a salsa question

for the sake of honesty i should say i recently found some "smooth" salsa at the grocery store but it is thick and tastes basically like pasta sauce with mexican spices in it and is gross ... nothing like mexican restaurant salsa

u have to look around but they definitely have soupy salsas that are really good. maybe not at the average grocery store.

trader joe's has several pureed salsas that aren't bad.

http://www.ironq.com/cgi-bin/image/templates/SALSDELRIO-LG.JPG

okay so you would prefer salsas that look like this, y/n?

http://valenciatrader.com/assets/images/tom1.jpg

real answer: buy a chunky salsa and then throw it in the blender? or is that stupid.

xpost Yeah, look for actual mexican imports; they usually come in cans, not jars.

thjat one in particular is nice and soupy (that green dessert pepper)

i do like green tomatillo salsas because they avoid this problem but sometimes a man needs a hearty red salsa

all the salsas i've seen at trader joes look chunky ... another problem is trying to determine the texture of the salsas by peering into the jar and sloshing the salsa around

hmm... what about mrs. renfro's?

i have a jar of tj's pureed red salsa in the fridge at the moment. it does exist.

* one possible answer: restaurant salsas don't -- or shouldn't - use thickening agents
* also, look for salsa made with tomatillo rather than tomato. tomatillo is pureed in the blender and will not have chunks. some of them are red because they use red chiles, so you can have your red salsa without the tomatoey chunks.

sorry that was superfluous

move to los angeles

or do you live in a big city? find a mexican grocery store, or a grocery store frequented by mexican immigrants

sometimes a man needs a hearty red salsa.

the kind you want is usually just called salsa roja, btw

really? what is roja?

spanish for red

see also: colorado

Herdez is a pretty widely available Mexican salsa (imported by Hormel) that has more of a pureed consistency.

http://www.hormelfoods.com/brands/worldFood/herdez.aspx
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080330121104AAtTZQd

lol yeah "salsa roja" just means "red sauce"

My salsa question is:

Why don't I have a huge pile of fried tortilla wedges and a massive bowl of salsa on my desk right now?

Also, a negro modelo.

xp but you can use it to distinguish it from pico de gallo which is the kind made of cut tomatoes, onions, peppers, etc. (not the chunky tostitos kind which is a weird combo of salsa roja and pico de gallo), and salsa verde

xp I dare you to order a "pile of fried tortilla wedges" next time you're in a mexican restaurant.

are you gonna use the salsa for dipping? or for topping?

That will probably be within an hour, if Taco Cabana counts.

xp

I am not anti-chunky tomato bits by any means, but more in Nick's category, Arriba hasn't let me down.

http://www.ribafoods.com/images/products/item_red_salsa_old.jpg

You could also try red enchilada sauce instead of salsa - it's pureed, tomato/onion/chili/cumin/cilantro based.

Oilyrags otm.

http://www.melinamexsalsa.com/images/20070813/FrascoNegro.jpg

Anyone had this stuff? Is she up to n/a's specifications? I'm having a bit with some hint of lime tortilla chips and really liking it. Though I managed to suck a pretty sizable amount down the wrong tube and right now my chest and throat are burning like all hell.

ahh bigness

looks good. i'm trying some herdez salsa per a recommendation upthread. it's not chunky, which is nice, but it has an odd, vaguely gummy texture. it's ok but i probably won't buy it again

Yeah I've had Herdez before. I remember one variety being sorta meh and another being awesome, can't remember which.

My wife recently bought some very hot salsa from costco(?) that was the consistency of generic Mexican restaurant salsa (no detectable stewed tomato chunx, at least). When I get back, I'll post the name up here.

"Salsa de Molcajete Roja" is the aforementioned salsa, and it's made by "Del Real". It's also pretty spicy hot.

Ms. Renfro's is kind of the worst ever. I discovered it works decent when baked atop a meatloaf, tho.

Every flavor just tastes like SAD and WRONG.

My wife is a big fan of Mrs. Renfro. It doesn't have a whole lot of character, in my opinion.

