Salsa can’t be salsa without some peppers. Besides adding some heat to this condiment, roasted peppers contribute a sweet and fruitier taste. In my salsa, I use red and green bell peppers and jalapeno peppers. In today’s post, I’ll be describing how I process the jalapeno peppers.
The one lesson I can’t stress enough when preparing peppers is to plan to protect your hands and eyes. To protect your eyes, wear some eye protection such as goggles or even a pair of reading glasses to prevent a rouge seed or unexpected spray of pepper juice. Also, vinyl or rubber gloves are necessary. A couple of summers ago, I seeded a bunch of jalapeno peppers without gloves. And even though I had washed my hands several times, the next day, I could still smell and taste the peppers on my hands; for many days after, I needed to be very conscious about not placing my hands around my eyes. Okay, so let’s get to those peppers!
For the salsa recipe, I’ll be using five tablespoons of finely chopped jalapeno peppers. Since I grow my peppers, I process the ones that are ripe all at once. I estimate that one jalapeno pepper equates to approximately one tablespoon of minced jalapenos if you purchase them.
The first step involves washing the peppers with just cold water and a couple of Dawn dishwashing liquid drops. I rinse them off and let them air dry.
Next, cut the pepper in half and take out the seeds and white veins. If you prefer a hotter salsa, you may decide to leave in some of the veins and seeds.
I then place the pepper halves into a food processor and process them into a small mince chop.
Keep following my blog, which will next address the prep work for the onions and the cilantro.
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