Make Your Own Salsa

A fruit salsa. (SHNS photo by Owen Brewer / The Sacramento Bee)

In Spanish, "salsa" means "sauce." North of Mexico, salsa takes on a whole new meaning.

"For us, salsa is a chunky, cool and zesty condiment scooped up with chips or served with fish or meat," says chef-author Rick Bayless. "In Mexico, salsas are hotter, smoother and thinner than those we serve here."

Bayless is the author of several Mexican cookbooks including Rick Bayless' Mexican Kitchen: Capturing the Vibrant Flavors of a World-Class Cuisine. He and his wife, Deann Groen Bayless, own Frontera Grill and Topolobampo restaurants in Chicago.

In a phone interview, Bayless explains how Americans fell in love with salsa.

"In the '90s, we were all focused on chutneys," Bayless says. "From that, chefs began making relish-style mixtures with vegetables and beans. Now the sky is the limit as far as blending the flavors of vegetables and fruits for salsa recipes."

For many chefs, salsa is an art form--a fusion of spices, peppers, sweet and tangy flavors with smooth and chunky textures that surprise the palate and wake up the taste buds.

There are many kinds of salsas, some made with fruit, others with tomatoes or tomatillos. Each has its own characteristics and, while nearly all can be enjoyed with tortilla chips, some of the more creative chefs make salsas to enhance grilled meats and fish.

Combinations are endless. Pineapple, mango, jalapeno and lime juice blend beautifully, as do grilled corn, tomatillos, bell pepper, jalapeno and cilantro. Most require no cooking. Often they benefit from advance preparation so flavors can marry as the salsa chills before serving.

At Silva's Sheldon Inn in Elk Grove, Calif., chef-owner Doug Silva grows many of the vegetables served at the restaurant. This time of year, he transforms much of garden's bounty into flavorful and zesty salsas to serve with fresh fish and grilled meats:

"With these vine-ripened tomatoes, we make a salsa fresca from all fresh ingredients. We use a variety of tomatoes, red onion, cilantro and lime juice--all simple ingredients to keep it fresh and lively. Or we might take that same fresh tomato base and add red wine vinegar, capers and olive oil for a Mediterranean influence."

To accompany white fish such as swordfish or halibut, Silva often creates a mango salsa.

"It is a tropical flavor that again is very simple," Silva says. "I like the combination of mangos, diced chilies, different colors of bell peppers, chopped red onion, rice-wine vinegar, sesame oil and cilantro. The flavor is fresh and mild, a wonderful combination when served with a white fish."

Good salsa, says Silva, is all about blending of fresh flavors--a combination of sweet, peppery, salty and mild--all things that go beautifully together.

All it takes to create your own salsa are an abundance of fresh vegetables or fruit, plenty of fresh herbs and spices, a sharp knife and a keen imagination. When making salsa for dipping chips, keep one thing in mind: Using chilies is essential, says Bayless. That doesn't mean, however, that the salsa must be hot.

"You can control the heat by selecting the right chili peppers," he says.

The mildest peppers are bell peppers. The hottest are the red savina variety of habanero.

In any salsa recipe, you can substitute a different variety of chili to achieve the heat level you like. In Mexico, Serrano chilies are the most popular. Serranos are slightly hotter than the jalapeno, which is the most common pepper used in salsa here. If you want a mild chili, select Anaheim or New Mexico chilies.

The environment--soil, fertilizer, frequency of watering, summer heat, wind and humidity--greatly affects the heat in a chili pepper, so hotness levels can vary even within the same varieties.

You can reduce the heat in peppers by splitting them lengthwise, then using a spoon to scrape out the seeds and membrane around the seeds.

It's a good idea to wear rubber or latex gloves when cutting into hot peppers. The oil in the peppers can burn your hands. If you are sensitive to hot peppers, add them to the salsa a little at a time until you achieve the desired hotness. You can always add more.

Some salsa recipes call for peeling the chili peppers. The easy way to do that is to grill or broil them until the skins are charred black and blistered. Then slip them into a heavy plastic or paper bag and seal the bag to keep in the steam. After about 10 minutes, remove the peppers from the bag and the skins will slip right off.

Once the salsa has been prepared, let it stand for at least 30 minutes so that the flavors can blend. Taste it. If it needs more chilies or salt, now is the time to make the adjustment.

Fresh salsas are best eaten the day they are made; otherwise they tend to get watery and lose their crunch. They still taste great the next day, however, and some might say they taste even better late at night when eaten in the glow of the refrigerator light.