Hot Mango Salsa
current situation: christmas mango salsa… yes its hot
Yes it's hot. That was the warning and it was accurate.
This is a blended salsa, not a pico — look at the bowl, it is loose and red and clings to a chip rather than falling off it. That comes from charring the tomatoes and chillies under a broiler first and then pulsing them, which is how it is done in a taqueria and almost never at home.
The mango goes in by hand at the end, in chunks. Blended with everything else it disappears into sweetness; folded in whole you get a cold sweet piece every few bites that turns the heat down for a second.
- Makes
- About 4 cups
- Hands-on
- 25 minutes
- Char
- Under the broiler
- Heat
- Your call
What you need
Under the broiler
- 2 lb ripe tomatoes, halved
- 1 white onion, in thick slabs
- 4 cloves garlic, skins on
- 4 serrano chillies
- 2 jalapeños (from my garden)
- 2 dried chillies de árbol, for the back of the throat
Folded in at the end
- 2 ripe mangoes, in 1/2-inch chunks
- 1 large bunch coriander, stalks and all, chopped
- Juice of 2 limes
- 1 small white onion, diced fine
- Salt — more than you think
How it goes
1 — Char everything under the broiler, hard
Tomatoes cut side down, onion slabs, garlic in its skin and the fresh chillies, all on a foil-lined tray as close to the element as it goes. Ten to fifteen minutes until they are blackened in patches and collapsing.
2 — Toast the dried chillies separately, 30 seconds
In a dry pan until they smell toasted and darken slightly. Thirty seconds, no more — a burnt dried chilli is bitter and it will poison the whole bowl.
pro tip — Soak the toasted ones in hot water for ten minutes before they go in the blender, or you get hard flecks through the salsa.
3 — Squeeze the garlic out of its skins
It will be soft and sweet and golden. Roasted garlic is why this tastes deep rather than raw and sharp.
4 — Pulse, do not blend
Everything charred into a blender or processor and pulsed six or eight times in short bursts. You want texture — visible pieces, not a smoothie. Over-blending also whips air in and turns it orange and foamy.
5 — Salt it while it is still warm
Warm salsa takes salt far better than cold. It will need more than feels right; tomatoes absorb an enormous amount of it.
6 — Cool it, then fold in the mango and coriander
Cooled to room temperature first, then the mango chunks, raw diced onion, coriander and lime juice folded in by hand. Hot salsa would cook the mango and wilt the coriander.
7 — An hour in the fridge before anybody tries it
It is sharp and separate on the first taste and settles into one thing within the hour. Taste it again for salt before it goes on the table.
Christmas mango salsa. Yes, it's hot. There is a bowl of chips and nobody was warned twice. LFG.