We decided to eat Mexican for dinner last night. I made some Spinach Enchiladas along with black bean salad and Spanish rice. The boys wanted to have some chips and salsa to make it just like the restaurant dinner and that is when I made this Xni Pec Salsa. We have a long-time relationship with Habanero. Back in NY, when we were new to vegetable gardening, we went to the nursery and asked for the spiciest of the pepper. We were a little boastful and said that we eat really spicy food and none of the peppers here cut it for us. The person who works at the local nursery recommended that we buy the habanero peppers. I bought 3 plants of Habanero and happily planted them. Once the peppers started growing, the yield was just abundant. We had more than 100 habanero pepper. I started processing them like I would the regular peppers, by washing them and then taking the skin out and chopping them. Within a few minutes, my fingers were on fire. I washed my hands really well (read forever) and still for the next 3 to 4 days, any part of my skin that my fingers would itch was on fire. It was summer and I sweat quite a lot. I could not use my hands to wipe the sweat off my face as then my whole face would turn red and start burning. Lesson learned and that was the first and the last time we planted Habanero. When I came across this recipe for Habanero Salsa, the whole story just came to me and I was laughing now. After going through the agony, I would highly warn you all to use gloves when dealing with habanero. The Habanero that I bought from the store was nowhere close to spicy as the ones we grew. I assume the more you store them, they start losing their heat. I decided to roast the peppers under the broiler for a few minutes and that did bring out an abundance of flavor. The salsa was quite spicy and the boys were not too happy as they loved it, but could not handle the heat. The pineapples came to my rescue and I chopped a few pieces of pineapple and added it to the salsa. It brought down the heat and also added a lovely sweetness that was very appreciated in this case. If you are looking for a salsa that is not as spicy but yet extremely addictive and delicious, then you got to make my Homemade Quick and Easy Salsa. This is a perfect recipe to make in summer when there is an abundance of tomatoes in the backyard. It just tastes even better when we make it with homegrown fresh produce. Preparation time - 10 minutes Cooking time - 5 minutes Difficulty level - easy
Ingredients to make Xni Pec Salsa - serves 6
Tomatoes (I used Roma) - 5 Habanero peppers - 4 Red onion - ½ cup (finely chopped) Cilantro - ¼ cup (finely chopped) Lime juice - 3 TBSP Orange juice - 3 tablespoon (freshly squeezed) Salt - to taste olive oil - 1 tsp Corn chips - to serve
Procedure to make Habanero Salsa -
Slice the habanero peppers in half and carefully remove the seeds. Be very careful when handling the peppers as they can be very spicy and could leave a burning sensation in your hands for a long time. Wear gloves when handling the pepper. Lay their skin side up and drizzle with olive oil. Place them under the broiler for 2 to 3 minutes until the skin begins to char. Flip it to the other side and place it under the broiler for a minute more.
Remove it from the oven and let it cool. Now finely chop the peppers and place them in a large mixing bowl. Remove the seeds and the pulp from the tomatoes and chop them finely. Place them in the same bowl.
Add the chopped red onion and cilantro to the same bowl. Mix well. Squeeze the lime juice and the orange juice and add salt to taste.
Mix well and let it sit for at least 20 minutes before serving. The flavors blend together very well if let sit overnight in the refrigerator.
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