Roy McMaster's Salsa

Roy's Salsa (john's notes in red)

Ingredients:

• 1 big arse can of peeled tomatoes, not cooked or anything.  I think the size is 102 oz. or something, it's the big restaurant can, I get it at Winn Dixie for about $2.75. Sometimes a large can is hard to find, so I get 5 "big" cans of tomatoes, 3 of them I get diced, 2 cans are crushed. When I make a smaller recipe, I use one can of diced and one can of crushed, and then use about 1/3 the amount of the rest of the ingredients in the recipe.
• 1 handful of cilantro
• 1 onion (medium)
• 2 cloves garlic
• salt
• pepper
• a dash of vinegar (I'm not sure this is necessary, but a friend of my mother, years ago said you do this for preservative, I don't think it affects the taste) This is an important step... I recently forgot to add the vinegar and the salsa went "bad" prematurely.
• peppers: Here is where it gets really random and where you need to do the most experimenting to your taste.  The Winn Dixie and Harris Teeter suck, so I don't really know what I'm buying, and it's never the same thing twice.  Always have a base of a big handful of jalapenos (if they are small, I would get about a dozen, large ones six inches long maybe five), these are very easy to identify.  They give flavor, but I have figured out no hotness.  In the batch you ate I believe I used the dried red oriental peppers, the kind you get in Kung Pao chicken and what not, just a half a handful, the check out person always weighs them as 'peppers' and so they usually cost about $.04.  I have tried several different kinds, depending on what they have, you just have to figure it out, but I did make it with only jalapenos and it was zero hot.  This last batch, I used what i thought was habeneros and it was VERY hot and VERY good.  Maybe go to a store or a farmers market where they know what they are talking about.  Anyway, just figure it out.

Directions:

Now, you just basically need to blend it together.  I use a food processor, but have also used a blender.

Start with the peppers.  slice the tops off and put in a shallow bowl of water and microwave for two minutes or so, this is supposed to make them hotter.  (I did not do this with the dried red ones)

To blend I start with the peppers.  You need to put a few tomatoes and a little juice to give it enough liquid to blend well.  Liquify the of the peppers. and dump into big pot.

Now I do the cilantro, garlic, and the onion which I quarter.  Again put in a few tomatoes and liquefy the hell out of it.

Now the rest of the tomatoes in as many batches as your blender/processor needs.  This you can do to your personal taste.  I usually only leave blending for a second or two, and depending on how many you do at a time takes a good consistency, don't blend too much or you will get tobasco.

With it all in a pot, a few tablespoons of pepper (i'm estimating, I've never measured, but once i accidentally dumped a bunch in and it tasted great), a lot of salt (more than you would think) cover the top. Experiment.

Mix together, and that's it!  Serve cold.

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