Spicy Strawberry Salsa

Today is Tuesday.

As much as I LOVE to cook, I conversely HATE wasting food. I mean I have anchovies in my freezer. I compost. That being said, leftovers were piling up around here like laundry, so Mama took the night off. But what kind of professional, famous blogger would I be if I just left all my little bloglings hanging? So, tonight I decided to get my creative juices and my broiler (and my smoke alarm) going and whip up an original salsa for this week's upcoming taco night. (We don't confine our tacos to any specific night of the week around here.)

Lately I have had this recurring fantasy/idea for somebody to make and serve me my usual spicy margarita, but with something sweet in it as well, something like a strawberry. And THEN I wondered to myself...what if my salsa had both jalapeños and strawberries? What would happen then? What if... what if... there were strawberries INSTEAD of tomatoes?! I mean they are both red, right? Plus sometimes I take issue with non-August/September tomatoes, so I decided to just get loco jalapeñ-here and see what happened. And ¡HOLY YUMMY NOT-GUACAMOLE! I don't even feel bad about bragging. This was mucho bueno, peeps. I speak Spanish too. Also I compost. 

Elisabeta Springerita's Spicy Strawberry Salsa 

Ingredients

1 poblano pepper, rinsed

1 large or 2 small jalapeño peppers, rinsed

1 red onion, halved

3 garlic cloves

Olive oil

Salt

1/2 cup cilantro, roughly chopped and packed

1 cup strawberries, quartered

Juice of 1 lime 

Tajin, optional, but use it I call Tajin "Méxican Mrs. Dash." They put it on everything in México and it's so common that I don't even feel like I am giving you a tricky pantry item to pick up. I wouldn't make you buy za'atar, (like I did today); but this, you need in your life. And on the rims of all your future margaritas.

Instructions 

1) Preheat broiler.  Place the peppers and onion on a cookie sheet. Give them a swirl of olive oil to coat and toss with salt. Broil for 6 minutes. Flip them all over and add the garlic to the pan. Put everything back in the oven for 6 more minutes. Hope you had your fan on.

Don't be scared- look what it looks like under the charred, outer layer!

And maybe use some foil.

2) After giving your roasted peppers a few minutes to cool, take a paring knife and slide it down the length of the pepper, shaving off the skin. Toss out the skins. Cut off their stems and halve them lengthwise.  If you like VERY spicy salsa, chop up the peppers: ribs, seeds, and all, and toss in a food processor. I like medium level spicy, so I removed the ribs and seeds from half my poblano and half my jalapeño. If you like mild, try liking medium and do what I did. 

Give her a shave.

3) Add the onions, garlic, strawberries and cilantro to the processor. Squeeze in the lime juice and process until it comes together as a uniform salsa.

4) Top with a pinch of salt, and if you love yourself and all that is holy, a good dash or three of Tajin. Try it cold or warmed a bit in the microwave.

*Wash your hands 286 times before taking out your contacts or you will burn off your retinas and corneas and all the eye parts. Or wear latex gloves while cooking. Treat those peppers like they have the Covid.