Expat eats: in search of salsa
Maybe it’s all the Mexican food we ate on our recent trip to the US, but I’ve had enough of the crappy salsa offerings in Germany. Standard German grocery stores tend to stock one brand of salsa, usually Old El Paso. My attempts to find alternatives have not been good. I once joyfully bought up several types of salsa from a small Mexican store near Pariser Platz, only to discover at home that every single one of the jars had expired. A long time ago. (I ate them anyway.) And then this, the last straw:
Don't buy this.
I don’t remember where I bought it, but I do remember recoiling in horror at the first taste. A glance at the ingredients would have spared me the pain: water, sugar, tomato puree (14%), a couple things that actually belong in salsa, a couple more that don’t, MSG, etc. The jar also proudly states that its contents are preservative-free and thus should be eaten within seven days of opening, which luckily means that I can throw the rest away now rather than guiltily storing it in the back of my fridge for a year.
It’s not like fresh salsa is so hard to make, so I’ve decided to quit whining and start chopping (well, food processing, mostly; I’m no kitchen martyr). In general this is my preferred approach when faced with expat food dilemmas, since we don’t travel back and forth to the US often enough to do our own importing. So far my homemade peanut butter, brown sugar, vanilla extract, and chocolate chips have proven themselves to be as good as or better than the originals, so why not add salsa to the list?
My first couple attempts at homemade salsa have been good, but they could be better. Anyone have a favorite salsa tip or recipe they’d like to share?
A couple side questions, if anyone wants to humor me with some answers: For those of you who prefer to work with fresh hot peppers (in general, not just for salsa), what do you see as the advantage over dried? Can you taste a big difference? And for those who already make your own salsa, do you de-seed the tomatoes? All the recipes I’ve used so far have told me to do it, but I don’t think things taste substantially worse when I leave them in.
I’m hoping to hit upon the perfect recipe in time for our somewhat-annual Eurovision party in a few weeks. Too bad Germany doesn’t stand a chance again this year.
