Wheeler’s Salsa

If there’s one thing always in my refrigerator, it’s a big container of homemade salsa. As a snack, I use tortilla chips. For dinner, it complements a bowl of beans. It can go over ever ything, from chicken to pork to beef — and it can even be used as a marinade.

Making salsa is a little like an art, a little like a science and a little bit magic.

On the science side, I find that salsa is a matter of ratios. It’s a ratio involving tomatoes, red onions, cilantro, citrus juice and heaping spoonfuls of garlic.

For a single batch of salsa, which I make in the blender, my normal ratio starts with one (medium to large) red onion and one medium to large bunch of cilantro. Two small bunches of cilantro, or two small red onions also suffice.

Then come the tomatoes, which is the one thing I always fudge. I find that two to three pounds of tomatoes, the riper the better, are usually enough for a single batch of salsa.

One red onion, one bunch of cilantro and a few pounds of tomatoes should make around 72 ounces of salsa, or 4.5 pints.

Then comes the art. How much salt to add, how much cumin, how many jalapeños, how much garlic. That is much closer to art, or at least taste.

When it comes to peppers, I use jalapeños. How many to add, and if to leave the seeds in or not, is all a matter taste and spice tolerance. I like the taste jalapeños impart, as well as their spice level.

Finally, comes the little bit of magic, the secret ingredient: Tapatío, the hot sauce made in Vernon and exported across the world. There are also its less-spicy competitors, Valentina and Cholula. All three have very similar flavor profiles and ties to the Jalisco region of Mexico.

Whichever hot sauce you add to the salsa, it makes a remarkable but hard-to-place difference that makes the salsa just right.

There’s one more secret ingredient, cumin. Adding a few teaspoons (or more) of cumin adds a little smokiness to the salsa.

Finally, at the end of the process, comes the salt. I suggest adding salt at the very end, and not too much. Often, the freshest salsa won’t taste just right and there is often a tendency to over-salt it because it seems like something is missing.

But really, the salsa just needs to be refrigerated for a few hours.

This salsa ratio, and recipe, can be re-purposed for pico de gallo. The only difference is the blender.

Ingredients: Directions:

• Chop tomatoes into quarters, the onion into eighths and chop the jalapeños and cilantro.

• Add lemon and lime juice to the blender, followed by the chopped garlic, some of the chopped vegetables, depending on how much will fit.

• Continue to add and blend the vegetables. • Add the cumin powder and hot sauce and some salt. Blend.

• Add more hot sauce, cumin powder and salt to taste and blend.