scene_again | Comfort food: A Culinary Sequence. (Reply)

Having been in a bit of a funk lately, I thought I should make myself some comfort food. We all have it, our favorite dish or snack, food which makes us feel better. Well, being a true daughter of Texas, my most comforting comfort food is hot salsa.

Follow the cut to see how I spent some time the other day. Picture heavy if you have dial up!

I'm not an excellent cook or anything close to, but this is one of my best recipes which I took years (for something so simple as salsa you would think it wouldn't take long) developing. It is a great favorite with my hubby, the kids, and, since I stop putting twice as many jalepenos as tomatoes, my hubby's family.

To begin with, I put the ingredients in a pot with water. The big three ingredients are; tomatoes, white onion and jalepenos.

Then I turn the heat on!

When they reach a boil, I turn off the heat, cover the pot and let it sit for about an hour or so.

I love this pot, it was my Great Aunt Doris' (she was my Grandma's sister). Not that she actually used this pot, her partner (and yes, I do mean partner in the two women who lived together for 50 years sense of the word.) Emoline did all the cooking.

The ingredients after they've had their break.

Running cool water over the ingredients assures that, even if they haven't cooled completely, I don't burn the heck out of my little fingers.

Dealing with the tomatoes, I always do this first because they are the most troublesome. I take out the core, gently place them in the food processor and blend them.

The tomato is ready.

Next the onion, the texture of the onion soaks up whatever tomato is left in the blender, so I get all of the yummy tomato flavor!

See how pink the onion is now, that's all the tomato bits it soaked up for me!

Now the best part, I put the jalepenos through a few pulses, then add another of my favorite ingredients, cilantro.

Well blended.

After this step, I add everything in the bowl, add a bit of lemon juice and some salt.

Mixing it up.

Finished! I think salsa is not only yummy, but a lovely thing to behold with all it's yummy colors blending together.

What would salsa be without chips? Okay, I cheat on the chips, I haven't yet worked out making the corn tortillas from scratch yet, but I'm working on it. One of our local grocery stores has a tortilleria right there in the store, so when I can, I buy them for my chips. And yes, I really do cut them up with a pizza cutter, you don't have to tell me I'm odd, I already know that.