Last week, we had my best friend Kelly and her husband over for dinner. We had planned to go out for tacos and see The Bling Ring, but, when we discovered that it was only in limited release, our plans changed course.
Knowing how much Kelly loves tacos (sometimes the girl eats them two or three times a day), I asked Ryan if he wouldn't mind turning the buffalo steak he'd bought into carne asada, and whipped together a couple salsas. We served everything up with warm corn tortillas, queso fresco, crema, cilantro, and purple cabbage.
Homemade salsas are a great way to make taco night a little more interesting because they don't take long to make and they allow for plenty of experimentation. This time, I made honeydew salsa verde and pineapple habañero salsa.
Traditional salsa verde is made with tomatillos, a relative of the tomato that grows in its own little paper lantern. I remember my mother growing them in our garden when I was little; I thought they were so pretty! For a twist on this classic salsa, I added honeydew melon. My old adage that
everything green tastes good together held strong.
The Rule of Green is truly one to live by.
To make this salsa, I combined four tomatillos, a cup and a half of honeydew, one jalapeño (seeded), and about a quarter of a white onion in the food processor with a little lemon, some cilantro, and a tiny bit of water to get it going. You may need to adjust amounts slightly depending on your flavor preference.
Pineapple salsa is another classic. Though many people make theirs sweet and mild, I like to go the other direction by adding habañero to it. That said, I used a whole habañero and you might well want to use less. I was born in San Antonio, and this salsa approached the edge of what I can handle.
Because I wanted this one to be a chunkier texture, I chopped everything finely by hand instead of using the food processor. The ingredients are: about a cup and a half yellow cherry tomatoes, one habañero, about a cup and a half chopped fresh pineapple (absolutely do not substitute canned!), and about a quarter of a white onion. As with the verde, you may want to vary amounts slightly depending on your flavor preference.
It's a good idea to start with less pepper, because you can always add more as you go.
