Anybody Wanna Make Some Smoked Fire Roasted Salsa? (W Pics)

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tx smoker

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Apr 14, 2013
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This one goes out to my friend Mariko ( O Omnivore ) She asked about this in a thread I posted in the Breakfast forum and said it might be nice to share it. A little history first. I tried making salsa about 10 years ago and it was pretty much a disaster. We found a company here that makes small batch fire roasted salsa and have been using that for several years. I got an inclination a couple months ago to give it another shot. Made a batch and it was really good but I realized that I didn't put any cilantro in it....because we didn't have any. Went to the store, got some, added it to the salsa and ruined the entire batch. It was wretched so I dumped it and made another batch minus the cilantro. Then I realized that what we had been eating was fire roasted so did a batch roasting the tomatoes and onions on the grill. That took it up a notch or three!! Then I thought about smoking the tomatoes and onions so made yet another batch this way. This is otherworldly!! Best salsa either of us have ever had.

Start with 10 Roma tomatoes and a couple thick slices of onion
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Put them on the Rec Tec running low temp / extreme smoke for 15 minutes or so then run the temp up to 450
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While the tomatoes and onions are smoking, cut up the Serrano peppers
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After low temp / extreme smoke, turn everything over
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Get the rest of the goodies ready
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Tomatoes and onions off the smoker
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Put it all in the blender
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Pulse until everything is well incorporated but not blended to mush and here is what you get
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This is what was left after filling the pint jar. I took it to my little pub along with some tortilla chips and received rave reviews. I've since made 6 batches for folks there.
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By far the best salsa we've ever had. We go through a batch about every week. It's used on many, many things and I'm known just to stop in the kitchen, grab a few chips, and start dunking them into the salsa. I hate runny salsa. This has a lot of body and you can put a really good dollop of it on a chip without it running all down your arm. IMHO, the chip is nothing more than the vessel to get the salsa from the bowl to my mouth. It also has to have depth, richness, and a lot of complexity...as well as a nice dose of garlic :emoji_wink: Here is the recipe

10 Roma tomatoes halved
2/3 cup onion
5 serrano peppers coarsely chopped
3 T minced garlic
1 ½ t lime juice
1 ¼ t kosher salt
1 ½ t chili powder
1 ½ t guajillo pepper
1/2 t arbol pepper
5 green onions coarsely chopped

Grill, smoke**, or broil tomatoes and onions till lightly charred and skins on tomatoes start to blister and darken.

Add all ingredients to blender or food processor and pulse till veggies are chopped and well incorporated

**Gives the best flavor by far

Of course it's all subjective to taste. You'll also see slight variations in flavor based on the size of the tomatoes, the ripeness, or overall quality. Start light with the seasonings and add as you deem appropriate. It's gonna be a bit different each time so don't be afraid to adjust as you go.

That's it, I'm done
Robert
 
Thank you! I'm really looking forward to making this. It's nice to fire up the smoker for vegetables once in a while too! Funny what you said about this recipe being better without cilantro. I love cilantro, but my husband is one of those people who finds the flavor really off putting. He wishes he liked it because its so prevalent in so many cuisines. He'll love hearing that you guys think this salsa is superior without it since I'm usually the one trying to throw cilantro in everything.

Thanks again Robert!
 
It sounds so good Robert. Only way to top this is fire roasted on the Santa Maria?
Bookmarked for future reference .......... Another epic post man. We appreciate it.
 
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Sounds good. I would add Cilantro on my plate as I'm the only one that likes it. The best flavor comes from adding at the last minute...JJ
 
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Robert, good looking salsa and thanks for sharing the recipe.

It looks much better than the jarred stuff I buy to put over my leftover Lo Mein!!:emoji_laughing:...j/k. I like making my own when summer hits, it’s not too good right now when tomatoes are in the off-season.
 
Robert, beautiful salsa! Very detailed recipe and thank you for sharing. Usually I make fresh salsa and never tried to cook or smoke any ingredients of it. My smoker doesn't go higher then 240F so.... I'll try it this weekend...
 
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Thanks for sharing Robert! I make my own as well but haven't tried using the guajillo pepper and arbol peppers. Will give your recipe a try. Although its probably not as good as xray xray stuff he gets from the Chinese take out place :emoji_laughing:
 
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Thanks for sharing Robert! I make my own as well but haven't tried using the guajillo pepper and arbol peppers. Will give your recipe a try. Although its probably not as good as xray xray stuff he gets from the Chinese take out place :emoji_laughing:

Yeah man! What I do is, I go next door to taco bell and take about two heaping handfuls of the packets of salsa. I mix them up too, because I live on the edge like that.

Then, I go home and squeeze them all out in an old ketchup bottle. It‘s a long and laborious process. Takes about 45 minutes, then it goes on my cold Chinese take out!
 
Yeah man! What I do is, I go next door to taco bell and take about two heaping handfuls of the packets of salsa. I mix them up too, because I live on the edge like that.

Then, I go home and squeeze them all out in an old ketchup bottle. It‘s a long and laborious process. Takes about 45 minutes, then it goes on my cold Chinese take out!

LOL I about spit my coffee out when I read that. I bet it beats the hell out of Robert's fancy fire roasted stuff. Don't forget to grab some packets of Texas pete from Wendys next time and add that in too.
 
LOL I about spit my coffee out when I read that. I bet it beats the hell out of Robert's fancy fire roasted stuff. Don't forget to grab some packets of Texas pete from Wendys next time and add that in too.

Whoa. Whoa, Whoa! Your Wendys has TEXAS PETE!?

What the hell, you Southern guys get all the good franchises and fancy condiments too!! I can’t even get a Bojangles up here!
 
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