World's Best Salsa

[John Havard]

World’s Best Salsa Recipe

Ingredients

*First of all, you must find and use Lawry’s salsa seasoning mix.  Nothing else will work as well.  If you can’t find it in your local grocer’s shelf then tell him/her to order it.  But until then you can always get some via Peapod or most any other online grocery store.  You will need four packages for this recipe.
*Next, buy the best tomatoes you can find.  Remember, we are making the world’s best salsa, so the basic ingredient is NO PLACE TO SCRIMP!  Good tasting tomatoes makes good tasting salsa.  Bland tomatoes like pithy Roma tomatoes makes bland salsa.  Don’t mess around – get the best.  For this recipe you will need 8 fist-sized tomatoes.
*You will need one large (or two small) sweet white onion(s).  Vidalia or Maui sweet onions should be used if available.  
*Four fresh jalapeno peppers. This recipe will not work if you used canned or otherwise non-fresh jalapeno peppers.  
*One large clump of fresh cilantro.
*Virgin olive oil.  
*Sea salt or regular salt, coarse-ground black pepper, and garlic salt.

Directions

*Dice the tomatoes and onions and place them into a LARGE bowl.  This will be a big batch of salsa and you don’t want to lose any over the edge of a small bowl.  Exceptional salsa is a terrible thing to waste!
*Slice the jalapeno peppers into halves and then quarters, lengthwise.  If you have a bunch of hair on your ass and like really hot salsa, don’t throw away the seeds.  But if you are like most people you will want to discard most if not all of the seeds leaving only the outer meat of the peppers.  Finely slice the peppers (which are now in length-wise quarters) into small pieces resembling fingernail clippings (not an appealing example but quite accurate size-wise).  Add the chopped jalapeno peppers to the bowl.  
*Pour the ingredients of all four packages of Lawry’s salsa seasoning into the large bowl.  Also, pour about a tablespoon of olive oil into the bowl.   If you are of Mediterranean descent then add more olive oil.  It’s good for you, and besides, the olive oil helps blend the flavors together.  Don’t ask me why, but without the olive oil the salsa just doesn’t “sing”.  Gently mix all ingredients in the bowl.  Remember to not bruise the tomatoes by smushing them (a highly technical cooking term) into the side of the bowl.
*Finely chop the cilantro leaves and upper stems and add to the mixing bowl.  Again, slowly and gently mix.
*Add about ½  teaspoon of regular salt , about ½ teaspoon of garlic salt, and about 1 tablespoon of coarse-ground black pepper. These amounts are the MINIMUM and serve only as a starting point for final seasoning.  Stir in with the remaining ingredients.
*Now you taste the mixture using a nice, plain corn chip.  Continue to add garlic salt and coarse-ground black pepper beyond the minimum listed above until the salsa is spicy enough to please you.  Taste, add spices.  Taste again and add more spices.  Continue until you achieve total salsa bliss.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you about how good this salsa is.  Soon word will spread, you’ll be giving interviews on TV, and people will want your autograph.  But more than that, they will want your salsa!

Enjoy!

John Havard