Fire-roasted salsa

I chose this salsa to go with the ¡hot, hot tamales! I posted yesterday. I really like this salsa, not just because it's delicious, but also because it's one of the few occasions that you get to use a propane torch in the kitchen! ¡Ay, caramba!

You could go for one of those frou-frou torches they sell in kitchen stores, but my preference is the $10 model they sell at Canadian Tire -- that way you can use it on frozen pipes and stuff too!

This recipe also comes from the ¡Cocina! cookbook that the tamales hailed from. Ingredients are a small onion, 6 roma tomatoes, 2-3 chiles, a big pinch of salt, and a lime or two worth of lime juice. The recipe uses habanero chiles, but they looked pretty miserable at the store. Plus, my ají limón plants on the front porch are still alive (bless their souls!) in spite of getting hit with some light frosts and a dump of snow the other day. I wanted to go for the ajís for another reason, namely because they are native to South America, and this whole dish was supposed to be a tribute to Chile in the first place.

Ají is an Arawak Indian name, and is used generically for chile peppers in much of South America. The term is used elsewhere as the common name for the Capsicum baccatum species of peppers which, you may recall, is my favourite of the domesticated chiles. The baccatums are native to Peru or Bolivia and, if the archaeological evidence is correct, they've been domesticated since about 2,500 B.C. -- i.e., they've been in the Andes for a while. I could see the Andes out the window of my hotel room, so I figure we're on the right track putting them in this salsa. (The Andes connection may also explain how those troopers are still chugging away on the front porch in spite of the weather!)

So, there you are. The first thing to do is to start the fire roasting. The idea here is mainly to blast the skins off the tomatoes and the chiles, with a side benefit of adding some nice flavour. Ideally, this should be done over a nice charcoal fire for ultimate flavour, but I've only got 20 minutes before my tamales are done, so speed is of the essence here. I usually just stick the stem end of my tomatoes into a fork (not a good fork, mind you) and blast away. For chiles, I hold them by the stem with tongs. If you go from the stem end up, the skin will basically unzip as it blackens.

The tomatoes should look like this when they're done;

the chiles, like this.

As each tomato is done, put it into a bowl and pop a lid on it to help it steam away while you work on the other ones. (Just a bit of friendly advice here, but if you have to put the torch down for some reason, try to make sure it isn't pointed at the cupboards, or you, or anything else that might not like a 1,200 degree flame. It's probably also a good idea to open a window. And maybe keep a candle burning, so you can re-light it quick if it happens to snuff-out. This is as much fun as it sounds, but please don't burn your house down.)

Once you're all done, peel the skin off the tomatoes -- it should come off easily, but don't sweat it if there are a few black specks left here and there (this stuff is pretty sticky, so there will be LOTS of black specks all over you and the kitchen, but trust me, it's worth it!). You don't need to peel the chiles.

Somewhere during all this you have to mince the onion and saute over medium heat until it is softened.

Put one tomato and your chiles into a food processor. The idea here is to ensure that the chile gets finely chopped and evenly distributed throughout the salsa.

Whir that around for a couple of pulses.

Add the rest of the tomatoes, the lime juice, the salt, and the sauted onion.

And whir that around too! Whee!

Serve up and enjoy! Note that this salsa tends to separate on a plate, so if you use it as shown make sure it goes on just before you serve. Otherwise, it's a good idea to put it into little bowls to keep it nice and tidy. This one is great on everything: chips, grilled meats, and of course, ¡hot, hot tamale!