Roasted Tomato Salsa (Salsa Ranchera)

Here is another salsa to add to the collection. This one is simply delicious on warm entrees like enchiladas and beans. It is also a good choice when the fresh tomatoes are not at their best, because roasting the tomatoes brings out all of their sweetness.

Roasted Tomato Salsa

Time to make: ~15 minutes

What you need:

• 4 plum tomatoes
• 1 serrano or jalapeno chile
• 2 garlic cloves, unpeeled
• ½ sm. onion, diced
• 1-2 tsp. apple cider vinegar
• ¼ cup cilantro or to taste
• salt and pepper
• food processor

1. Preheat the broiler
2. On an aluminum foil-lined baking sheet, broil the whole tomatoes, chile and garlic cloves until blackened on all sides, turning occasionally
3. Remove and let cool
4. Peel off the skins from the tomatoes, chile and garlic (it’s ok to leave some skin because it adds a nice smoky flavor)
5. If you don’t want your salsa too hot, cut the chile in half and remove some of the seeds and ribs
6. Process together the tomatoes, chile and garlic in a food processor until still relatively chunky
7. Mix in the remaining ingredients, tasting and adjusting to your tastes
8. Serve at room temperature

Simple Is Satisfying — Chicken Roasted with Salsa

The more I cook, the more I come to believe that the simplest dishes are the most satisfying both to make and to eat. Of course, I have tried those recipes that seem to have a million steps, or that ask you to stuff something or roll something or layer something, or that require a trip to three different food stores, or that force me to make a sauce that needs 30 minutes of constant stirring. Making these recipes tire me out, with so many details to keep straight, and usually when I sit down to eat them, the payoff doesn’t equal the effort I put in. Those recipes never make it into my regular repertoire.

But the simple recipes always draw the most raves, despite — or maybe because of — the small number of ingredients required or the minimal steps involved to get to the final dish. Of course, these often include the classics like Marinara Sauce, but they also include many contemporary dishes that rely on fresh, seasonal ingredients. In fact, eating simply often equates to eating healthfully, and that’s satisfying too.

I didn’t do a lot of cooking this week, but the simple dish Chicken Roasted with Salsa – my own creation — was my favorite and most satisfying meal of the week (recipe follows at the bottom of this post). The recipe takes advantage of out-of-season tomatoes by first draining them, then roasting them with the chicken to bring out the most tomato-y flavor. The salsa marinates the chicken and keeps it moist while it is roasting, infusing it with juicy lime flavor. Aside from the little bit of oil used in the roasting pan, there is almost no fat in this recipe. I served this with Oven Fries.

Chicken Roasted with Salsa

Serves: 2
Time to make: ~1 hour

What you need:

• 2 tomatoes, diced
• ¼ red onion, diced
• 1 tbsp. lime juice
• a few dashes hot sauce
• salt, pepper and cilantro to taste
• 2 boneless chicken breasts
• olive oil

1. Place the tomatoes in a strainer and let strain for 30 minutes; layer the onion on top
2. Mix the tomatoes and onion with the lime juice, hot sauce, cilantro, salt and pepper
3. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees
4. Drizzle the chicken with a small amount of olive oil and season with salt and pepper
5. Place the chicken in a baking pan and spoon the salsa over the top
6. Roast the chicken until the interior temperature reaches 160 degrees, 15-20 minutes

Black Bean Salsa

Oscar night usually lends itself well to fun menus — movie-themed snack foods that can be eaten in front of the TV while ultra-thin stars parade down the red carpet. But this year I just wasn’t inspired. What kind of menu can you build around something called The Departed? I hadn’t even seen any of the five films nominated for the top award except Little Miss Sunshine, and we only watched that on Oscar afternoon. So no menu ideas presented themselves.

In fact, looking through the entire list of nominees, we had only watched three Oscar-nominated films in all of 2006: Superman Returns, Borat and Children of Men. My husband suggested a related menu of Tough Chicken, Over-cooked Cabbage and Hard-Boiled Eggs, and Suicide Pill, but that just didn’t sound appetizing. Well, let’s face it — I haven’t come up with a truly great Oscar menu since the year of Smoked Salmon Seabiscuits (that was 2004, for those of you keeping score at home).

