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Create your own salsa for a spicy summer dish

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By Richard O Jones, Staff Writer 7:18 PM Thursday, July 7, 2011

HAMILTON — As if the July temperatures weren’t hot enough, Terri Chatfield, program assistant at the Ohio University Butler County Extension Office, gave a presentation Thursday on how to create a fresh salsa recipe at Miami University Hamilton Downtown.

Chatfield, who is also a master gardener, not only touted salsa as a tasty use of local home-grown tomatoes, but also showed how to give canned salsa a kick by adding fresh ingredients.

To demonstrate, she began her presentation by passing around salsa made from a dried pepper and onion mix reconstituted with lime juice. The audience agreed that it was much improved with the addition of freshly chopped vegetables, and that the salsa she made from all fresh ingredients was the tastiest of all.

“A freshly-made salsa bears no resemblance to any salsa you’re going to find in a jar,” she said. “Even adding things to jarred salsa, if you can’t do it from scratch, is going to be a great pick-me-up.”

As she created a mild salsa from scratch, she said a family’s taste and preferences were the best guide to the proportions as she suggested a list of ingredients that could be used to enhance a basic tomato-based salsa.

“There are no special proportions that you have to follow, but if you need to have a recipe there are many available on the Internet,” she said. “If you’re developing your own special family recipe, you can measure everything as you put it in, then taste and start adding small amounts at a time so you can keep track.”

She offered tips on how to use jalapeno peppers without making the salsa too hot by only using the green flesh and avoiding the seeds and the white inner ribs, and spoke on how the lime juice provides and acidity that will allow the product to remain fresh in the refrigerator for up to a week. She said Roma tomatoes were best because they have more flesh and fewer seeds, but a good beefsteak tomato is even tastier, though it needs to be drained to keep the salsa from having too much water in it.

“Salsa is a great way to get a lot of vegetables into your diet,” she said. “And if you roast your tomatoes, peppers or onions it will bring out a sweet, more intense flavor.

Chatfield will be teaching two sessions of class on canning salsa and tomatoes, 6:30 p.m. July 14 or Aug. 4 at the OSU Extension Office, 1802 Princeton Road, Hamilton. Cost is $30. For information, call (513) 887-3722.

Next at Miami Hamilton Downtown is “It Ain’t Easy Being Green,” at noon today, a discussion of advanced recycling and composting techniques, presented by visiting faculty member Janelle Allen. At noon July 14, the Miami University Health and Education Bus will park in front of the Robinson-Schwenn Building for tours and a discussion of how the bus helps students and community members be more aware of their own health.

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2188 or rjones@coxohio.com.

Create Your Own Fresh Salsa

Primary Ingredients: Diced fresh or canned tomatoes, fresh cilantro (or parsley), jalapeno peppers, lime juice, salt.

Extra Ingredients: Onion; green, red or orange bell peppers or other variety peppers; fresh garlic (pressed or chopped); fresh or frozen corn; black beans (drained and rinsed); peach, mango, pineapple, papaya, raisins, avocado, kiwi, lemon juice, Tobasco sauce, crushed red pepper, cumin.

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