This recipe is excellent for practicing knife skills. Remember, always use a cutting board, always cut straight down when possible, and keep your knife in contact with the board as much as you can.
As everyone knows, fresh cut salsa is one of natures most perfect foods. You should learn how to make it. Lycopene is not only fun to say, but it's really good for you. I'm sure the fancified readers out there will be able to make all sorts of creative dishes with this salsa (fish? I guess??), but for me, eating it with chips is the one true path.
Why The Hell Does Everyone Call This My Salsa, It's Not Like I Invented It Or Anything
Get a bowl with a lid. Figure out what volume it is, and then fill it to just over the rim with tomatoes. This is a rough measurement, because you'll need all those tomatoes, and the spaces between them are for onions and stuff. Oh, and make sure the tomatoes are firm, and don't use more than a third Roma tomatoes. Roma tomatoes are too dense and I've had batches go bad before they're ready to eat.
Grab some red or white onions. DON'T use yellow. They're for the kind of salsa those commies make (sorry, watching The Americans now). I generally use half a large onion per litre that the bowl can hold.
Dice the onions as finely as possible with a knife (don't try to cheat and use a food processor or a slap-chop or something, the bruising to the onion will affect the flavour). Put 'em in the bowl.
Get two limes per litre and make sure they have smooth skin. The limes with rough skin will yield less juice. But you knew that, right? Juice them and pour them over the onions. You want the onions to marinade in the lime juice while you're dicing the tomatoes.
Grab 3-4 stalks of cilantro for every litre and chop finely, including stems if you like. Put them in with the lime and onion, put in a bit of salt (just a bit, we're doing more later) and mix that whole mess up.
Dice the tomatoes to as close to the size of the onions that you can get, and just place them over the onion mixture. We want it to marinade for as long as possible before mixing in the tomato juices. This will take a while. I'll wait.
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(BTW, I usually blend about 2/3rds of the tomatoes in a food processor, and only chop 1/3rd, but you're supposed to be practicing knife skills)
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Once all the tomatoes are diced and in the bowl, mix everything thoroughly. Add a bit of salt at a time, mix and then taste the juice. It won't taste ready, but you're looking for the harsh tang of the lime juice to be cut with the salt. Once that tang is gone, cover it and put it into the fridge. It should be ready in about 12 hours (more depending on what proportion of Romas you used), and you should turn it as often as you can.
It'll keep for a few days, again depending on how much salt and lime there is.
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