The Art of Making Salsas: A Guide to Creating Delicious and Easy-to-Make Condiments

When it comes to adding flavor and excitement to your meals, salsas are an excellent option. Not only do they add a burst of flavor, but they're also incredibly easy to make and can be customized to suit your taste preferences. In this article, we'll explore the art of making salsas and provide you with a step-by-step guide on how to create three delicious salsas: pico de gallo, guacamole, and chaat salsa roja.

First, let's talk about the importance of cooking time when it comes to making salsas. Different vegetables have varying cook times, which can affect the final product's texture and flavor. For example, garlic typically takes only three minutes to cook, while onions may take four to five minutes. Tomatoes, on the other hand, require up to eight or nine minutes of cooking time. Understanding these cooking times is crucial in achieving the perfect char and texture for your salsa.

One key aspect of making salsas is understanding the concept of charring. Charring refers to the process of caramelizing vegetables over high heat, which brings out their natural sweetness and adds depth to the final product. To achieve this, it's essential to cook your vegetables at a high temperature, using a combination of gas or oil in a skillet. The hottest part of the skillet is usually located near the outer edge, where the flame is concentrated. This means that when cooking with a gas stove, you want to position your garlic in the center of the skillet to avoid burning it.

Now that we've covered the basics of cooking and charring, let's move on to the actual recipe-making process. For this article, I'll be making three salsas: pico de gallo, guacamole, and chaat salsa roja. The first salsa, pico de gallo, is a classic Mexican condiment made from diced tomatoes, onions, jalapeños, cilantro, and lime juice. To make it, simply combine the ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until you reach your desired consistency.

For the second salsa, guacamole, we'll be using ripe avocados, lime juice, salt, and a variety of spices to create a creamy and delicious dip. One crucial step in making guacamole is dissolving the salt; this helps to break down the avocado's natural oils and brings out its flavor. To achieve this, it's essential to let the salsa sit for at least 10 minutes after blending.

The third salsa, chaat salsa roja, is a spicy Indian condiment made from roasted tomatoes, garlic, onions, and cilantro. This salsa requires a bit more effort, as we need to roast the vegetables over high heat to achieve the desired char and texture. To make it, simply place the ingredients in a skillet over medium-high heat and cook until they're tender and caramelized.

Now that we've covered the recipes for each of these salsas, let's talk about serving them. Pico de gallo is an excellent accompaniment to tacos, grilled meats, and vegetables. Guacamole, on the other hand, is perfect for dipping chips or using as a spread. Chaat salsa roja adds a spicy kick to any dish and can be served alongside Indian cuisine.

When it comes to serving salsas, timing is everything. Warm salsas like pico de gallo are best served immediately after making, while room-temperature salsas like guacamole are perfect for serving at parties or gatherings. Chilled salsas like chaat salsa roja can be served as a condiment or used as an ingredient in recipes.

In conclusion, making salsas is an art that requires attention to detail and practice. By understanding the importance of cooking time, charring, and dissolving salt, you'll be able to create delicious and easy-to-make condiments that will elevate your meals to the next level. Whether you're serving them at a party or using them as a daily condiment, salsas are an excellent way to add flavor and excitement to your meals.

With these three salsas – pico de gallo, guacamole, and chaat salsa roja – you'll be well on your way to creating delicious and easy-to-make condiments that will impress your friends and family. So go ahead, experiment with different ingredients and flavors, and don't be afraid to try new things. The art of making salsas is all about creativity and experimentation, so have fun and enjoy the process!

The Three Salsas: A Tasting Experience

To put our newfound skills to the test, we'll be tasting each of these three salsas together. As a pico de gallo, it's still warm and bursting with fresh flavor. The heat from the jalapeños is tempered by the coolness of the cilantro, creating a delightful contrast that will leave you wanting more.

Next up is our guacamole, which has had time to chill in the refrigerator. As we take a bite, the creamy avocado melts in our mouths, coating our taste buds with its rich flavor. The lime juice adds a tangy note that cuts through the richness of the avocado, while the salt provides a subtle depth to the overall flavor.

