# Salsa with Smoked Roma Tomato, Serrano, and Garlic



## adiochiro3

My daughter decided to make salsa as an extra credit assignment for her Spanish class. We have used an off-the-hook simple recipe given to me by a patient who is a Mexican native.  Her recipe calls for roasting the tomatoes under the broiler until the skins turn black.  As I taught my daughter in a test run the other evening, it occurred to us that instead of blistering the skins under the broiler, we might be able to improve the flavor with smoke.  Did I say "_*might*_?" 
	

	
	
		
		



		
			






  

            With that in mind, I searched the good 'ol SMF for smoked tomatoes, and -- low-and-behold -- the smoking brother/sisterhood came through again!  Based on SMF member suggestions, we smoked Roma tomatoes split in half.  I also decided to smoke the garlic and serrano peppers.







The original recipe calls for mixing chopped:

5 tomatoes blistered under a broiler and peeled
one bunch of green onions
2-4 serrano peppers
1-2 cloves garlic
1/4 bunch of fresh cilantro
salt to taste
 We put everybody in the smoker with last night's dinner (pork chops and MOINK balls) and pulled the peppers & garlic after about 1.5 hours.







My daughter pulled the tomatoes at about the 3 hour mark (I had to go back to the office).







They wound up looking a bit like sun-dried tomatoes.  They smelled really good.  After cooling, it was a simple matter of dicing everything up, mixing together and let everything shake hands overnight.







The recipe calls for chopped green onions and cilantro....







Of course, we couldn't resist a preview taste-test!!!!







The result was something quite different than the original salsa recipe.  The smoke flavor was a really nice addition, but the tomatoes were soft instead of firm -- changing the texture & consistency of the salsa so as to make it seem an entirely new & _*really tasty*_ product.  The original recipe is bright and fresh in flavor and very firm in texture/consistency.  The changes we made added smoke flavor, but took away from the other features. 

Tweaks to our next attempt would be to smoke the tomatoes for a much shorter period (1.5 hours?) or cold smoke them in an attempt to keep the fresh tomato consistency and still get the smokey goodness.

All told, I can state confidently that this first batch of smoked salsa _*WILL NOT*_ last long in my daughter's salsa event, nor will our second attempt be too far out in the future.

Thanks for looking!


----------



## SmokinAl

Looks great James, Sounds like you have a winner there. I like the cold smoked tomato idea. I may have to try that. We make homemade salsa all the time.


----------



## biaviian

Wow, that looks great!  I think I'll try this tomorrow with cold smoking the tomatoes as I'm already cold smoking cheese/nuts/peppercorns tomorrow.  Thanks for the recipe!!!


----------



## fpnmf

Tasty looking salsa!!

 Craig


----------



## chubbabubba

Those look fantastic! Have you thought of blending all of the ingredients together for a less chunky salsa? Some Mexican restaurants usually have a more liquid sauce like salsa. I like the chunky salsas myself, but those blended ones are pretty good too.


----------



## realtorterry

Man that looks & sounds awesome. I think I might have to try that ASAP


----------



## biaviian

Uhhhh.....you know man...Uh..., realtorterry, I LOVE your picture.


----------



## scarbelly

James that looks like a fun recipe - nice job working with your daughter in the kitchen.

Here is how I will tweak this recipe. I will make a small incision in the skin then throw the whole tomato into boiling water for a minute or two to get the skin to loosen up. Then peel the skin and then half and seed the tomato.  Then into the smoker for about 2 hours along with the rest of the ingredients including the green onions split to absorb more smoke.


----------



## adiochiro3

[quote name="Scarbelly" url="/forum/thread/106374/salsa-with-smoked-roma-tomato-serrano-and-garlic#post_630909"]
James that looks like a fun recipe - nice job working with your daughter in the kitchen.



Here is how I will tweak this recipe. I will make a small incision in the skin then throw the whole tomato into boiling water for a minute or two to get the skin to loosen up. Then peel the skin and then half and seed the tomato.  Then into the smoker for about 2 hours along with the rest of the ingredients including the green onions split to absorb more smoke.  
[/quote]

I like those ideas Scar!  Just an update on our results: after sitting in the fridge overnight, this salsa really came into it's own. Everything firmed up,  the heat mellowed a bit, and the smoke phase comes through beautifully after the initial flavor burst. Hopefully we'll get to post a pic of the competitors tomorrow.


----------



## chefrob

you had me @ salsa.........................


----------



## curtis maybin

Very nice, I am a salsa freak and have to make this in the next few weeks. I will let you know how it turns out


----------

