Roasted Garden Salsa

Last time I was here (here being Silverton, OR, where Gavin grew up and where his folks still reside), Gavin’s dad was working very steadily on a new vegetable garden. Now, just a couple of months later, the garden has exploded into a lush, green and fruitful carnival of healthy, grown vegetable plants. Just about anything one might need or desire at this time of summer. Among these vegetables are most of the ingredients necessary for SALSA! Big, juicy red tomatoes, white onions, red bell peppers and *hot* serrano peppers. So, in response to a request from Mama Lord, I took on making some fresh salsa as an afternoon project on one sunny Oregon summer day. I did some ‘roasted tomato salsa’ (my favorite kind of salsa) research, picked the aforementioned delicities from the garden, added a few other goodies to the mix and came up with the following recipe, which resulted in a very tasty summer salsa.

(This should be enough to get you and some cronies through one large bag of tortilla chips… and *maybe* have some leftover.)

You will need:

• 7 red tomatoes
• 1 white onion, quartered
• 4 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
• 1 red pepper, cut in half and de-seeded
• 1 serrano pepper
• 3-4 green onions
• 8 sprigs of cilantro
• juice of 1/2 lime
• 1 tablespoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• 1 teaspoon cumin

* Adjust the amount of each ingredient to your liking as you go along – particularly the garlic, serrano pepper, salt, cilantro and cumin. (since you will, naturally, be consistently taste-testing your salsa as you prepare it)

Begin by setting your oven to broil. While it’s heating, get out a baking sheet (with rims) and spread out your tomatoes, onion quarters, red pepper halves, serrano pepper and garlic cloves on it. Put your veggie covered baking pan into the oven and broil until the veggies are roasted, about 15 minutes. But keep checking because it all depends on the heat of your oven. And some things may take longer than others so take things out as they are ready until everything is done. The tomatoes should be pretty soft and have black spots on them. The serrano peppers & garlic should be soft inside.

Get out a bowl to toss all your ingredients into after you do the following: Chop the tomatoes to get a proper salsa consistency (they will be pretty mushy so you won’t need to chop much), dice the onions, chop the red pepper, remove the seeds from the serrano pepper then mince it THOROUGHLY, peel the garlic and mince the clove.

Stir those things around in the bowl before adding the rest of your ingredients. The green onions should also be chopped and the cilantro should be de-stemmed and chopped. Add the lime, salt, sugar and cumin and mix the whole concoction to your heart’s delight. Give it some time (at least half an hour) for the flavors to set in and meld together. Then bust out those tortilla chips and ENJOY!