Last but not least is our chaat salsa roja, which has been chilling in the refrigerator for a few hours. As we take a bite, the roasted tomatoes and garlic explode with flavor, creating a spicy kick that will leave you breathless. The cilantro adds a freshness that balances out the heat of the chili peppers, while the yogurt provides a cooling note that soothes the palate.

As we taste each salsa together, it becomes clear that each one has its own unique character and charm. Whether you prefer the bold flavors of pico de gallo or the creamy texture of guacamole, there's a salsa out there for everyone. And with our chaat salsa roja, we've added a spicy kick to the mix, making it perfect for those who love a little heat.

In conclusion, making salsas is an art that requires practice and patience, but the end result is well worth the effort. By understanding the importance of cooking time, charring, and dissolving salt, you'll be able to create delicious and easy-to-make condiments that will elevate your meals to the next level.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi i'm rick martinez author host food editor at food network and i've spent the last 20 years traveling mexico studying the culture the food and the people and today i'm going to show you how to make the basics salsa we're going to make a pico de gallo a guacamole and a charred salsa roja all right let's get started we're going to start with the pico de gallo and i've got some beautiful vine ripened tomatoes i'm going to go ahead and take the core out and basically all that means is just take a really sharp paring knife or if you don't have a paring knife you can use the tip of your chef's knife and just take that out depending on the type of tomato it's it could potentially be a little bit woody and unpleasant and so nobody needs to eat that so the first thing i'm going to do is i'm going to cut the tomato in half see how nicely that slid through it's really really sharp so for pico de gallo you really want not a fine dice but a nice even dice so what i'm going to do is i'm going to treat this very much like i would an onion and i'm just going to go with one really nice even cut all the way back like that and i'm going to leave a little bit just to hold the tomato in place otherwise if i cut all the way through it'll slide around so it's just going to be easier on me if i do this and then now i'm going to just run my knife through like that these are probably about a half inch cuts and then just hold everything together and then bend your fingers so there's no chance of you cutting your fingers and then just slice great all right i'm using a bench scraper to help me keep the board nice and clean scoop that into the bowl and we'll do this other one or if you don't have a binch scraper you can just use the side of your knife just make sure you're not going to cut yourself so the next thing we're going to do is we're going to cut our onion so i'm using a white onion because this is what's typically used in mexico i just like the assertive flavors of this but feel free to use whatever onion you have yellow red or the white so now i'm going to show you how to cut an onion all right the first thing i'm going to do is i'm going to take the stem end off and then i'm going to take the root end off the next cut i make is the half all the way to the center all right i find that it's easier to peel once it's halved very similar to the tomato i'm going to start by making the horizontal cuts and just nice and even you want this cut to be slightly smaller than the tomato so just go up a little bit this is probably more of a third of an inch as opposed to a half i'm keeping the heel of my palm on the very top of the onion one to stabilize it but also to make sure that i don't actually slice my hand as i cut and then you want to turn the onion so that the cut side is facing you again bend your fingers so that the knuckle is touching the blade and then you can just cut down like that you might have to hold to make sure that the onion cuts don't slide off with the blade all right and just take everything turn it this way line everything up and then make the cuts all right so i'm actually only going to use half of this half which is a quarter of an onion for this recipe so i'm just going to take that we'll just eyeball it and then the remaining onion i'm going to use for the other salsas all right so for the serranos i like things on the spicier side so i have two serranos here i'm gonna leave the seeds in because i like spice but i'm gonna show you how to take the seeds out so that you can make a more mild pico de gallo whenever i'm handling chili's i always wear gloves it's just a good practice if you get any of the capsaicin which is the chemical compound in the chili that actually has all of the heat and you rub your eyes or rub your face it's going to sting and you're going to get burned so it's just better to use a glove okay so what i'm going to do is i'm going to take the stem off i am going to cut the chili in half and you can see the seeds and the ribs so this white part and all of the seeds is really where all the heat is so what you can do i'll show you a couple of ways to take them out you can either just run a small paring knife down and just take out all of the ribs and seeds and you can just pull them out with your fingers make sure you have gloves if you're gonna do this if you don't have gloves just take a spoon and kind of dig it in here run it along the edges to break up the little ribs