[00:07] Not true. Nobody says that. Now, you might be asking yourself, how many salsas could there possibly be? There's paste, there's paste chunky, out more than you could ever dare quantify or categorize. There are some
[00:22] specific salsa archetypes, but they branch off into locality and [music] family recipes, and there's no definitive list of salsas you could ever possibly make. All that being said, I'm making the definitive [music] list of 12
[00:35] making the definitive [music] list of 12 essential salsas.
[00:57] going to be my reckoning with the devil's lettuce, cilantro. I hate cilantro. I'm one of the the the 14% of the population who does. It's genetic, it's not [music] my fault. But, to make real authentic
[01:11] salsa, I have to use cilantro. Plus, I'm feeding all of these to Josh Sherer, who kind of intense about salsa. What I'm going to do is just gently climb up on sky, "Father, why have you forsaken me?" And we'll just [music] move on with our
[01:25] lives. We need to start with perhaps the most essential and recognizable salsa, the tops off of these [music] just to get rid of that tough little stem. And what we're going to do is a pretty fine mince. And so it came to pass. All
[01:40] called south of the border. I guarantee matter what the heat level is. He's going to be like, "This is some weak the this is what [music] what is too spicy for you, little baby?" And now I want
[01:53] some white onion, and I want to hit the exact same [music] dice as the tomatoes. I don't want bigger or smaller pieces of onion. To maximize the juice you get out squeeze, [music] give it a really stiff roll against the table,
[02:07] it juices like Careful. I know what you're thinking. I did think that I was. Big old pinch of salt. I'm going to start with probably about a tablespoon's
[02:19] worth of all those tomatoes and onions. And I'm going to grab a big old hunk of cilantro and I'm going to bunch it up into a ball like this, not just because I'm mad at it, but also because it makes it much easier to chop. And that's
[02:32] probably like a quarter cup of chopped cilantro mixed together. Okay, there's test even though it was going to be compromised for me.
[02:47] register that it needs more salt and more lime juice. I think that you could say that about anything. Ooh la.
[03:01] between the poison herb that's telling me that this is poison, you'll die if flavors. A great acid hit from that lime, really nice spiciness from that one serrano, and the tomatoes are nice and fresh. It really does come down to
[03:14] amount of care that you put into it. In spite of all the around, I did what I [music] was doing when I did it. And you can taste it. Next up we're making a salsa verde cruda, meaning raw. In other words, an uncooked salsa verde.
[03:29] I'm going to quarter these just to make life easier for the food processor. Food processors get a tough tough go. Okay, we're adding our tomatillos and I got my two serranos here. I'm just going to chop off the
[03:42] stems, [music] rough chop them. I got one clove of garlic. I'm just going to smash this guy, run my knife through it. And I've got our other half through it. And I've got our other half of the white onion, rough chop. Add that
[03:54] juice of one lime. Again, we can always adjust the S word. Start with Yeah, it's probably 2 tsp. You can always add more, you can never add less. it a little bit. Pulsing is kind of important because it
[04:09] tosses the food up in the jar and sort of lets it settle back down, [music] which better cycles food through. So you make sure you get more even choppage. Oh, wait. I'm going to put the cilantro
[04:22] chopped up and I don't want to puree it too much more. [music] Give this a little rough chop. There you go. the game so you still have little visible flecks of it in there. Let's
[04:35] visible flecks of it in there. Let's give it a little chip taste. Yeah. It's got a gloopy sort of semi-watery consistency. Like
[04:47] it's got the chunks in there, but you can see there's plenty of fluid that really abrasive [music] vegetal flavor. But that being said, it is a thing and I made it and here it is
[04:59] [music] and on to the next one. Next up we have salsa verde cocida, which means salsa verde, {comma} cooked. Very similar recipe. I'm going to go with be hotter, so I'm using two big old jalapeños. And you know, just to mix
[05:11] things up. Salsa verde cocida is most commonly boiled rather than raw broiled. So this is going to mellow out the flavors. It's going to make it a lot rounder and richer. It's going to be nice, but you
[05:24] I'm broiling it, but we're trying to make the prototypical examples here. So lose the stems and these guys are going in some cold water as though you were I'm going to bring this to a boil and boil them for about 10 minutes. Okay,
[05:40] blender. You can use a food processor You can do whatever you want, really. I don't I don't care. >> I got rid of most of the water. I'm hanging on to about a cup's worth just
[05:52] to adjust as needed if this is too thick. So, now we're also adding a quarter onion, nice hefty pinch of salt. I'm course, cilantro. About a quarter cup's worth.
