Enlightened Salsa

So it looks like I will be trying to sell some Salsa at the farmers market. Over the last two weeks I have been a salsa making fool, and have settled on five different types that I am very happy with. I actually had a mango salsa that I really liked, but mangoes seem to be going out of season, so I won't be making it.  How much of this stuff I can sell on a given weekend is up in the air, I have no idea. Where I will store it all, given the size of our refrigerator is also a point that I will need to consider. I'm going to go into the first weekend with low expectations and a fairly limited amount of product and see how it does I think.

This is the label for the standard chunky garden style salsa. Kim put together the picture for me, and I did the colors and writing. There was some discussion about whether it might be offensive to have the Buddha in a sombrero, but I think it's clear from the tag lines that it's all meant in good fun. If this kind of thing bothers you, most likely you need thicker skin, and besides Buddhism teaches to let such trivial things go anyway.

As to the salsa itself, this one is a fresh garden salsa with tomatoes, onion, garlic, cilantro, all mixed up with some lemon juice and a splash of tequila. I'm thinking of starting this one at 200 Rs which is a good deal I think considering that crappy Old El Paso sells in the stores here for 280 RS, and I think it's only 350ML and my bottles are 500.

This is essentially a bruschetta mix with the addition of capers, Greek olives, and sun-dried tomatoes. I eat this stuff at least once a week on my own as it is. Goes great on bread and with various cheeses. Serve with some red wine and you can almost forget that you're in Kathmandu. As the capers and olives are not local and the sun dried tomatoes are a little pricier than the other vegies I'm going to be selling this stuff for around 300 Rs a bottle, which is rather good considering the ingredients I think.

I love this salsa. I had never thought of using pomegranate in salsa before, but I figured I would give it a try since you can get them year round in Kathmandu. I threw it together with some other Persian inspired ingredients and the result is quite tasty in my opinion. The pomegranate is just subtly sweet and the mix of the mint and saffron along with it makes for a really different flavor. Despite the different flavor undertones it is still definitely salsa, and still goes great on tortilla chips. This one also has some pricier ingredients, so I'm pricing this one at 300 Rs a jar as well.

This was the hardest one to make. Anyone can throw together a super hot salsa, the trick is to over ride the hotness with enough flavor so that people who like spicy food will continue to eat it despite the burn going down (and most likely coming out!). To accomplish this I grilled about half the peppers and blended them in with the liquid component, giving the salsa not only a great texture but also a flavor that over rides that bitter taste you can get if you just rely on hot peppers for lots of spice. Although this label says 3 different hot peppers, I have in fact changed it to 4 and made the flavor a little better. While it isn't the hottest salsa I've ever had or made, it is definitely spicy. This was Kim's favorite. I should be selling this one for 250 Rs.

I had no idea how this was going to come out when I first thought of it, but I'm really happy with the result. Although just as spicy as most of the other salsa's the mint cucumber and lime combine to make a very cool and refreshing summery kind of salsa. A few other ingredients in the sauce give it a distinct Thai flavor. I really want to try and find some wanton chips to serve it with, but I haven't had any luck finding any as of yet.

So if you are in Kathmandu next Saturday feel free to stop by the 1905 farmer's market and try some salsa!