and then just scoop it out you can see how clean that comes out and then just discard the seeds but because i like spicy i'm going to keep the seeds in so we're going to pretend that the seeds are still in here what i'm going to do is i'm going to flatten out the chili just cut it into strips it doesn't have to be super fine but you definitely want it smaller than the tomatoes and the onion and then i like seeing bits of the green a lot of people tend to go back over uh the chilies with their knife to get a really super fine cut i don't know i like seeing the bits of green in there i think it's really pretty all right now we're going to grate the garlic so i'm a big fan of the microplane because it really breaks up the garlic you get more of the flavor released and one thing that i'm not a big fan of is biting into a big hunk of garlic this is just the way i like it but if you don't have a microplane you can definitely just finely chop your garlic i love the garlic in here because i feel like it adds a little bit of heat a different kind of heat than the chili does and the garlic flavor is just really pleasant so i'm going to use about a third of a cup of cilantro and feel free to use the stems it's really tender it also has a lot of flavor this i'm just going to give a nice little rough chop just make sure that if you are using any stems that they're sufficiently mixed up what i normally do is i just hold down the tip and then use my right hand to actually create the motion and then you can scrape and move wipe the blade off and then just add that in so i'm adding three tablespoons of lime juice i'm going to add one and a quarter teaspoons of kosher salt and i'm just going to give this a little stir all right i'm going to let this sit for about 10 minutes to let the flavors come together and i'm going to start the guacamole when you're shopping for avocados what you want to do is just give it a gentle squeeze it should give a little bit if it's rock hard it's not ripe and you're never going to be able to smash it and the flavor's not going to be that good either all right now put your avocado down run your knife on the side and then just turn the avocado so now you just take the the heel into the knife stick it into the pit give it a little twist and then if you're worried about you know possibly cutting yourself pulling off the pit just take a kitchen towel and pull it off so what i'm going to do now is i'm going to grab a molcajete this is essentially a mexican mortar and pestle this one is made in mexico it's made out of lava rock people use it to grind their spices they use it to make their salsas they use it to make their guacamole just get a big spoon you want a spoon like slightly larger than a tablespoon and just stick it in the side run the spoon around the avocado and then you can just scoop it out just like that all right you just take the the little mallet it's called a mate and just kind of smashing it down if you have a regular mortar and pestle definitely use that as well wood or granite would be totally fine all right just like that you don't need to go crazy because the more you stir it actually it's going to break up as well and then just scrape it up i'm going to transfer it to another bowl and for the 99 of the people watching this that don't have a molcajete i'm going to show you what else you can use all right all right so you probably have a potato masher and you don't need to get too aggressive with your the mashing because like i said as you stir in all the other ingredients the avocado will continue to break down the other really nice thing about having a mokahete is that it makes a great serving dish all right okay side so now i'm going to mix in all the other ingredients so this is the onion that i chopped earlier so this is a quarter of a white onion and again feel free to use whatever onion you have on hand this is one chopped jalapeno i love the season because i like it hot and it's a very large one which is totally fine all right i've got a quarter cup of cilantro again if you don't like cilantro use whatever herb you like and i'm going to add some garlic so one clove of garlic if you don't have a microplane feel free to chop and i'm putting two tablespoons of lime juice in here the lime juice isn't common in guacamoles in mexico but i think here in the u.s like just to make sure that your avocados don't turn black i think it's a good idea to go ahead and put some lime juice in there and i'm going to put one teaspoon of kosher salt all right that is everything i'm just going to give this a little mix oh the color is so beautiful so you can see you know i didn't go crazy with the smashing of the avocado and so there's still little hunks of avocado in there this is the way i like it if you like yours a little bit more smooth by all means just smash it up and i'm going to transfer this to the molcajete because i think it's just a prettier presentation one other thing that i always do i always make double the amount of guacamole that i think i'm going to need because you would be amazed how quickly this gets eaten all right i'm going to let this sit for 10 minutes to let all the flavors come together and i'm going to work on the charred salsa roja the last thing i'm going to make for you today is charred salsa roja it's something that you should be doing at home because it's super super simple so let's get started the first thing i have is a pan that's preheating you can also do this on a grill but uh you really need a ripping