[06:07] just to help things get started. We're going to start slow because this is hot. We don't want it spurting up through. And just push everybody down in. already looking like a great consistency.
[06:26] I recognize. And I bet it's going to taste better to me because of the heat just applied to the cilantro. That's looking like the salsa verde of my childhood. Perfect.
[06:39] But still not very good for me as a man. I do think as this going to further denature, and then maybe a night in the fridge is going to is going to taste like heaven. Next up we have probably my favorite salsa and
[06:55] one of the more quintessential actual Mexican South American salsas. It's also roja taquera. This is the red, thin, spicy salsa that you get at a really good taco place. There's usually salsa verde and
[07:08] salsa roja, and this is that salsa roja. First, I'm going to spread a pound of tomatoes out. These have been quartered. And uh I'm also going to throw our garlic cloves on there. Most recipes call for a quarter of an onion, so I got
[07:21] cut into pieces. This is going in a 400° F oven probably for on the outside of the tomatoes, just a little [music] bit. I'm putting them on the upper rack of the oven so they get more radiative heat from the top of the
[07:34] oven, almost like a low temperature broil. Here I have 1 2 3 4 guajillo chilies. These are fruity and [music] spicy and wonderful. And then I have 1 2 spicy and wonderful. And then I have 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 chiles [music] de arbol. These
[07:50] are damn near pure heat. They have a nice flavor, but they're really spicy. So, I am going to rip open the guajillos and take out their seeds. This is optional. There's several schools of thought and people
[08:03] this. I like taking out the seeds of dried chilies. This is always what I've done. And there's going to be plenty of seeds in the salsa from the tomatoes. So, I don't want it to be like just [music] rife with seeds. Cuz then I'll
[08:15] kitchen in here. And I will not have that again. pieces. I'm going to toast them in a dry pan 3 to 5 minutes until they get nice and roasty smelling, really aromatic, but not smoking. All right, tomatoes,
[08:30] and they are looking [music] wrinkly. Which is what we want. And lightly we're going to have some nice roasty flavor, some [music] mellowed out and concentrated tomato stuff. This is why I love salsa roja. We have our tomatoes,
[08:44] onions, and garlic in there. Now, I'm going to add our toasted chili peppers, quarter of an onion roughly chopped. Also got the juice of one lime, nice hefty pinch of salt. I'm also going to
[08:56] add a little splash of white vinegar. This can help do something. With this salsa, as you can see, you really want to use a blender because you
[09:10] the chilies in there. You can see those throughout. That's beautiful. Happy with processor, there's no way that it would be able to break those up enough. So, if make sure that once you're done toasting your chilies, cover them in water, soak
[09:24] soft, they'll blend easier. Or you can do it that with this, too. Doesn't do it that with this, too. Doesn't matter. Nothing matters. All right, let's give that a little tasty poo.
[09:42] thick. Most salsa roja at the at the restaurant is very [music] pourable. It's almost liquidous. It's not a word. This is quite thick and dippable.
[09:58] favorite salsa. I think cooked tomatoes are better than raw tomatoes 100% of the You heard it here first. When tomatoes are cooked, they have [music] such a wonderful sweetness and roastiness and complexity to them. Add those really
[10:13] beautiful spicy dried chilies. It's super interesting. Salsa roja taquera. Next up, the most going to blow your dick off salsa of the day, salsa de árbol. This is a salsa primarily composed of chiles de árbol. We have two
[10:28] tomatoes, we have two cloves of garlic, we have one guajillo chile just for some fun flavor balance, and then we have a fistful of chiles de árbol. And these guys, like I said, are pure heat. I'm going to start by dry roasting our
[10:40] We're also going to throw about an eighth of a roughly chopped onion in there as well, just to give it some dry heat. It's not going to caramelize or anything without any fat, but it'll still be nice to give it a little color.
[10:52] of garlic in there. And we're just going to dry roast these guys together until until we maybe maybe we have a little color on the vegetables. You'll notice hand. It's not because the pan is not hot. Pan's quite hot. It's because I'm
[11:07] Uh now, I'm going to cover them with just enough water to cover them. These 5-6 minutes. They're nice and soft. I'm going to start by scooping them out and reserving that water because it is flavorful.
[11:22] out. We'll see. Tomatoes quartered, and don't forget It's the thing I forget most often, which is super embarrassing considering which is super embarrassing considering my profession.
[11:40] Salsa de árbol, the salsa your sphincter warned you about. >> [laughter] >> Woohoo!
[11:57] faces. It's definitely not the most face that I've ever had, not by a long shot. [music] But, as far as salsa goes, that's that's pretty that's pretty happening. Maybe this will impress Josh
[12:09] >> I can't do it with my muscles, I have to do it with my mind or my Okay, so there's salsa de árbol. We'll be right back with salsa de árbol. We'll be right back with something not as spicy as this.
