Salsa, from New York City

Growing up in a Korean household in America meant that eating any non-Asian foods was considered 'American food' regardless of the type, and was typically the pre-packaged variety: spaghetti sauce from a jar, mac and cheese from a box, hamburgers from the golden arches. I didn't even understand the concept of making 'American' food from scratch until I was older. Now when I look back, I realize that my taste for these foods relies on the store-bought/fast food/packaged kinds I had as a child.


Take, for instance, salsa.

The first salsa I ate was Pace Picante. I'm pretty sure we bought it because we loved the commercial ('New York Cit-ay?'--how funny that I now live here). I've tried plenty of jarred varieties, then tried making it 'from scratch' using a seasoning packet. I can't remember exactly when, but I did start making it from scratch for real and it was easy and tasty.

And yet, something was missing. I loved the flavors of freshly chopped tomatoes and cilantro but... this was no Pace Picante. I feel kind of embarrassed to admit it but I like the smooth texture of jarred salsas, so much so that I would sometimes eschew homemade salsa for store-bought. (!)

One day, inspired by pasta sauce, I decided to use canned tomatoes to make salsa. I put diced canned tomatoes, onion, lime juice and cilantro into a food processor and gave it a whirl. That was the texture I was looking for. Not only that, the food processor purees the ingredients together to really intesify the flavors.


But, I was somewhat bothered because I knew that using fresh tomatoes was still ideal. So, inspired by Gourmet.com's method for crushing tomatoes, I set about making salsa using a cheese grater.

It's not peak tomato season so these were not the easiest tomatoes to grate/crush, but it worked. I chopped up one of the tomatoes separately, to make it a little more rustic. I added a sprinkling of salt to this tomato mixture.


To this I added a little chopped red onion, tons of lime juice (probably the equivalent of one lime), chopped jalapenos (from a jar... I just can't get away from the jarred stuff but I'm working on it), and tons of cilantro.


Salt to taste, but it might not be necessary after the original sprinkling, especially if the chips you plan to eat them with are salted.


I don't like the acidic taste of tomatoes and have in the past added sugar to fresh salsa, but the red onion and cilantro cut right through it and added a little sweetness. Garlic is a good option to add too, but I like to interact with other human beings so I thought I'd skip it this time.

If in the spur of the moment I feel like having salsa and it's late at night and I don't want to go to the grocery store (what, am I the only one who gets cravings for salsa at 10 pm on a Sunday night?), I still like to use canned tomatoes because it's easy and I always have some on hand. But if I'm going to indulge myself in some really fresh salsa, crushing tomatoes via cheese grater is now my method of choice.