hot pan or a very very hot grill if you didn't want to do either of those you could also use your broiler or a really hot oven so the first thing i'm going to do is i'm going to core these tomatoes i've got two pounds of roma tomatoes here i've used beef steak i've used heirlooms i actually prefer the aromas they're a little bit more meaty they're a little bit less juicy but if you have the beef steaks or heirlooms those will work great as well your skillet should look like this you can see the smoke kind of coming up that's exactly what you want i'm going to add the tomatoes because these are going to take the longest amount of time to cook and i will prep the other veg i'm using serranos here you can use whatever pepper you want i'm using two serranos so you just want to take the the stems off of the serranos or whatever peppers you're going to use i have the half of an onion that i saved from last time i'm just going to cut it into in half so that i have now two quarters the only reason why i'm really doing this is because i want to get charring on as many surfaces as possible this is going to add flavor but it's also going to add a little bit of bitterness so i'm going to lay these cut side down this is going to happen it's gonna pop it's gonna sizzle these are four garlic cloves i want them to steam inside their jackets so you're gonna get charring on the skin but what's gonna end up happening is the garlic's actually gonna roast and steam on the inside you'll get a little bit of a charring on the garlic itself but for the most part it'll sweeten and the flavors will kind of mellow out but just know it's going to pop it's going to sizzle as the vegetables cook they're going to get tender and they're going to leech some of the juices out they're also going to have very different cook times so the garlic are probably only going to take about three minutes the onion in serrano probably about four to five and then the tomatoes like even up to eight or nine minutes and this is what we're looking for just a really really nice char and this is what your onion is going to look like and if it falls apart it's totally fine don't worry about it again you really just want to get charring on the exposed cut sides and i think these actually these peppers are already done one thing that you should know too is that the hottest part of your skillet if you're using a gas stove is going to be the outer edge because the flame is actually concentrated around this area the cooler area is going to be the center uh so that's why i have my garlic in the center so that it doesn't completely burn but the garlic is done now too all right looks really good and i'm going to pull my onion you want charring you want to see the juices start to bubble up and there's really you know there's no absolute here this is about personal preference i don't think you want to take this so that it's like all of the veg is completely black so you want to see bits of red you want to see bits of green you want to see bits of white if you blacken all of the veg it's going to be very one note so definitely don't do that i'm going to turn the fire off and this is a really easy way to make any kind of salsa and so you just want to put your tomatoes directly into the blender if your blender jar is a little small you can do this in half batches totally fine and then you can just like add all of your other ingredients in there now the one thing you do want to do is make sure that the garlic is cool enough for you to handle and then just peel the skin off you can see it's like really really soft it's caramelized it's sweet it's like a roasted garlic with a little bit of a little bit of an edge all right all the charred veg is in now i'm gonna add cilantro leaves and tender stems about a quarter of a cup lime juice two tablespoons and a tablespoon of salt that may seem like a lot but it's two pounds of tomatoes plus everything else all right so make sure the lids on and if you have a blender with a plunger this is a good time to use it and if this is happening to you and you don't have a plunger then just turn it off open it up and then use a spatula to just push the unchopped veg down closer to the blade and then let it go again there it goes there we go so you want some chunks in there like i prefer salsa with a little bit of texture if you're into more smooth then definitely you can let it keep going again i wouldn't put the blender on higher speed i would just let it blend for longer i'm gonna give this a little taste it's still steamy hot it's really really good and you can actually serve this warm if i was serving this with an entree i would leave it warm i think it would actually be really nice over some chicken or some fish if you were doing this with tacos or as with chips and a little dip bar it'd probably be better at least at room temperature but it's also really good chilled the flavors will develop in the refrigerator if you let it sit overnight and it'll be even better the next day all right i am so excited these are the three salsas i've made for you today i can't wait to actually taste all of them so i've got the pico de gallo then we made the guacamole and then finally the chaat salsa roja you can serve these certainly on tacos you can serve them on an entree i've got chips and also some tostadas we had some corn tortillas and we just fried them in a little bit of oil they're really delicious oh they're really crispy these are really good with the guac i mean you know mix and match you just do