Tuesday, December 27, 2011

SWEET HEAT

SWEET HEAT


This is one heckuva spicy salsa!  I love small-batch, extra-potent salsas...you can easily reduce the amount of jalapeno, or increase the amount of other ingredients, to stretch it further or to reduce the incendiariness (yep, just made that up!).

Ingredients:

1/2 (length-wise) jalapeno, cut in a few chunks
Good size chunk (maybe 1/6-1/4) white onion, cut in chunks
1 clove garlic
Handful (maybe 1/8 cup) canned corn kernels, drained
Juice of 1/4 lime
Sprinkle of dried thyme, crumbled by hand
Splash of orange juice
Sprinkle of salt
Sprinkle of black pepper
Handful cilantro leaves, torn by hand

Directions:

1.  Place all ingredients in a small food processor (I like the kind that attaches to a hand blender).
2.  Blend for a while.  Stop and scoop all ingredients from the sides of the container back into the blade so consistency is uniform.  Continue blending a while longer (total of maybe 1 minute).

Notes:

*The corn gives a nice, smooth consistency and adds to the sweetness a bit.

*Definitely go easy on the OJ - too much will overwhelm the other flavors.