Roma tomatoes, white onion, dried hatch peppers (not rehydrated just roasted, is that OK?), poblano ancho chilis (again just roasted), jalapeño, couple Serrano, one habanero, few garlic cloves (peeled after roasting), and half can of chipotle’s in adobo.
Turned out tasteless. I def burned the poblanos to oblivion. And maybe I should use less chipotles in adobo? Also, should I rehydrate the hatch’s and poblanos? Do I need to worry about the hatch’s skins? Any other thoughts?
Any thoughts appreciated!
I think I burned
by SherbetIndividual128
22 Comments
Did you add any salt? That’s the #1 reason people end up with “tasteless” food.
The “sal” in salsa literally means salt.
You pretty much made a chili paste with a bunch of earthy ingredients, maybe try adding some fresh lime juice and cilantro. And salt or chicken bouillon
There’s a place that can help you, child… far, far away from all those bland salsa broilers and the haters who insist on it. All are welcome. [🦆🦆🦆](https://www.reddit.com/r/ElPato/)
Tasteless = not enough salt in 90% of cases.
Lime and salt, for sure, IMO. Maybe some cilantro, too.
I think perhaps roasting the dry hatch peppers and burning the poblanos have something to do with killing the flavor.
Next time try rehydrating the hatch and go easy on roasting. That might help. Also I think you definitely need salt and perhaps lime juice as an acid to brighten up the dish.
I’d be interested to hear how much salt you put in. You might have forgotten to mention it, but if you didn’t use it then that would explain it.
Salt is pretty essential.
I like to pickle finely chopped raw onions in lime and extra salt with a splash of apple cider vinegar and add that to the salsa. Sometimes will add diced fresh jalapeños and fresh tomatoes as well to give it some fresh texture or if its too thick after blending.
What seasonings were used? And I don’t really understand why you roasted the dried peppers. They’re already dried, they don’t need to be charred on top of that. Rehydrate the dried stuff, blacken the fresh stuff.
Salt + citrus + cilantro should get you on a path the taste. Rehydrate the dried peppers vs broil/roasting. Probably could do without the chipotles, but that’s probably more my preference.
Did you scrape the char off the peppers? That looks excessive char to me unless scraped.
Salt and a little vinegar
My usual method is at least one full teaspoon of salt per pound of tomatoes.
90% of the answer is salt.
The other 10% is going to be sweetness and acidity. Sweetness being probably 1%.
You need to strike your balance of these parameters, especially salt and acid.
Keep in mind, salt and acid not only need to be correct in quantity, but in relative balance. Because the flavors oppose one another. To understand this make a test dish and salt it, followed by vinegar, your perception of how salty the dish is will diminish.
Consider finally that sweetness, and acidity will be present in the ingredients already and spiking those characteristics with a synergistic punch of a like-flavor can pull out richness from the ingredients that weren’t there before.
Keep salt, bullion (for umami complimentary to tomatoes especially), sugar, agave nectar, white wine vinegar, red wine vinegar, and apple cider vinegar in the cupboard (and citrus in the fridge) and play with them in your salsa.
Specific to your salsa you need to make sure you’re preparing those dried chiles properly to sort “activate” them flavorwise and prepare them texture-wise. When done properly they have little flavor other than bitter straight from the water, until salted. Toast them on a skillet, in the oven, or in oil (I like to prepare a salsa frita). Whichever you think helps you find that delicate perfect toast. And to answer your question, yes you should be rehydrating your dried chiles, no reason to leave your guests picking inhospitable bits of Chile skin from their teeth.
you could try adding fresh garlic and onion when you blend so it gives a different flavour, and only mix them once the other ingredients have cool down.
r/Poopfromabutt
… El pato…
Outside of the lack of salt, to me, it looks like you got a lot of competing flavors. I find it better to stick to just 1 pepper type (serrano, jalapeno etc) and then use tomato, onion, garlic as the base.
I’ve just found that when making salsa, less is more. It’s been a fun journey for sure and you’re on the right path.
Salt, raw onion finely diced, and try without the garlic. At least for my palette, garlic sucks the soul out of salsa. Yours also looks non-spicy pepper heavy.
(No disrespect to garlic, I grow and consume copious amounts of the blessed allium. I just don’t use it in salsa)
It might be the dried chiles that didn’t help much with that consistency. You could even do with half the amount of that ancho, I find the flavor TOO strong when used with that much in salsa. When I want the flavor from dried chiles I just rehydrate them in a pot of hot water (chicken stock sometimes too) then toss them in the blender with all my other ingredients and a splash of that water or however much until I reach my desired consistency. The stock really helps out flavor wise and it’s not too strong. You can also add consome or chicken bullion powder, we use Knorr brand in our house
Don’t broil those dried peppers. Rehydrate them with enough water to cover them and a little white vinegar over a low heat. Boil and soften while you scorch the fresh goods. Then… Salt and a dash of white pepper.
It’s almost always acid that’s missing from most things, salsa especially.
Try citrus juices like lime or mild acids like rice vinegar, or try small tsp’s of white or apple cider vinegar