Fire Roasted Salsa Negra Black Salsa Recipes

FIRE ROASTED SALSA

Steps:

• If you are grilling, get your grates hot and scrape them clean. Place your onions and tomatoes cut side down on the grill. Place the chiles and garlic cloves on the grill, too. If you are broiling, arrange everything on a baking sheet, cut side up.
• Let the onions and tomatoes grill a solid 5 minutes before trying to move them. You want significant blackening. Turn the garlic cloves as the peel blackens, and rotate the chiles so their skins blacken. Remove the garlic when several sides of the cloves have some char, when the skins of the chiles are well blackened, when both cut sides of the onion quarters are charred, and when the cut face of the tomatoes are well blackened. You will want to use a thin metal spatula to do this. If you are broiling, simply wait until you get good char on most of the vegetables.
• Put the chiles into a plastic bag to steam. Chop the onion roughly. Peel the garlic and if the cloves are large, chop into a few pieces. Remove the skins from the tomatoes. After 10 minutes or so, peel the chiles with the back of a butter knife, then open them up and scrape away their seeds. Chop them roughly.
• If you are grinding your salsa in a molcajete, add the salt, oregano and garlic and pound to a paste. Add the onion bit by bit, grinding and pounding all the way. Next comes the chiles, then the tomatoes. Finally, grind in the chopped herbs into the salsa. If you are not using a molcajete, simply put everything into a food processor and blitz it a few times. You want this salsa to have some texture. Add salt if you need it, and you are good to go.

FIRE ROASTED SALSA NEGRA (BLACK SALSA)

Steps:

• Cover the dried chiles with boiling water and let soak for 30 minutes. Make sure they are covered by the water.
• While the chiles soak, turn your broiler on high, and set the rack at the highest setting. Line a baking sheet with foil and arrange the tomatoes on it. Broil for about 15 minutes, turning occasionally, until the tomatoes are blackened all over. Set aside.
• Do the same with the pasilla and jalapeno peppers, leave them whole, don't chop. When they are blackened all over, remove and set aside.
• Repeat the procedure with the soaked peppers.
• Put the onion and the garlic in the food processor and pulse until finely minced. Turn into a large bowl. Add the salt, pepper, spices, lime juice and Worcestershire sauce.
• Chop the blackened tomatoes in quarters, and puree, in the food processor, working in batches if necessary. Add the puree to the bowl with the onions and spices.
• Remove and discard the stems from all the peppers and chop them in half. Puree them in the processor, and then add to the bowl. Note: I did not remove the seeds from the peppers.
• Add the olive oil to the bowl and blend everything together. Cover and refrigerate until chilled, or until ready to serve. Be sure to taste the salsa prior to serving to adjust any of the seasonings. Note, this is a relatively thick salsa.

AUTHENTIC FIRE-ROASTED TEX-MEX SALSA

Steps:

• Set an oven rack about 6 inches from the heat source and preheat the oven's broiler to high.
• Spray a 9x13-inch glass casserole dish with cooking spray. Arrange tomatoes in the prepared dish with cut sides down. Add onion and jalapeno.
• Broil until tomato skins are blackened and blistered, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove onion and jalapeno halfway through cooking time, once skins are slightly softened.
• Combine broiled vegetables in a blender; add cilantro, lime juice, and 1 teaspoon garlic salt. Pulse until smooth. Taste and season with remaining garlic salt as desired.