you so good the wait time really helps a lot because especially in the guacamole you want to dissolve the salt i mean 10 minutes is not that long definitely it adds so much flavor all right i'm gonna go in with this this is so good even warm this is still warm it's such a nice contrast this is sort of cool this is room temp warm these salsas are so incredibly delicious and they're so incredibly easy to make they're a great way to have a party invite your friends over have the margaritas bring out the beer and have really amazing salsas youhi i'm rick martinez author host food editor at food network and i've spent the last 20 years traveling mexico studying the culture the food and the people and today i'm going to show you how to make the basics salsa we're going to make a pico de gallo a guacamole and a charred salsa roja all right let's get started we're going to start with the pico de gallo and i've got some beautiful vine ripened tomatoes i'm going to go ahead and take the core out and basically all that means is just take a really sharp paring knife or if you don't have a paring knife you can use the tip of your chef's knife and just take that out depending on the type of tomato it's it could potentially be a little bit woody and unpleasant and so nobody needs to eat that so the first thing i'm going to do is i'm going to cut the tomato in half see how nicely that slid through it's really really sharp so for pico de gallo you really want not a fine dice but a nice even dice so what i'm going to do is i'm going to treat this very much like i would an onion and i'm just going to go with one really nice even cut all the way back like that and i'm going to leave a little bit just to hold the tomato in place otherwise if i cut all the way through it'll slide around so it's just going to be easier on me if i do this and then now i'm going to just run my knife through like that these are probably about a half inch cuts and then just hold everything together and then bend your fingers so there's no chance of you cutting your fingers and then just slice great all right i'm using a bench scraper to help me keep the board nice and clean scoop that into the bowl and we'll do this other one or if you don't have a binch scraper you can just use the side of your knife just make sure you're not going to cut yourself so the next thing we're going to do is we're going to cut our onion so i'm using a white onion because this is what's typically used in mexico i just like the assertive flavors of this but feel free to use whatever onion you have yellow red or the white so now i'm going to show you how to cut an onion all right the first thing i'm going to do is i'm going to take the stem end off and then i'm going to take the root end off the next cut i make is the half all the way to the center all right i find that it's easier to peel once it's halved very similar to the tomato i'm going to start by making the horizontal cuts and just nice and even you want this cut to be slightly smaller than the tomato so just go up a little bit this is probably more of a third of an inch as opposed to a half i'm keeping the heel of my palm on the very top of the onion one to stabilize it but also to make sure that i don't actually slice my hand as i cut and then you want to turn the onion so that the cut side is facing you again bend your fingers so that the knuckle is touching the blade and then you can just cut down like that you might have to hold to make sure that the onion cuts don't slide off with the blade all right and just take everything turn it this way line everything up and then make the cuts all right so i'm actually only going to use half of this half which is a quarter of an onion for this recipe so i'm just going to take that we'll just eyeball it and then the remaining onion i'm going to use for the other salsas all right so for the serranos i like things on the spicier side so i have two serranos here i'm gonna leave the seeds in because i like spice but i'm gonna show you how to take the seeds out so that you can make a more mild pico de gallo whenever i'm handling chili's i always wear gloves it's just a good practice if you get any of the capsaicin which is the chemical compound in the chili that actually has all of the heat and you rub your eyes or rub your face it's going to sting and you're going to get burned so it's just better to use a glove okay so what i'm going to do is i'm going to take the stem off i am going to cut the chili in half and you can see the seeds and the ribs so this white part and all of the seeds is really where all the heat is so what you can do i'll show you a couple of ways to take them out you can either just run a small paring knife down and just take out all of the ribs and seeds and you can just pull them out with your fingers make sure you have gloves if you're gonna do this if you don't have gloves just take a spoon and kind of dig it in here run it along the edges to break up the little ribs and then just scoop it out you can see how clean that comes out and then just discard the seeds but because i like spicy i'm going to keep the seeds in so we're going to pretend that the seeds are still in here what i'm going to do is i'm going to flatten out the chili just cut it into strips it doesn't have to be super fine but you definitely want it smaller than the tomatoes and the onion and then i like seeing bits of the green a lot of people tend to go back over uh the chilies with their knife to get a really super fine cut i don't know