Green Tomato, Corn and Pineapple Salsa

Yummy, sweet, savory, chunky with a full body to it and Spicy !!
These are the qualities your taste buds yearn for when trying a salsa and this salsa will satisfy you palate to the fullest.

A dear co-worker of mine brought some green tomatoes  from her garden for every one, I took two big one of ,my share and came home, and was going to make green tomato salsa. Did not have time so,   put them in the fridge and forgot about them. Then we left for vacation.  When go back after 11 days, remembered about the tomatoes thinking that they will be totally  rotten, but to my surprise they were fine, one of them had turned yellowish red and another one was still green. We just got back from Hawaii, I still had the craving for pineapple so decided to make this salsa with touch of tropics for sweetness.

 

 Ingredients:

• 2 green tomatoes
• 1 yellow onion
• 3 green onions with leaves
• 4-6 Fresh Jalapeno peppers or less if you don't want very spicy.
• 1 green pepper (capsicum)
• 1 bunch of cilantro leave chopped
• 1/4 cup of vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
• 1 teaspoon of mustard seeds

• 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder 
• 1 tablespoon of coriander powder (optional)
• 2 teaspoon of  roasted cumin seeds powder
• 1/3 cup of brown sugar or to taste to sweetness you desire
• 1/2 cup of  white vinegar
• 1 can of kernels of corn drained and washed
• 1 can of pineapple tidbits or crushed pineapple if you don't want very chunky
• Salt to taste

Method:
* Cut all the veggies in to chunks separately
* Heat oil in a sauce pan.
* When oil is heated, add cumin seeds and mustard seeds.
* When these crackle, add yellow and gree onion chunks.
* Saute for few min until light brown.
* Add green pepper chunks, fresh jalapenos chunks and tomatoes chunks.


* Add salt.
* Cook for 5 min.
* Add  turmeric, coriander powder, cumin powder.
* Cook for few min until everything is slightly tender.
* Add sugar and cook for another 1-2 min.
* Turn the heat off.
* Let the cooked veggie cool.
* Add chopped cilantro.
* Blend everything with hand blender until  smooth paste.
* Add vinegar.
* Mix well.
* Add drained and washed kernel of corn
* Add pineapple.
* Mix well
* Taste and adjust salt, sweetness and tartness to your taste by adding salt, sugar and vinegar if needed.

* Serve with corn chip use as a topping on your favorite dish.
* Refrigerate unused salsa.
* It should stay good for 3-4 weeks.

 Recipes and Photographs by Surekha

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Jicama Salad

I had posted a recipe of Jicama Salad earlier, this is another version of this salad. This can be used as a side dish, or as one of the fillings for taco, burrito or fajita. You can mix it with your favorite salsa. I like it mixed in with my bean, corn, and mango salsa (recipe on this blog)
Here is some information on Jicama as I  mentioned on my earlier post."Pachyrhizus erosus, commonly known as jicama (hicama); Spanish jícama, Mexican yam, or Mexican turnip, is the name of a native Mexican vine although the name most commonly refers to the plant's edible tuberous root. Spaniards spread cultivation of Jícama from Mexico to Philippines, from there it went to China and other parts of Southeast Asia.  Although I never had it in India, I found out that it is available in India and known as mishrikand.

The flavor is sweet and starchy, reminiscent of
some apples or raw green beans, or asian pear, and it is usually eaten raw, sometimes with salt, lemon, or lime juice and chili powder. It is also cooked in soups and stir-fried dishes. Jícama is often paired with chili powder, Cilantro, ginger, lemon, lime juice, orange, red onion, salsa, sesame oil, and soy sauce. The root's exterior is yellow and papery, while its inside is creamy white. It has a crisp texture that resembles raw potato or Asian pear

Jícama is high in carbohydrates in the form of dietary fiber. It is composed of 86-90% water; it contains only trace amounts of protein and lipids. Its sweet flavor comes from the oligofructose inulin  (also called fructo-oligosaccharide) which is a prebiotic. Jicama is high in vitamins C, A, and some Bs, along with calcium and phosphorus.

It should be stored dry, between 12 and 16°C (53 and 60°F). Colder temperatures will damage the root; do not refrigerate. A fresh root stored at an appropriate temperature will keep for a month or two.

In Mexico it is popular in salads, fresh fruit combinations, fruit bars, soups, and other cooked dishes. Just like in India, they sell cut cucumber  and guava as street food with salt, cumin, cayenne pepper and lime juice, this is sold the same way in Mexico as street food along wth strips of cucumber and pineapple.
In contrast to the root, the remainder of the Jícama plant is very poisonous, the seeds contain the toxin rotenone, which is used to poison insects and fish.

Ingredients: 
* 2 pounds of Jicama
* 1/4 cup of chopped Cilantro
* Freshly squeezed juice from 2 limes
* 1 large jalapeno pepper (or to taste)
* Salt to taste.
* 1 teaspoon of crushed red pepper(or to taste)

Method: 
* Wash and cut Jicama in to two halves.
* Peel the skin off.
* Cut the  the peeled jicama in small cubes of desired size.
* Finely chop jalapeno pepper.
* Wash and finely chop cilantro.
* Fold the chopped jalapeno pepper and cilantro with cubed jicama. 

* Add lime juice, salt, and crushed red pepper.
* Toss all ingredients until well incorporated.
* Serve fresh you may refrigerate the rest.

 

Jicama information source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachyrhizus_erosus

http://en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License

Recipe and Photographs by Surekha.

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