[12:46] >> Bavish Cookware, swear to me you'll only use it for good. favorites, salsa negra. This has got to be one of the more [music] complex and interesting salsas. It's smoky, it's fruity, it's spicy, and it's jet black.
[13:00] It's so cool. It gets that flavor and that color from the variety of chilies that we're using. I have some uh chilies de árbol here for just heat. Over here, >> [music] >> fresnos or red jalapeños, so they're
[13:14] bold and fruity, and boy they are smoky. These smell like a wood [music] fire in my house, which is not up to code. And then over here, we less about. But, they're good. These are on the
[13:27] fruitier side of things, so they bring a nice balance to all the smoke and heat that we're getting from these bad boys. Now I'm going to stem and deseed them. It's going to take forever. All right, there's my chilies. One of
[13:40] the keys to the wonderful complexity of this salsa is frying the chilies in oil, which whenever you fry chilies, it more than most cases aerosolizes the start coughing, you start producing
[13:54] mucus from your membranes, and you fall down, you shoot yourself to death. So, I'm going to wear a mask in the hopes that it will do literally anything. Now, bear in mind, I have a thick beard, so this will not do anything. In a medium
[14:07] fry pan, add about 1/4 cup of oil. Let's add our onion and four cloves of garlic. We're just going to them. And I'm doing relatively low fry here
[14:21] the chilies, and I don't want to burn the garlic. I want to get some nice browns, nice color on it, but not burn it. So now I'm going to add Make sure everybody's in the oil a little bit. All right, these are
[14:35] smelling fantastic. Against all odds, I feel no pain in my various glands. Got because we're about to add water, and things might get a little explosive. Stick around and find out if that happens or not.
[14:50] happens or not. Cross your butts. there, but if you add enough water quickly enough, I don't think it's going
[15:06] going to bring this to a simmer, cover it up, let it cook for about 15 minutes until everybody is super soft and really wet ready and excited to be blended.
[15:19] soft tend, and I'm going to dump them into the blender. You can tell already that this is going to have quite a color about it. Very [snorts] gently, it's very hot, so be very careful.
[15:35] smooth. I kind of want a little texture. That's good. I like that. See, it's like it's it's edging in on smooth, but it definitely has whole chilies and back into the pan. We're going to cook it until it's thickened to the point of
[15:49] about tomato paste. So, it's probably going to reduce by a third. I want it slightly thicker than that. I want it to to hold its shape, basically, when I All right, it was already pretty thick, but it's slightly thickened a little bit
[16:02] more. Now, off heat, I'm going to add 1 tsp of Worcestershire sauce. Then, I've got a tablespoon of brown sugar that is completely crystallized, but that's okay cuz it will melt in the nice hot salsa. A little tiny splash of vinegar, a
[16:15] A little tiny splash of vinegar, a little glug of maggi, which is [music] basically a browning sauce. This is the thick concentrated version. Normally, it's more like the consistency of soy sauce. So, you'd want to add a teaspoon
[16:27] of the soy sauce version. I'm going to add just like a little tiny blep blop. Like a half or a quarter of a teaspoon. salt. This looks so good. If I if I were in like a taco spot and I saw this
[16:41] salsa, I'd make a beeline for it even if it was at somebody else's table. going to double it to about 2 tbsp. I don't care if that's not how they do it
[16:56] south of the border. I'm hosting Thanksgiving.
[17:09] >> [laughter] >> That's real good. It's It's really would love to put this on a fish taco, like a fried fish taco. I feel like that [music] that we're making here today, really
[17:22] highly recommend trying this one because it's harder to find and it's very, very >> [music] >> Next up, salsa borracha or rubber salsa. Drunken salsa. Borracha means rubber in Portuguese. I
[17:37] Borracha means rubber in Portuguese. I think you'll agree that was very funny. pasilla chilies, four morita chilies, one garlic clove, and two you're using Roma tomatoes just as [music] a kind of standard and also
[17:52] tomatoes. So, in this case these are about same size as Roma tomatoes on the vine. I'm just going to char these cut side down. Normally this is a big no-no in stainless steel because it'll just stick, but because we are going to be
[18:06] matter. So, by the [music] time we get a color, we deglaze it, and it all ends up garlic in there, too, to get a little bit [music] of color. I'm going to toss these guys in around the tomatoes. Make sure they get a little toast action. All
[18:19] sure they get a little toast action. All right, I think that's good. Let's deglaze with beer. I'm going to add just enough, enough to sure that the chilies are covered. Yeah, let's just add a little bit of
[18:33] beer. Who gives a There we go. And as you can see, the tomatoes lift right off the bottom. All that good stuff, all that fond, lifts And now I'm going to simmer this uncovered for a minute or two so the
[18:47] >> [music] >> the alcohol smell wears off, I'm going to cover it, simmer it, let everything get nice and soft 10-15 minutes. These guys have been cooking for about 10 minutes. They're nice and soft. Smells
[18:59] so smoky. It smells like tobacco. Those morita chilies are just like smoke morita chilies are just like smoke monsters. [music] Hefty pinch of salt.