i like seeing the bits of green in there i think it's really pretty all right now we're going to grate the garlic so i'm a big fan of the microplane because it really breaks up the garlic you get more of the flavor released and one thing that i'm not a big fan of is biting into a big hunk of garlic this is just the way i like it but if you don't have a microplane you can definitely just finely chop your garlic i love the garlic in here because i feel like it adds a little bit of heat a different kind of heat than the chili does and the garlic flavor is just really pleasant so i'm going to use about a third of a cup of cilantro and feel free to use the stems it's really tender it also has a lot of flavor this i'm just going to give a nice little rough chop just make sure that if you are using any stems that they're sufficiently mixed up what i normally do is i just hold down the tip and then use my right hand to actually create the motion and then you can scrape and move wipe the blade off and then just add that in so i'm adding three tablespoons of lime juice i'm going to add one and a quarter teaspoons of kosher salt and i'm just going to give this a little stir all right i'm going to let this sit for about 10 minutes to let the flavors come together and i'm going to start the guacamole when you're shopping for avocados what you want to do is just give it a gentle squeeze it should give a little bit if it's rock hard it's not ripe and you're never going to be able to smash it and the flavor's not going to be that good either all right now put your avocado down run your knife on the side and then just turn the avocado so now you just take the the heel into the knife stick it into the pit give it a little twist and then if you're worried about you know possibly cutting yourself pulling off the pit just take a kitchen towel and pull it off so what i'm going to do now is i'm going to grab a molcajete this is essentially a mexican mortar and pestle this one is made in mexico it's made out of lava rock people use it to grind their spices they use it to make their salsas they use it to make their guacamole just get a big spoon you want a spoon like slightly larger than a tablespoon and just stick it in the side run the spoon around the avocado and then you can just scoop it out just like that all right you just take the the little mallet it's called a mate and just kind of smashing it down if you have a regular mortar and pestle definitely use that as well wood or granite would be totally fine all right just like that you don't need to go crazy because the more you stir it actually it's going to break up as well and then just scrape it up i'm going to transfer it to another bowl and for the 99 of the people watching this that don't have a molcajete i'm going to show you what else you can use all right all right so you probably have a potato masher and you don't need to get too aggressive with your the mashing because like i said as you stir in all the other ingredients the avocado will continue to break down the other really nice thing about having a mokahete is that it makes a great serving dish all right okay side so now i'm going to mix in all the other ingredients so this is the onion that i chopped earlier so this is a quarter of a white onion and again feel free to use whatever onion you have on hand this is one chopped jalapeno i love the season because i like it hot and it's a very large one which is totally fine all right i've got a quarter cup of cilantro again if you don't like cilantro use whatever herb you like and i'm going to add some garlic so one clove of garlic if you don't have a microplane feel free to chop and i'm putting two tablespoons of lime juice in here the lime juice isn't common in guacamoles in mexico but i think here in the u.s like just to make sure that your avocados don't turn black i think it's a good idea to go ahead and put some lime juice in there and i'm going to put one teaspoon of kosher salt all right that is everything i'm just going to give this a little mix oh the color is so beautiful so you can see you know i didn't go crazy with the smashing of the avocado and so there's still little hunks of avocado in there this is the way i like it if you like yours a little bit more smooth by all means just smash it up and i'm going to transfer this to the molcajete because i think it's just a prettier presentation one other thing that i always do i always make double the amount of guacamole that i think i'm going to need because you would be amazed how quickly this gets eaten all right i'm going to let this sit for 10 minutes to let all the flavors come together and i'm going to work on the charred salsa roja the last thing i'm going to make for you today is charred salsa roja it's something that you should be doing at home because it's super super simple so let's get started the first thing i have is a pan that's preheating you can also do this on a grill but uh you really need a ripping hot pan or a very very hot grill if you didn't want to do either of those you could also use your broiler or a really hot oven so the first thing i'm going to do is i'm going to core these tomatoes i've got two pounds of roma tomatoes here i've used beef steak i've used heirlooms i actually prefer the aromas they're a little bit more meaty they're a little bit less juicy but if you have the beef steaks or heirlooms those will work great as well your skillet should look like this you can see the smoke kind of coming up that's exactly what you