I've mentioned before and I'll say it again - my husband is a mighty fine man of the kitchen.
Well, technically, he does his best work outside on the grill (seriously, his hamburgers . . . Lord, have mercy), but he quite adept with pots, pans, knives, and whisks as well. He can often be found in the kitchen on the weekends - it's a nice hobby for him and a wonderful respite for me.
Throughout the summer, we've gotten bag after bag full of tomatoes and other fresh veggies from our gardening friends and neighbors. A few weeks ago, Kyle determined he was going to make Pico de Gallo and spent a few hours reading through recipes and tips and tricks (who knew pico could be so complicated?) and has come up with a version that is so delightful, we have been ladling it on anything that will sit still long enough to be smothered: chips and tortillas, sure, but also scrambled eggs, cheese pizza, and even hot dogs. Loco, si?
A few notes:
- If it's at all possible, you really, really must use fresh tomatoes sourced from a friend or the farmers market. We tried this recipe a few weeks ago at my in-laws with grocery store tomatoes and it wasn't terrible, but it was completely lacking any charm.
- Same story with your peppers - we have been thoroughly enjoying the gorgeous varieties of hot peppers from our farmers market (pictured above). They tend to have a lot more snap to them than those we've gotten at the grocery store. We have determined that we will be growing our own peppers next summer.
- Finally, you'll note one traditional Pico de Gallo ingredient conspicuously missing from our list: cilantro. Like Jennifer Fulwiler of Conversion Diary (see #4 of these quick takes) and countless others, I absolutely cannot - CANNOT - stand the taste of cilantro. As a Tex-Mex enthusiast, you can imagine that this creates all kinds of problems when eating dishes prepared by others. I've pushed away so many plates of otherwise yummy Tex-Mex dishes because I just cannot eat cilantro. In fact, when Kyle started talking about making Pico de Gallo, I cringed because most every bowl of pico I've ever encountered has been saturated in cilantro. Thankfully, my husband caters to all kinds of weirdness from me, so he lovingly left cilantro out of his creation.
- The key difference between salsa and Pico de Gallo is that pico is much less juicy. When preparing the tomatoes, you want to seed and de-juice the tomatoes as much as possible.
So, here we go - our Pico de Gallo:
3-4 cups tomatoes, seed, diced, and strained
1 onion, diced (we've used white, yellow, and red. Red is probably the best, but just use whatever you have access to)
2-3 jalapenos or other hot peppers, seeded and diced (be careful of the oils on your hands! wash up thoroughly after seeding these)
1/2 T. to 1 T. minced garlic (to taste)
Lime juice (I can't pin Kyle down on a measurement here. We're generous with it.)
Sea salt (to taste) We like Celtic Sea Salt®, Light Grey, By The Grain & Salt Society, Coarse Ground and we grind it with this BIA Cordon Bleu 8-Ounce Mortar and Pestle Set
Mix all ingredients and enjoy!
Now, this is gonna make a big ol' batch of Pico de Gallo. We've been devouring it but also using up our stash of jars-to-be-repurposed by sharing it around with friends. If you don't want a big ol' batch of it, adjust measurements accordingly.
So, let's discuss - what have you been doing with tomatoes this summer? And what side of The Great Cilantro Divide do you find yourself on?
