Forget the bottled salsa and make it fresh instead
“Salsa is what brings our dishes to life,” Eddie Hernandez writes in his first cookbook, Turnip Greens & Tortillas (Rux Martin Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt).
Hernandez, executive chef of Taqueria del Sol — a string of Mexican restaurants in the U.S. South — was born in Monterrey, Mexico. “No Mexican I know touches bottled salsas — especially since it is so easy to make and the fresh taste can’t be beat,” he writes.
Raw or cooked, chunky or smooth — salsas are versatile and varied condiments. He writes that although some consider salsa fresca (“fresh sauce”) and pico de gallo (“rooster’s beak”) to be interchangeable terms, he regards them as having different flavours and uses.
Chunky, hand-chopped pico de gallo is better suited to garnishing a taco or piece of fish, Hernandez writes. The smoother salsa fresca (recipe follows), piquant with jalapenos and onion, is perfect for dipping chips into.