Daniel Pfyl, hospitality management lecturer at Otago Polytechnic, shares some professional techniques to make your cooking easier. This month he shows us how to make some easy salsas.
Salsas are sauces, often made with fresh herbs, vegetables, fruit and spices. They are often associated with Mexican cuisine, but they are also found in other countries, such as salsa verde, an Italian green sauce with capers, anchovies and herbs.
Salsa verde
Ingredients
1 cup flat-leaf parsley
1 cup spring onions
½ cup basil
½ cup mint
1 Tbsp capers
¼ cup gherkins
3-6 anchovy fillets
2 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
zest and juice of a lemon
30ml red wine vinegar or to taste
120ml extra virgin olive oil
sea salt and pepper
Methods
1) Quantities are flexible, and you can vary the herbs you use depending on what's available or what flavours you like. This one with mint is particularly good with roast or barbecued lamb.
2) Chop the herbs and spring onions, add the capers and gherkins and chop finely. Put into a bowl.
3) Use a mortar and pestle to crush the garlic and anchovies and add to the herbs. A pinch of salt helps with this. Add to the herbs.
4) Grate in the lemon zest and squeeze in the juice. Add some of the vinegar. You may not want all the vinegar if the lemon is very juicy. Stir everything together.
5) Slowly add the extra virgin olive oil while mixing. It is well worthwhile using a good extra virgin oil for the flavour it gives. Stir all ingredients together, taste and adjust seasoning with vinegar, salt and pepper. An alternative method is to put everything in a food processor and whizz them together, but be careful not to over-process. It should be textural and thick enough to hold when put on meat or other food.
Allow the salsa to stand for at least an hour, stirring occasionally, to allow the flavours to meld. It may thin slightly as it stands. Salsa verde will keep in the fridge for a few days.
Mango salsa
Ingredients
1 ripe mango, peeled and diced
½ cucumber, peeled and diced
1 Tbsp jalapeno chilli, chopped very finely
½ red onion, chopped very finely
zest and juice of a lime
⅓ cup coriander leaves, chopped
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
sea salt and pepper
Method
1) To slice the mango, slice downwards about of the way from the flat sides. This way you should avoid the flat, oval stone - you should have two ''cheeks''. Slice the remaining narrow sides off.
2) To dice the cheeks, with a small knife dice the flesh down to the skin.
3) Turn them inside out for a hedgehog effect - lovely for decorating a fruit platter.
4) Scrape the cubes from the skin with a spoon or knife and peel and dice the remaining pieces of mango. Put in a bowl.
5) Peel stripes down the cucumber and slice in half vertically.
6) Scrape the seeds out with a spoon and dice the flesh. The seeds can make the salsa watery. Add the cucumber dice to the mango.
7) Dice the jalapeno finely. It can be fresh or pickled. Remove the seeds if you prefer a milder flavour. Finely dice the onions. You don't want big chunks of onion or chilli in the salsa. Add to the salsa.
8) Chop the coriander and stir into the salsa.
Grate the lime zest in and squeeze in the juice.
9) Stir in the oil and season to taste.
10) Allow to stand, stirring occasionally, for an hour to allow the flavours to meld.
Chef Pfyl says this is good with venison, among many other things.
Variations: Chopped tomato flesh, without the seeds, is a good addition.
Instead of mango and cucumber use: sweetcorn kernels and diced avocado; or diced roasted red capsicum and tomato flesh (no seeds); or for salsa fresca use 2 cups diced tomato flesh (no seeds) and a finely chopped clove of garlic.
If you would like to request a particular technique we haven't already shown, please let us know. Write to Cooking 101, Editorial Features, Otago Daily Times, PO Box 181, Dunedin or email odt.features@odt.co.nz with cooking 101 in the subject line.
To check earlier Cooking 101 columns visit: www.odt.co.nz and search for ''cooking 101''.
More information on cooking from Otago Polytechnic can be found on www.otagocookeryl4.blogspot.com
