Salsa Fresca

We've evolved "Nacho Night" here at our home-filled-with-picky-eaters. It's not an evening snack; it's actually one of our suppers. With only about ten meals everyone will tolerate, we get some serious mileage out of nachos. Nacho Night is one of my few concessions to the meatatarians. Once every couple of months I buy a kilo of organic ground beef and fry up some mexi-beef, then freeze it in small packets for Nacho Nights. It's one of several optional garnishes for the nachos. The others are salsa roja (yer regular out-of-a-jar red salsa), sour cream, guacamole, bean dip and salsa fresca. The salsa fresca is my favourite -- from my perspective it's the whole point of Nacho Night.

Salsa Fresca

5 small, or 3 medium tomatoes
1/2 medium onion
1 or 2 jalapenos (omit in case of picky children, or likewise substitute with 1/3 cup finely chopped bell pepper)
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
juice of 1/2 lime
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. salt, to taste

Chop veggies. Mix together with lime juice and salt. Serve with corn chips, or mix 1/2 cup with 3 mashed avocados for a lovely guacamole. Or both. Yum!

I hated cilantro the first few times I tasted it. Definitely an acquired taste for me. After a 2-month road-trip to Mexico in 1991, though, I positively craved it. The aroma is so evocative for me since that trip. We are waiting on our garden cilantro. This week's cooler temperatures and rain will make the cilantro happy. It's so wet here this week that the laundry is hanging on the indoor airer again.