Restaurant Style Salsa

Salsa is the Spanish term for sauce, and in English-speaking countries usually refers to the often tomato-based, hot sauces typical of Mexican cuisine, particularly those used as dips. There are many types of salsa which usually vary throughout Latin America.

There are many other salsas, both traditional and nouveau, some are made with mint, pineapple, or mango.

Outside of Mexico and Central America, the following salsas are common to each of the following regions: in Argentina and the Southern Cone, chimichurri sauce is common. Chimichurri is “a spicy vinegar-parsley sauce that is the salsa (and leading condiment) in Argentina and Uruguay, served with grilled meat. It is made of chopped fresh parsley and onion, seasoned with garlic, oregano, salt, cayenne and black pepper and bound with oil and vinegar. In Costa Rica, dishes are prepared with salsa Lizano, a thin, smooth, light brown sauce. In Cuba and the Caribbean, a typical salsa is mojo. Unlike the tomato-based salsas, mojo typically consists of olive oil, garlic, and citrus juice, and is used both to marinate meats and as a dipping sauce. In Peru, a traditional salsa is peri peri or piri piri sauce: “The national condiment of Peru, peri-peri sauce is made in medium to hot levels of spiciness—the more chile, or the hotter variety of chile used, the hotter the sauce. Original peri-peri uses the African bird’s eye chile (the African word for the chile is peri-peri). Milder sauces may use only cayenne and serrano chiles. To a base of vinegar and oil, garlic and lemon juice are added, plus other seasonings, which often include paprika or tomato paste for flavor and color, onions and herb—each company has its own recipe. It is also used as a cooking sauce.

This salsa “recipe” is quite adaptable – add as much of each individual ingredient as you prefer. You can pulse the ingredients in a food processor for a chunky type salsa or run the processor for a  few seconds to produce a thinner sauce – which is what my household prefers.

Restaurant Style Salsa

Ingredients:

• Fresh tomatoes (or 1 – 15 ounce can of diced tomatoes in juice)
• Fresh green chiles (or 1 – 14 ounce can of tomatoes and chiles – Rotel brand)
• Fresh jalepenos (canned or jarred may be used)
• 1 small chopped onion
• Pinch of sugar
• Garlic salt
• Cumin

Place all ingredients in food processor and pulse until desired consistency is reached.  Serve immediately or refrigerate for up to 3 days.

Smoked Salmon Cheese Ball

The invention of cheese balls is shrouded in antiquity, and may in fact have occurred contemporaneously in several places at once. Cheese balls were referred to in everyday terms during the early 1920s, if not earlier, in recipes published in newspapers, suggesting a much earlier origin.

It’s quite possible that cheese was rolled into balls not very long after cheese itself was discovered.

Sadly, history has not been kind to the cheese ball. Early on, this classic party food earned an ugly reputation it’s been mostly unable to shake.  Food writer Amanda Hesser  once wrote in the New York Times magazine that “cheese balls tend to be associated with shag rugs and tinsel, symbols of the middle-class middlebrow.” Thankfully, with cheeses of all kinds getting gourmet treatment in recent years, this is one party food that seems ready for an update.

Smoked Salmon Cheese Ball

Ingredients:

• 1 – 8 ounce package cream cheese, softened
• 16 ounces smoked salmon**
• 1 teaspoon prepared horseradish
• 1 teaspoon finely chopped onion
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• ¼ cup finely chopped pecans
• Assorted Crackers
• 1 small cucumber, thinly sliced

In small bowl, stir together parsley and pecans.  In separate bowl, mix together cream cheese, salmon, horseradish, onion and lemon juice.  Shape cheese mixture into a ball.  Gently press parsley and pecan mixture over ball to completely cover.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.  Just before serving, surround with cucumber rounds and crackers.

** 1- 15 ounce can salmon, bones and skins removed and 2 teaspoons liquid smoke may be substituted.

Corn Cakes

Sweet corn is a variety of maize with a high sugar content. Sweet corn is the result of a naturally occurring recessive mutation in the genes which control conversion of sugar to starch inside the endosperm of the corn kernel. Unlike field corn varieties, which are harvested when the kernels are dry and mature, sweet corn is picked when immature and prepared and eaten as a vegetable, rather than a grain. Since the process of maturation involves converting sugar to starch, sweet corn stores poorly and must be eaten fresh, canned, or frozen, before the kernels become tough and starchy.

Sweet corn occurs as a spontaneous mutation in field corn and was grown by several Native American tribes. The Iroquois gave the first recorded sweet corn (called Papoon) to European settlers in 1779.  It soon became a popular food in southern and central regions of the United States.

Open pollenated varieties of white sweet corn started to become widely available in the United States in the 19th century. Two of the most enduring varieties, still available today, are Country Gentleman, which is a shoepeg corn with small, white kernels in irregular rows and and Stowell’s Evergreen. My personal, and very unscientific, research indicates that Kandy Korn is one of the more popular varieties here in West Virginia.

Sweet corn production in the 20th century was influenced by hybridization, which allowed for more uniform maturity and improved quality and disease resistance. Identification of the separate gene mutations responsible for sweetness in corn and the ability to breed varieties based on these characteristics include su (normal sugary); se (sugary enhanced) and sh2 (shrunken-2). There are currently hundreds of varieties with more being developed constantly.

Corn Cakes

Ingredients:

• 2 Eggs, beaten
• ¼ cup Flour
• ¼ teaspoon Salt
• Pepper to taste
• 2 cups uncooked Corn, cut from the cob
• ½ cup Scallions, chopped
• ⅓ cup Red Bell Pepper, diced
• 1 tablespoon Oil
• Sour Cream
• Salsa

In a large bowl, mix together the eggs, salt, pepper, corn, scallions and red pepper. Add flour and stir to thoroughly combine.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Drop corn mixture by spoonfuls into the skillet to form individual cakes, approximately 3 inches in diameter. Cook for 2-3 minutes on each side, until golden. Serve with sour cream and/or salsa, if desired.