Ms. Renfro's is kind of the worst ever. I discovered it works decent when baked atop a meatloaf, tho.

yo i thought i was the only one who does this. the green jalapeno kind is best here.

nick they have what you are looking for at the grocery store at armitage and kimball

also just use a fucking blender, or harden the fuck up, christ

Solid salsa prob less useful.

my gut says maybe try the salsas in the "ethnic" aisle instead of the ones in the "chips 'n' snacks" aisle, but grocery stores might be all different in Chicago. I don't really buy chips and dips for the home so as to watch my figure.

the grocery store i mentioned = every aisle is the ethnic aisle

yeah, that's armitage produce

it does indeed have nonchunky salsa

but in logan square, such grocery stores are on every corner.

well yeah

i don't know where they hide the ethnic stores in MPLS

you guys i'm american though

just make your own, it is one of the least demanding tasks you could ever undertake

the canned (!) herdez salsa ranchera is amazing. three kinds of chiles, really smokey flavor. in burritos it is absolutely brilliant. for chips, probably not so much as it has a very thin, liquid texture.

i still can't believe it's edible, btw. canned.

Funny, when I hear "canned" I think of things my grandma put in jars. But yeah, I was surprised when someone in this thread said to look for the more authentic imported stuff in cans, I'm always wary of anything in cans.

I'm so finishing off that salsa now...

i made my own salsa last night, using the recipe from how to cook everything vegetarian. it's basically a pico de gallo that i then pureed. i think i overpureed it as it's pretty liquidy, but my blender was acting up so i will blame it on that. also it's not the most beautiful salsa; the color is kind of beige thanks to the combo of fresh tomatoes and lime juice and cilantro. HOWEVER it tastes great, very light and fresh. had some last night on soy tacos, for which it was a little too delicate maybe but i think i'll have some more with cheese quesadillas for lunch today.

The beige thing is going to happen when you puree it all together. Try pureeing just the tomatoes next time since that's the part you don't like, and add the cilantro after?

yeah i think next time i'll just give the tomatoes a quick pulse in the blender. pieces of tomato don't usually bother me in pico de gallo for some reason, as long as they aren't huge. i guess it's probably because the tomatoes aren't cooked, which is what really grosses me out

i kind of feel like the homemade hummus revival of the past four or five years has really eclipse the fact that salsa is the best shit ever.

green chiles forever

fuck tomatoes in anything but pico, roasted tomatillos are what salsa is all about

or if you must, roast the damn tomatoes

roast garlic and chiles just to be safe

1/3 yellow onion + 3 roma tomatoes + 2 lightly pickled king-size habaneros from last year's harvest + a handful of piquins from the same jar + 2 cloves of garlic => food processor => extremely classic mid-day snack w/Calidad brand chips

I'm not sure what I was thinking, but I bought some of this last night:

http://www.burn-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/ghost-pepper-salsa.jpg

It is pretty intensehttp://babysimpson.co.uk/assets/images/episodes/episodes/3f24.jpg

Also, lol at ppl bad-mouthing Mrs. Renfro's upthread. I think I've had the green variety before and it was okay?

^this is fucking me up right at this minute. I held of trying it for a long time even tho I was skeptical. I was wrong to be skeptical. so wrong

http://i.imgur.com/4Z2I4.jpg

this is how much i ate in an hour

My spouse, who can enjoy spicier food than anyone I know save for one colleague who must have some sort of genetic taste bud defect, was defeated by the Mrs. Renfro ghost pepper variety. He made it through about half a jar in two days, and it was never touched again. I have a very high chili tolerance and could barely manage two chips lightly dipped.

It wasn't a "hurts so good" thing, which I enjoy, it was "oh jesus christ this hurts make it stop make it stop"

found out what regular crappy store-bought roma tomatoes are good for this morning! stuck a few on a cast iron and let skin blacken a bit all around, added some onion and garlic to saute when they were done and 1/2 a ghost pepper. then just chopped everything up, added lime juice and cilantro. think it's one of the best salsas i've ever made. and so stupidly simple.

next salsa experiment gonna be this unusual one
https://patijinich.com/salsa-macha-with-pistachios-walnuts-and-pine-nuts/

My salsa question is:

Why don't I have a huge pile of fried tortilla wedges and a massive bowl of salsa on my desk right now?

Also, a negro modelo.

obsessed with the smooth/soupy version of avocado salsa/guacachile

my wife's son married into an LA Mexican family and omfg is this shit good, the aunt finally gave me the recipe this weekend

avocado, tomatillo, onion, garlic, tons of seeded fresh jalapenos, anaheims, pasillas, cilantro, salt, blend