want i'm going to add the tomatoes because these are going to take the longest amount of time to cook and i will prep the other veg i'm using serranos here you can use whatever pepper you want i'm using two serranos so you just want to take the the stems off of the serranos or whatever peppers you're going to use i have the half of an onion that i saved from last time i'm just going to cut it into in half so that i have now two quarters the only reason why i'm really doing this is because i want to get charring on as many surfaces as possible this is going to add flavor but it's also going to add a little bit of bitterness so i'm going to lay these cut side down this is going to happen it's gonna pop it's gonna sizzle these are four garlic cloves i want them to steam inside their jackets so you're gonna get charring on the skin but what's gonna end up happening is the garlic's actually gonna roast and steam on the inside you'll get a little bit of a charring on the garlic itself but for the most part it'll sweeten and the flavors will kind of mellow out but just know it's going to pop it's going to sizzle as the vegetables cook they're going to get tender and they're going to leech some of the juices out they're also going to have very different cook times so the garlic are probably only going to take about three minutes the onion in serrano probably about four to five and then the tomatoes like even up to eight or nine minutes and this is what we're looking for just a really really nice char and this is what your onion is going to look like and if it falls apart it's totally fine don't worry about it again you really just want to get charring on the exposed cut sides and i think these actually these peppers are already done one thing that you should know too is that the hottest part of your skillet if you're using a gas stove is going to be the outer edge because the flame is actually concentrated around this area the cooler area is going to be the center uh so that's why i have my garlic in the center so that it doesn't completely burn but the garlic is done now too all right looks really good and i'm going to pull my onion you want charring you want to see the juices start to bubble up and there's really you know there's no absolute here this is about personal preference i don't think you want to take this so that it's like all of the veg is completely black so you want to see bits of red you want to see bits of green you want to see bits of white if you blacken all of the veg it's going to be very one note so definitely don't do that i'm going to turn the fire off and this is a really easy way to make any kind of salsa and so you just want to put your tomatoes directly into the blender if your blender jar is a little small you can do this in half batches totally fine and then you can just like add all of your other ingredients in there now the one thing you do want to do is make sure that the garlic is cool enough for you to handle and then just peel the skin off you can see it's like really really soft it's caramelized it's sweet it's like a roasted garlic with a little bit of a little bit of an edge all right all the charred veg is in now i'm gonna add cilantro leaves and tender stems about a quarter of a cup lime juice two tablespoons and a tablespoon of salt that may seem like a lot but it's two pounds of tomatoes plus everything else all right so make sure the lids on and if you have a blender with a plunger this is a good time to use it and if this is happening to you and you don't have a plunger then just turn it off open it up and then use a spatula to just push the unchopped veg down closer to the blade and then let it go again there it goes there we go so you want some chunks in there like i prefer salsa with a little bit of texture if you're into more smooth then definitely you can let it keep going again i wouldn't put the blender on higher speed i would just let it blend for longer i'm gonna give this a little taste it's still steamy hot it's really really good and you can actually serve this warm if i was serving this with an entree i would leave it warm i think it would actually be really nice over some chicken or some fish if you were doing this with tacos or as with chips and a little dip bar it'd probably be better at least at room temperature but it's also really good chilled the flavors will develop in the refrigerator if you let it sit overnight and it'll be even better the next day all right i am so excited these are the three salsas i've made for you today i can't wait to actually taste all of them so i've got the pico de gallo then we made the guacamole and then finally the chaat salsa roja you can serve these certainly on tacos you can serve them on an entree i've got chips and also some tostadas we had some corn tortillas and we just fried them in a little bit of oil they're really delicious oh they're really crispy these are really good with the guac i mean you know mix and match you just do you so good the wait time really helps a lot because especially in the guacamole you want to dissolve the salt i mean 10 minutes is not that long definitely it adds so much flavor all right i'm gonna go in with this this is so good even warm this is still warm it's such a nice contrast this is sort of cool this is room temp warm these salsas are so incredibly delicious and they're so incredibly easy to make they're a great way to have a party invite your friends over have the margaritas bring out the beer and have really amazing salsas you\n"