This recipe is a good basic salsa that can be used for dipping totopos (tortilla chips), on top of eggs, for tacos, tamales or any Mexican dish that calls for salsa. In Mexico, there is no standard recipe for salsa. It is as individual as the one who is making it. Everything different you do, makes the salsa taste unique. For example sautéing the onions slightly, or browning the edges will give you two distinct flavors. Experiment. This is one recipe that goes over pretty well.

Ingredients:

1/3 of a bunch of cilantro
6 ripe medium tomatoes steamed 30 munutes with just a little water. skin removed.
(If ripe tomatoes are hard to find, which they usually are anymore, a large can of whole tomatoes is okay, but
don't add the lime juice.  Canned tomatoes have enough citric acid.)

1 cup of chopped onions
3 finely chopped chile serrano (jalepenos will work if you can not find the serrano)
1 clove of garlic
salt to taste (sea salt is best but regular salt is fine)
2 tbls of Corn Oil

The juice from two key lime or one regular lime

Instructions:

In a blender chop the tomatoes and the cilantro together.

In a one quart sauce pan sauté the onions, chile, and garlic in the corn oil.

Add the blended tomatoes and cilantro and slow boil for 5 minutes

Add the lime juice

Salt to taste.

Note: In Mexico it is very typical to boil the chile for a good hour before using them, especially if you use jalepenos.

--- Submitted by Lili Gonzales-Zarle Akron OH November 1999