Blanco Nino's Salsa Tamulada

INGREDIENTS

1 kg Tomatoes (the best quality you can find)
1/2 Brown onion or 2 small brown onions, peeled
3 Garlic cloves, skin on
3 Scotch Bonnet or fresh habanero chilli (depending on how hot you want it)
Salt to taste, around 1 tablespoon

METHOD

Salsa Tamulada is perfect for dipping our chips into this BBQ season. The name tamulada comes from tamul, which is a wooden pestle and mortar, typical from the Yucatán peninsula, used to mash ingredients. Salsa tamulada is a chunky and rustic Mexican salsa with roasted and chargrilled notes. Ideally, the ingredients are cooked over a wood chargrill, a  BBQ or a pizza oven. Alternatively, you can use a cast iron pan or thick bottom pan over high heat. The idea is to roast ingredients heavily relatively fast to lock in the flavour. You can make it as spicy as you like, depending on what kind of chilli you want to use. If you want it very mild, you can simply use a romano pepper instead of chilli. 

1.     Pre-heat your cast iron pan or oven grill at high heat

2.     Cut the onions in quarters

3.     Place tomatoes on the pan and roast on all sides. Try to roast the skin as much as possible before it starts to peel off and juice starts to come out. Set aside

4.     Do the same with the onions, chillies and garlic with skin on. Roast until there’s a good level of charring on all sides. The onions will take longer, they should be charred but algo soft and cooked

5.     Once the garlic has cooled a bit, peel it and discard the skin

6.     In a mortar, add the garlic, onion and chillies first. Mash them until they become a rustic paste. Then add in the tomatoes and mash until you reach a salsa consistency. If you don’t have a mortar, you can pop into a blender and pulse until it becomes a chunky salsa

7.     Season to your taste with salt. 

8.     If the salsa is too thick for your liking, add a bit of water to get your preferred texture

9.     Now enjoy with some Blanco Niño tortilla chips