers, try finding an Asian or Middle-Eastern grocery store. They will have cilantro too! When cutting up your tomatoes, you want to make sure to deseed them and chop them finely (get these tomatoes firm). Mon Mari's cousin gave us beautiful hibiscus salt from Senegal (the purple salt) and we like to use it alongside regular sea salt in this recipe.
If you're lazy like me, you could stop after chopping up all your veggies for a nice pico de gallo (coupled with some watermelon juice that was going to be mixed up with some tequila :P). If you want to take it further, continue on for the full recipe.
I wish I had a recipe for delicious tortilla chips, but I had to settle on these fake ones from the French grocery store. If you buy salsa from France, be prepared to eat sugary pasta sauce. That's all I'm saying.
Fresh California Restaurant Style Salsa
Ingredients:
- A mix of cherry and beefsteak tomatoes (about 2 big beefsteak tomatoes and 200g of cherry tomatoes), washed, deseeded, and roughly chopped
- 1 big yellow onion, roughly chopped
- 2 jalapenos, deseeded and roughly chopped
- 1 bunch of cilantro, roughly chopped
- 1-2 cans of Italian (or Mexican) stewed tomatoes (my favorite brand is Nutti)
- 2-3 limes, cut into slices
- Sea salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
1. After chopping all of your vegetables, mix them together in a big metal bowl, along with your lime juice, salt, and pepper.
2. In a large food processor, put in your mixture along with a can or two of your stewed tomatoes. Blend using medium speed for 30-40 secs and finish with some seconds on the pulse button).
3. Serve alongside your favorite guacamole and tortilla chips!
Americans abroad, I wish you luck on finding proper chips...
À bientôt!