I’ve been eating a lot of Guacamole lately.

Perhaps you could say it may be too much. But I have to make it every day, so why not enjoy the fruits of your labor right?

If your looking for a scientific approach, I wrote an article, How to make Salsa, some time ago that will walk you through some procedure.

So lets get to the recipe!

Guacamole Recipe

Recipe makes 1 qt

• 6 Avocados
• 2.5 fl oz Lime Juice (or lemon)
• 4Tbsp Green Onions, sliced
• 1 Bunch Cilantro, Fresh, chopped
• 1 tsp Garlic, chopped
• 1/2 tsp Oregano, dried
• 1 Jalapeno, seeded, chopped
• 3 Tbsp Tomato, seeded, diced
• TT Salt

Procedure

1. Cut avocados in half. Spoon out entire inside from the peel with a large kitchen spoon and discard seed.
2. In a bowl break up the avocado. Add the lime juice, sliced green onions, cilantro, garlic, and spices and mix.
3. Now your peppers will vary in flavor so, start adding in small amounts and test for flavor. They can be very hot. (If you want to be smarter than me the other day I would advise using gloves and do not touch your eyes! for hours!)
4. Keep the tomatoes separate until ready to serve.

Notes

1. The fresher your ingedients the better your flavor will be. Adjust meausrments accordingly.
2. Your guacomole will turn brown if left out in the air. Cover with plastic wrap, and put a wet towel on directly on the surface of the guacamole.

Today marks the start of week three at RooftopKitchen.com. In celebration we are going to introduce the Cooking column, a place for recipes and articles for cooking environmentally and economically healthy cooking. In our first article in cooking we will make a salsa from scratch, in three easy steps. A perfect condiment for all of those wonderful vegetables we will be growing.

Salsa (Spanish for “sauce”) is not always the chunky mixture of raw vegetables and chilies ladled over Mexican food or eaten with chips. Though their wonderfully intense fresh flavors are great for these purposes the generally cold mixture of herbs, spices, fruits and vegetables can be used as sauces for meat, poultry, fish and shellfish. The great thing about salsas, other than there taste, is that they are a low fat a low calorie food, and are incredibly easy to prepare. Make your own in three easy steps:

Step 1: Cut and Chop Ingredients

Out first step in making a salsa, like all recipes, is to gather all our ingredients and prepare them appropriately. For vegetables make sure they are washed and peeled, then get started and go ahead on your dicing. For a salsa a small dice is an appropriate size (a cube with dimensions of 1/4″ x 1/4″ x 1/4″). This we make you salsa easy to eat.

Step 2: Precook

If you are using items that need to be cooked off in your salsa, make sure you cook them throughly and then cool them down. Chilling them will prevent cooking of items in your salsa that are not meant to be heated up, giving you a perfect balance.

Step 3: Combine

Toss all ingredients together and refrigerate the mixture. Keep cold for at least 30 minutes. This will allow all the flavors to combine, producing a wonderful salsa to enjoy.

Pico de Gallo

Now once that we have the basic understanding of how to prepare a salsa let us celebrate Cinco de Mayo and prepare a great traditional condiment from Mexico, the Pico de Galo or salsa mexicana.

This Pico de Gallo recipe will make 1 quart (1lt):

1. Following the steps above we are going to cut and prepare are ingredients. You will want to concasse the tomatoes and remove the seeds of the vegetables before dicing.
2. Step 2 calls for cooking off any thing that needs to be, in this case nothing needs to be cooked.
3. Combine all ingredients and gently toss. Add seasonings and adjust to taste. Then refrigerate.

Once the flavors are finished combining, savor it and celebrate the Mexican heritage.

More salsa recipes:

• Guacamole

Enjoy,

Jimi