Friday, March 11, 2005

foodbloggin- Salsa Kwandongbrian Style

Trying to foodblog

I tried to upload and organize photos as a foodblog about cooking Salsa. It isn't working.

UPDATE: The good people at BLOGGER told me how to fix the photo problem: use FIREFOX browser instead. Thanks Steve at Blogger Support!

Below might be a handful of pictures showing, in no order, how I make salsa. This is probably salsa that no Mexican would ever recognize; yes, those are olives on the table. Still, I can make it with local ingredients and it tastes fine on Doritos.



just begun. My ingredients Posted by Hello
Here are my ingredients. 9 tomatoes, 4 green, 2 red and 1 yellow sweet pepper, Pickled Valley brand Hot Chili Peppers (10), some garlic, an onion (I used half), salt, olives (I just had them around and wanted to use them up) oregano and cider vinegar. Don't be shy with the vinegar.



removing the stems with my Swiss Army Knife Posted by Hello


After boiling the tomatoes for a minute, I remove the stem with my Swiss Army Knife. I find it easier to control than my big chopping knives. I don't think I should boil the tomatoes so long; it just takes a few seconds for the skin to loosen for easy peeling. I figure, though, I'm going to cook them anyway, so longer won't hurt.

I use knives a lot. One of my hobbies is wood carving. Another is Hai Dong Gum Do, a kind of swordsmanship using what most Canadians would call a Japanese Katana. It is a wonder that I am so slow and clumsy with knives then.

I like using my Swiss army knife for removing the stems because it is a good length for the job. Despite that, I did poke the hand holding the tomato once (only once! Hurray!). Luckily, there was no blood.

I also need to learn how to chop veggies better. I was about an hour chopping up the green, red and yellow peppers.


wash Posted by Hello
I frequently forgot to wash veggies in Canada, but having worked on a farm in Korea, I don't forget much nowadays.


ready after an hour to cool Posted by Hello
I can't actually see the pictures as I type this. One of these (above or below) pictures is of the salsa in a tupperware box and the other is of three jars and the tupperware box. Although it is finished, you should let it cool for a few hours. The cooling lets the flavors 'marry' (I'm pretentious- I don't know what that means, I just read it somewhere and it sounded good).

Of the three jars, the smallest is just the 'pot likker'. That's Southern for the excess fluid that I chose not to boil away. I like to scoop out and save it for future cooking. I could have boiled it down but I wanted to try to keep the cooking time down to one hour this time.


result of two hours cooking. Posted by Hello

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