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There’s nothing quite like the first bite of salsa on a just-fried tortilla chip as you’re waiting for your burrito, tacos, or enchiladas to arrive at your table. Try as you might, it can be super tough to recreate at home the salsa that you get at a traditional Mexican restaurant while you’re waiting for your order to arrive. Chef Rick Bayless partnered with El Yucateco hot sauce to share Mexican cooking tips — and he spoke exclusively with Chowhound about how you can recreate legit Mexican restaurant-style salsa in your own kitchen.
Bayless says heat is key — and not just when it comes to the spice level of your salsa. “In Mexican cooking, a lot of roasting of vegetables before making a salsa happens, and don’t skip that,” he recommends. “It’s really important, I think, to roast the vegetables and to roast them very well.” Using high heat to get a hard char on roasted vegetable can be a game changer.
Believe it or not, one of Bayless’ go-to tips when it comes to preparing Mexican salsa is also to ramp up the fat — and he’s not talking about butter or oil. “I would say one of the things that I really, really talk about a lot is the use of lard in cooking,” says Bayless. “The flavor that you get out of it is just remarkable, so I would say don’t be afraid of lard. That’s number one.” You can use lard to help the flavors of your veggies sing in your salsa. Roast them up with plenty of grease, and you’ll increase both the depth and intensity of each vegetable’s unique flavors, creating a restaurant-quality result.
Choosing the right ingredients for Mexican salsa
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While ramping up the fat (read: lard) factor and taking the time to roast veggies are both key elements to creating restaurant-style salsa, you’ll also need to pay close attention to the quality of your ingredients. “In salsa, I would say fresh is always best. Partly because, if you’re going to make a tomato salsa, and you have a really good ripe tomato, there is nothing that will be better than that,” says Rick Bayless. Understanding how to find perfectly ripe tomatoes at the grocery store is key to creating more flavorful salsa, too. You’ll want to look for tomatoes that feel heavy, and don’t have any bruising.
Choosing your onions carefully can take your salsa from so-so to high-end. White onions (as opposed to yellow ones) are typically a good call for most salsas, as they offer both sweetness and bite. Bayless says that properly prepping your onion is key to great salsa, though, especially if you’re adding it raw. “When you cut up an onion, you break cell walls that brings two elements together that creates a sulfurous compound. That sulfurous compound is the thing we all hate about onions,” Bayless says. Thankfully, there’s a simple solution. “Just rinse it off,” recommends Bayless. “Colander, and put it under the sink and run cold water over it, and you’re set.”
Consider heat and acidity levels to create your perfectly personalized salsa recipe
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One of the best things about making salsa at home? You can play around with ingredients and seasonings to suit your own tastes. Heat, acidity, and salt all play a role in a great salsa, and it’s important to balance them well. When he’s teaching Mexican cooking techniques, Rick Bayless always recommends tasting as you go, paying special attention to levels of acid and heat.
“Everybody likes slightly different amount of acidity and slightly different amount of heat in things, but if you roast vegetables, you bring out their sweetness, which allows you to put more acid in, because then you’re balancing sweet against acid,” Bayless says. “If you don’t have that richness from the roasting, then you don’t really get to put very much acid in there.” You’ve got several options when it comes to adding acidity to salsa. While lime juice is the go-to acid for many salsa recipes, you can also play around with lemon juice, a bit of white vinegar, or straight-up citric acid. But make sure to taste the salsa first so you know how much of it to add.
Dining and Cooking