6/10/2009
A NOTE FROM THE LBC: Staff writer Magdalene Perez checks in with the LBC with this salsa recipe. I’m still on vacation in California, about to head into San Francisco for dinner, but I leave you in capable hands:
This spring, I held a swap meet as a way to get rid of old stuff and pick up a few new (free) things along the way. Being a big food lover, one of the items I snagged was a book called Nueva Salsa, by Rafael Palomino and Arlen Gargaliano. The recipes looked delicious, so I spent one night book-marking a dozen pages.
Which got me to thinking. Why not make a salsa every week? Well, this is episode one of the “Summer of Salsa” on the Lunch Break Chronicles. Every week we will show you how to make a new salsa recipe, complete with serving suggestions.
Last week we set up the video camera in CP’s kitchen and cooked up Roasted Tomato and Tarragon Salsa, served with seared steak.*
HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED:
6 plum tomatoes
1 tablespoon of olive oil
¼ cup white balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
Leaves from 1 small bunch of tarragon
One thick-cut steak
First you need to roast the tomatoes. Preheat the broiler.
From our trusty guide, Nueva Salsa:
“Core the tomatoes and cut them in half crosswise. Squeeze gently to remove most of the seeds. Place on a broiler pan or baking sheet, cut-side down. Roast under a preheated broiler, as close to the heat source as possible, for six to eight minutes, or until brown and blistered all over.”
Pull the tomatoes out of the oven, wait to cool a minute, then pull the skin off and coarsely chop. (Don’t burn yourself!)
In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients except the tarragon (you don’t want it to wilt). Stir to blend. Let sit for about 20 minutes, then stir in the tarragon and serve.
To make the steak:
We recommend starting your steak once the tomatoes are in the oven. Place an oven-friendly skillet on the stove at high heat. Pour in a tablespoon of canola oil (or something with a similarly high smoke point, like grapeseed oil), and wait until the pan is very hot, but not smoking. Meanwhile, rub your steak with salt and pepper.
Cook the steak about three minutes per side without moving around in the pan. Then, place it in the oven at 450 degrees for about five minutes, or until a meat thermometer inserted in the middle reads 135 degrees (for medium rare).
Once it’s done, cut into slices, top with salsa, and serve!
*This recipe and all others in this series are from the book Nueva Salsa, with a few tweaks.
Note: We didn’t bother to find white balsamic vinegar in the store, so feel free to use white vinegar, cider vinegar or regular balsamic. But be forewarned: if you use regular balsamic it will taste great but look like mud. Also, the recipe called for sherry wine vinegar, but being lowbrow, we went with the regular red wine vinegar in the cupboard.
Hope you enjoy! And check back next week for our next adventure: roasted jalapeno and citrus salsa.
–Magdalene Perez
