What's for dinner: Heirloom tomato salsa
Posted by 3Dsound at Saturday, July 19, 2008 5:34 PM and is filed under Pork,Biodiversity,Vegetarian,What's for dinner,draggin' the line,Recipe,Colorado,Chile,Salsa,BEEF,Food 
2nd in a food series (updated and bumped up from 06-Apr-08)
Draggin' the line
Heirloom tomatoes are open-pollinated varieties that have been grown somewhere for 50 years or longer, yet the varieties remain true-to-type. Although having said that, you have to realize, when talking about a nonhybrid variety, true-to-type doesn't necessarily mean that all of the fruit look the same. Open pollination confers upon nonhybrids greater genetic variation – and less uniformity in appearance – than what we see in a commercial hybrid variety. The genetic variation in heirlooms represents an agricultural resource and the biodiversity resulting from generations of cultivation. In heirloom tomatoes we see a testament to the peculiar choices, selections, preferences and needs of tomato growers located throughout the world.
Also, heirlooms taste better than any other tomato you can buy at the grocery store. With all due respect for biodiversity, as far as I'm concerned, heirlooms exist for only two reasons: to satisfy the tastes of those who want a real tomato out-of-season – or in season, if they don't grow your own garden. I fall into both categories. For better or worse (heirlooms aren't cheap), I feel lucky that heirlooms have appeared again in my local Whole Foods Market.
I'm making heirloom tomato salsa tonight to go with pork tamales from the Mexican market and the last of my leftover rice and black beans. With some feta cheese over the top, it'll all taste right.
Ingredients
1 medium-large organic heirloom tomato (approximately ¾ pound, at $4.99 per pound), chopped
1 tablespoon lime juice (from concentrate, $1.99 per 8-ounce bottle)
½ teaspoon salt
1 jalapeño chile ($0.24 from King's Sooper), finely diced
several tablespoons fresh cilantro ($2.49 per bunch), chopped
Procedure
Put lime juice into a bowl. Mix in salt. Add jalapeño and then tomato and then cilantro. Stir well, and set aside while you prepare the rest of the meal.
UPDATE, Saturday, July 19, 2008: Here's another variation on tomato salsa – this one made special by roasting the tomatoes, jalapeño chile, onion and garlic. Call it Roasted Tomato Salsa.
This isn't a salsa for using heirloom tomatoes. Instead, use the hydroponic tomatoes that come from the grocery store (or use homegrown, if you've got them). Here in Northern Colorado, hydroponic tomatoes come from the Honeyacre Produce Co. in Wiggins, Colorado, which is 70 miles east of here, out on the shortgrass steppe. I'm pretty sure Honeyacre grows their tomatoes with this salsa especially in mind.
Ingredients
2 medium tomato (approximately 1 pound, at $3.99 per pound)
1 jalapeño chile ($0.45 from Whole Foods)
½ medium-size red onion ($1.99 per bag of five onions), cut in half
3 garlic clove ($0.69 per head), unpeeled
¼-½ cup fresh cilantro ($2.49 per bunch), chopped
1 tablespoon lime juice (from concentrate, $1.99 per 8-ounce bottle)
½ teaspoon salt
Procedure
Place the tomatoes, jalapeño, onion and garlic onto a sheet of aluminum foil. Broil the vegetables in the oven until they're blistered and blackened; then flip them over, and broil the other side. When done, put the roasted tomatoes into a bowl to collect the juice and allow to cool. Put the roasted jalapeño into an airtight plastic container to steam. Put the roasted onion into the bowl of a food processor. Press the roasted garlic into the bowel of the food processor (if the garlic is overcooked, do what you can with the roasted cloves, and then press a fresh clove into the food processor).
Skin the tomatoes (core them if you feel like it), and add to the food processor, along with any juice. Skin and de-seed the jalapeño; cut into ½-inch strips; and add to the food processor. Add the cilantro, lime juice and salt to the food processor.
Process until smooth but not liquid. Taste; and correct the seasonings – usually I end up adding more cilantro, lime juice and salt. Let the flavors blend at room temperature, while you finishing preparing the meal.
Thursday night I served this salsa with guacamole, long grain brown rice (4 cups for $1.50, on sale), homemade black beans and hamburgers.
What's for dinner? See the series.
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