So either we have to start seeing more movies or they have to come up with more food-themed titles. For this year, though, I took the easy way out and prepared some Mexican snacks in honor of the three directors nominated for Babel, Pan’s Labyrinth and the aforementioned Children of Men (for writing). For your next awards extravaganza, I offer the most successful of the night’s recipes, Black Bean Salsa.

Black Bean Salsa

Serves: ~4
Time to make: ~15 minutes, including roasting the chile

In a bowl, combine:

• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 jalapeno, roasted, peeled, de-seeded and minced
• ¼ red onion, minced
• 1 sm. tomato, diced
• 2 tbsp. lime juice
• ½ tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tbsp. beer
• 1 tbsp. adobo seasoning
• ½ tbsp. chili powder
• salt to taste

Notes: This is a pretty mild salsa. If you like it hotter, add more chiles or a few drops of hot sauce. If you don’t have adobo seasoning, subsitute cumin, oregano, pepper and cayenne. Serve with tortilla chips.

Roasted Vegetable Salsa

When it’s wintertime and you’re missing fresh salsa, this can be a more-than-acceptable substitute. The seasonings I give here provide a Mediterranean flavor, and I like to serve this salsa as part of a mezze with pita chips. If you want a more Latin-style salsa, use hotter chilies and substitute seasonings like lime juice, vegetable oil, cilantro and cayenne or Southwest seasoning.

Roasted Vegetable Salsa

Serves: 8 or more as an appetizer
Time to make: ~30 minutes

What you need:

• ½ onion
• 1 bell pepper (cut in half)
• 2 mild chilies (such as Anaheim or poblano)
• 3 tomatoes, cut in halves
• 2 tsp. garlic paste
• 1 tsp. cumin
• 3 tbsp. olive oil
• 2 tbsp. lemon juice
• coarse salt to taste
• fresh basil (optional)
• food processor

1. Preheat the broiler
2. Broil the onion and peppers for 8 minutes
3. Add the tomato halves and continue to broil another 5-8 minutes, until the skins are blackened
4. Remove and let cool
5. Peel off as much of the skins and remove as many of the seeds as possible
6. Chop the vegetables coarsely and combine in a food processor with the garlic paste, cumin, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and basil
7. Process until still fairly chunky

How to Make Salsa

One of the most useful recipes you can have in your repertoire is salsa. Salsa is super-easy to make, can be varied as many ways as you like, and has 101 uses. Need a dip for a party? Salsa! Need a super-fancy garnish for grilled or broiled fish? Salsa! Need something to jazz up a burrito? Salsa! What else can you do with it? That’s totally up to you.

Salsa means “sauce” in Spanish, and it is ubiquitious in Mexican and other Latin cuisines. Usually, when we think of salsa, we think of the tomato-chile kind, and it’s true that tomato salsa is the most versatile of salsas, the kind you’ll make most often. But once you know the basic formula, you can make any kind of salsa you like. You’ll feel like a four-star chef when you serve your guests broiled swordfish with mango-cucumber-mint salsa.

The only drawback to salsa is that it’s definitely for summer eating only. True salsa is raw and therefore requires the ripest ingredients, which are generally available only at the height of summer.

To make a basic salsa to serve 4, combine:

• 2 tomatoes, diced
• 1 chile, minced
• ¼ red onion, minced
• 1 tbsp. lime juice
• cilantro, salt and cayenne to taste

Puree if you want a smoother sauce, or leave it chunky a dip or relish.

Now, if you want to mix it up, just make any subsitutions you like:

• For the tomato, substitute any soft fruit: avocado, oranges, nectarines, mango, papaya, plums, peaches (yes, tomatoes and avocados are fruit!)
• For the chile, or in addition to it, add any vegetable with crunch: corn, cucumber, jicama, bell pepper, celery
• For the red onion, substitute shallots or scallions
• For the cilantro, substitute any herbs, such as basil, mint or chives
• For the lime juice, substitute lemon juice, red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar