Lockjaw

Tonight I made a test run on what I'm going to make for a super bowl party tomorrow. Tostadas topped with fresh salsa.

For the first time making them the tostadas came out great. However the salsa...well it TASTED ok but it wasn't anywhere near being hot enough.

Here's my problem for the longest time I didn't eat hot food but here lately I've been eating more and more "spicy" food that hasn't really been all that hot. So I'm not sure if I can take spicy foods really well or if the stuff I've been making and eating really is not hot.

Anyway here's my recipe.

3 small tomatoes diced.
1/2 cup finely diced onions
1/2 cup fresh minced celantro
2 limes juiced
2 green jalapeno peppers diced.
and a little salt.

Chopped it all up stuck it in the fridge for an hour and tried it and again while tasty it wasn't hot or even really all that warm. Now one thing I DID do was I deseeded the peppers but I left the membrane as I heard that was the "hot" part of the pepper.
Should I just up the jalapenos? Fewer tomatoes? Different pepper and if so can you suggest a good kind to use? I contemplated going back out and getting some scotch bonnets(can't spell habanyero)but I head those were the hottest of the hot and I'm not sure if I should go that far without some advice.

Help!

shakran

Toss some jabaneros in there. That'll kick it up a notch

StanT

I'm partial to habaneros, but a little goes a long way. Store bought peppers are really inconsistant in regards to heat level. I always buy too many and just add them to taste. It's not like they are expensive @ .01 lb apiece.

Suave

Garlic always helps everything. Adds a different kind of spiciness that sort of compounds on that of the peppers. I also suggest trying cayenne (could even just be powdered). I don't think you have to deseed the jalapenos either; in the premade salsas I've had, the seeds were always the hottest part.

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maleficent

Scotch bonnets or Haberneros I wouldn't like, they are hot hot hot, and have a tend to drown out the flavor of everything else.

Depending on what your guests like, I'd add in another jalepeno or two (I personally don't think jalepenos are all that hot) leaving on the membrane.

For me, the flavor isin the Cilantro, I like the freshness that it brings to the tomatoes.

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Jay Francis

You might want to try these two, just add more serrano or jalapeno chiles.

Also, another trick. I had this cayenne pepper bush growing, and these were the tpes of chiles with a real thin skin when dried, like chile de arbol, or the chile that comes in the packets at Pizza Hut. I would boil a mess of them in water, reducing the water and then use the water to increase the heat of any dish without having to add a vinegar-y tabasco type sauce. Just pure fire.

Salsas Picante
Hot Sauces for Your Table – Green and Red

Here are two of the most popular hot sauces of all time, reverse engineered just for you so that you can recreate them in your home. Traditionally, in Mexico, the green table sauce would be a combination of boiled green tomatillos, Serrano chiles, cilantro, salt, and roasted garlic. What the Ninfa restaurant did was to add avocados and sour cream to the mix.


Green Sauce in the Style of Ninfa’s

Will Make 6 Cups


Ingredients:

12 tomatillos, with husk removed, and rinsed ( Note: the skin is really sticky. Sometimes I will put a drop of dishwashing liquid in my palm and rinse the tomatillos allowing the dishwashing liquid to help remove the sticky film). Tomatillos should be about the size of a golf ball.

3 Serrano chiles

4 avocados ( can be reduced to 2 avocados)

¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro ( leaves and stems okay, but not the thickest stems)

2 cups sour cream (regular or light)

Salt to taste

Instructions:

Bring some water to boil in a saucepan, just enough water needed to cover the tomatillos. Add the tomatillos and chiles and simmer until the vegetables are softened. Remove from the heat and drain. However, in the cooking process, the tomatillos will have absorbed a lot of water. Prick the tomatillos to allow some of the excess water to drain out in order to avoid having too runny a green sauce. Allow to cool completely.

Peel, pit, and slice the avocados. Combine the tomatillos, chiles, cilantro, and avocados in a blender and process until smooth.

Pour into a large bowl and add the sour cream to achieve a fairly thick sauce. Add salt to taste. Serve room temperature immediately, or refrigerate prior to serving.


Red Sauce in the Style of Pace Picante Sauce

Will Make 2 Cups


Ingredients:

One 10.75-ounce can of tomato puree
1 1/3 cups of water
1/3 cup chopped onion
¼ cup chopped fresh jalapeno peppers with seeds (also, if you want a chunkier sauce, you can chop up some green and red bell peppers and add these to the sauce)
2 tablespoons white vinegar
¼ teaspoon dried minced onion (interestingly, the combination of fresh onion and dried onions helps duplicate the original)
¼ teaspoon dried minced garlic

Salt to taste

Instructions:

Combine all of the ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, and then reduce the heat so that the sauce simmers and thickens. This should take about 30 minutes. Allow to cool. Taste, and add salt as needed.

martinguerre

my fav is habeneros...fire roasted especially. grill 'em during the summer...get inventive in winter i suppose.

little goes a long way...but let it sit longer than an hour. flavors take time to move...and if you add a moderate amount of heat that is well distributed by time....it will taste better than uneven heat.

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Manuel Hong

It seems the salsa will get hotter after a couple of days when the flavors start to marry. I cheat and add some Frank's Red Hot sauce to mine. It has a heat that is more flavorful and tangy, not just hot. And garlic, lots of garlic.

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kutulu

You could have too much cilantro in there but I'd also use the whole jalapeno. Cilantro tastes great but it does a lot to cool the heat down.

Jrock

Substitute serranos for the jalapenos. They taste about the same, but are a bit hotter. Habaneros are good, but only if you want it really hot. A little goes a long way. One thing I like to do is completely drain the tomatoes, and add red pepper sause instead. The cayanne in the sauce adds heat, and the vinegar adds good flavor. A few cloves of garlic also helps.

If you cook it instead of letting it sit in the fridge, the flavors will blend faster so you'll know sooner if it needs more heat. It can get a bit mushy if you let it cook to long, but whether or not that bothers you is up to personal taste. I haven't tried this, but I'd immagine if you cut up some habaneros and put them in a cheese cloth bag, and just let it simmer with the rest of the ingredients, it would add heat, without being overpowering as habaneros can be. As I said, I haven't tried it, but it might be worth it to experiment.

angeltek

Tomatoes
Jalapeneos
Chili Peppers
Onions
Cilantro
Salt pepper
Lemon Juice

Hampshire

might sound wierd, spash some tabasco in their

jhkayakr

make it 4 jalapino's

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0energy0

just use some tomato paste with jalapenos so it would be spicy with some thickness