Fire Roasted Salsa
Total 30 mins, includes cooling time
Active 30 mins
Makes 4 to 6 servings
This sweet, smoky, spicy salsa is a great accompaniment to a classic grilled tri-tip. It’s also great on its own with tortilla chips or as an addition to tacos, steaks, or eggs. (When I make it, I try to keep some around for breakfast the next morning, but it’s so good that we usually end up eating it all at dinner.) The key to the salsa’s complex flavor is to grill the vegetables so that their skin gets a nice charred, smoky flavor; then add some fresh sweet corn. If you want to make the salsa without firing up the grill, you can get a similar result by toasting your vegetables over a flame on the stove or blackening them a bit under the broiler.
TIP: The best way to cook chiles and remove their skins is to blacken them on the grill and then put them into a paper bag. The chiles will steam inside the bag, and that steam will loosen the skin, making it easy to pull off. Any paper bag will do the trick; I often use the ones I get at the grocery store.
Special Equipment
a wood, charcoal, or gas grill, a paper bag
Special Equipment
a wood, charcoal, or gas grill, a paper bag
Ingredients
Directions
- Prepare wood or coals in your grill or heat a gas grill to medium.
- Pour the olive oil on a plate and dip the tomatoes and onions in the oil.
- Place the tomatoes, onions, and chiles on the grill (keeping the tomatoes and onions cut-side down), and cook, turning the chiles as needed, until the tomatoes and onions have char marks and the chiles are blackened all over. The tomatoes will take about 5 minutes, the onions and chiles about 15 minutes.
- Transfer the tomatoes and onions to a cutting board and roughly chop. Put the chiles in a paper bag, close the bag, and let the chiles steam for about 5 minutes to loosen their skins (see Cook’s Note). Peel the chiles, discard the stems and seeds, and roughly chop.
- Put the tomatoes, onions, chiles, garlic, and cilantro in a mixing bowl. Cut the corn kernels off the cobs, add them to the bowl, then stir to combine. Squeeze the lemons and season the salsa with the juice, then add salt and cumin to taste.
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