Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Joel's Famous Pico de Gallo

If there is one thing that Joel loves in this world, it is chips and salsa; in addition to his wife of course! If I'm not home to make his dinner, he will often resort to a bag of tortilla chips and a bowl of salsa. "What's wrong with that, it is vegetables!", he always says. Well, you can't argue with that. Although I think he would be shocked to know how many bags of chips he eats in a year.

Joel has been making his own salsa since he was kid, and recently has been matching batch after batch of his pico de gallo.  He recently made a batch for the James Family Picnic and it was a big hit!

Joel's Pico De Gallo

8-9 tomatoes
7-8 tomatillos
2-3 serrano peppers
1 onion
1-2 limes
1 bunch of cilantro
2-3 cloves garlic
freshly ground black pepper
  1. Dice the tomatoes, tomaatillos, garlic and onions into small peices and place in a large mixing bowl.
  2. Remove the stems from the cilatnro and finely chop the leaves before adding to the tomato mixture.
  3. Remove the seeds from Serrano peppers. These are hot peppers, so be careful not to touch your eyes, mouth, or face while handling them. Finely chop the Serrano peppers and add to the tomato mixture. To make a spicy batch add as many Serrano seeds as desired to the tomato mixture. 
  4. Add freshly squeezed lime juice to taste.
  5. Add freshly ground black pepper to taste.
  6. Mix all ingredients together and serve!
The ingredients are so brightly colored, and I know how fresh they will taste! Yum!
Removing the cilantro stems always takes the longest, so Joel does this job first.
All washed and ready to chop with "the chopper".
My nephew Kaleb was facinated with "the chopper" and couldn't be bothered to eat his lunch.
Joel, using "the chopper" to dice a tomatillo.
Julie helped by dicing up the cilantro while trying to Kaleb to eat his lunch.
Joel loves his pico de gallo spicy, so he uses lots of serano peppers.
It is ready to eat!
Joel & Jessie's Tips and Tricks
Make sure you drain as much liquid from the tomatoes as possible. Otherwise you end up with a soupy salsa, which isn't the point of pico de gallo.

We typically use kitchen scissors to cup the cilantro. This trick makes quick work of chopping that much cilantro.

We have what we call "the chopper" and if you plan to make this as much as we do, you will want to get one too! You can get it at Bed Bath & Beyond. Even if you don't plan to make lots of salsa, this little gadget for great for any big chopping job. It is used at least weekly at my house and saves so much time!

I like to use the pico de gallo as a topping for some of my healthier dinners. I add pico de gallo to quinoa for a southwestern style quinoa, or with chicken slices for a fast fajita-like dinner. It is great to have in the fridge when you can't decide what to eat for dinner.

1 comment:

  1. Stewart will literally eat chips and salsa until he throws up if I don't take it away from him. He and Joel should get together sometime...

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