If music be the food of Spain, play on! There’s a definite Hispanic theme to this week since the other day it occurred to me that having first had salsa but no tortilla chips, I now had tortilla chips but no salsa; and whereas making your own chips might be a bit of a tall order, making salsa was surely straightforward. Pausing only to consult absolutely no recipes whatsoever (I’m a When all else fails read instructions kinda gal) I decided that the key ingredients were: onions (check) tinned tomatoes (check) and chilli powder (double check.) Incidentally last night I made a rather shocking error when I assumed the yellow powder OH had bought was turmeric and put some in my tea. It dries up mucus so I have it for that purpose occasionally; however this turned out not to be turmeric but HOT curry powder. Ouch! But I digress; having assembled the salsa ingredients I fried the onions, added some tomato puree and the chopped tomatoes, stirred in some chilli powder and left to reduce for about half an hour. When cold I put it into jars and stored in the fridge. It’s good stuff and barely extinguishable from the shop-bought variety. Incidentally it’s interesting that in my lifetime mass-produced foods have gone from being a poor second best, to something we try to emulate. And yes, I know I should have written ‘distinguishable’ but my mouth is still on fire…
The other Hispanic event is that I’m awaiting the arrival of Chocolate Bossa, a Chris Conway CD. In my youth I never particularly liked bossa but just as you have to go to France to know what Brie should taste like, you have to live in a Hispanic country to understand the music; and since I lived in Spain I’ve developed a feel for salsa, flamenco and bossa. And all that jazz. I hope it comes soon.
Kirk out
Sarada Gray 