[19:12] Ooh, pretty. There is our salsa borracha, or drunken salsa. can taste the beer. [music] It's a nice kind of malty, carby kind of vibe, and
[19:24] [music] abrasive chilies. I'm not going to say it's my favorite, but it is up there. It's pretty good. Like it's it's a it's [music] a really interesting and appropriate flavor. Like beer works really well in there. So,
[19:38] Cool. Next up, the salsa that I'm probably the most excited about, salsa macha. This is basically [music] South American or Mexican chili crisp. Uh it it's got peanuts, it's got pepitas, it's got
[19:51] garlic and and chilies that have been deep-fried and then served in the oil. Sounds pretty awesome. [music] So, the chilies we have here are 1 2 3 4 5 6 morita chilies and 12 chiles de arbol. I'm going to just break things up a
[20:07] little bit. All right, we're going to dry roast these for a couple minutes. These guys are smelling nice and roasty toasty, so I'm going to remove them. Then the empty pan, I'm adding about a cup and a half of vegetable oil. Now, to
[20:20] the cold oil I'm going to add a quarter cup of peanuts. And we're going to heat start to brown. Pull them out, then we're putting everything else in. Ooh. Ooh. Ooh. I don't even care.
[20:35] to add our garlic cloves. I've never deep-fried fascinating day. Uh a half cup of pepitas. seeds and cumin seeds. Going to add our
[20:51] chilies to the mix. And I'm already seeing some color in the kill the heat. All right, so I'm going to take this not itself, because there's still a lot of heat here. It'll keep cooking things.
[21:04] And I'm going to let it come down to like 200° before I try to blend anything cuz I don't want to die. This is cooled down to a reasonable enough temperature. So, now I'm going to strain out all the oil. Hang on to that oil cuz it probably
[21:17] tastes like God's favorite enchilada recipe. Look at all them good crispies in there. We're also going to season with salt and I'm going to do about the same amount of sugar, like 1 tsp worth.
[21:35] I'm just going to add the oil back to our mixture and there you have it, salsa macha. Here we go.
[21:49] Oh, no. Oh, that's good. God. Sweet. I love that. Oh, I'm really glad we added the cumin and the coriander. The seeds are providing this really citrusy
[22:03] pop. It tastes incredible. That is one of the most >> [music] >> rich, >> rich, aromatic, gorgeous sauces. Salsa macha,
[22:16] Earth. I think I think we should stop. Do I need to make any more stuff? Next up we have the salsa with the coolest looking name and perhaps the lamest pronunciation. It's spelled X N I P E C.
[22:32] But it's pronounced shnee-pek. This is a highly ancient salsa. One might even say Mayan because that's what it is. It is a Mayan salsa. It incorporates tomatoes, red onion, which is exciting for me at this juncture, sour orange juice, which
[22:47] now, so we have an orange and a lime, which is an acceptable enough >> [music] >> two whole habanero peppers, seeds included. I have to finely chop another two tomatoes. [music]
[23:01] To that I'm going to add quarter of a red onion. Just enough onion to, maybe like a four to one ratio tomato and onion. And then we have the habaneros, the whole reason that I gloved up in the first place. These guys
[23:15] [music] then I'm probably just going to rock chop them. Mince these guys almost into a paste. Woo, it smells lively. Very important step with making the salsa is transferring it to a a bigger bowl,
[23:28] where I'm going to add the juice of half a very juicy orange. Oh, goodness.
[23:41] This I'm excited about. Habaneros with orange and lime, that sounds killer. Hefty pinch. All right, there we have it. Not schnippiece, but schnippick. I'm going to roll up on an ancient Mayan civilization be like, "You have any
[23:56] Schnippickers? Are you schnippicking? I don't >> [music] >> That is a much spicier, fruitier, more
[24:08] acidic pico. And the the the [music] the onion flavor is stronger as well because wonderful wonderful addition. They bring a lot of play. There it is, folks. Schnippick,
[24:22] it didn't have cilantro in it for me at least. Otherwise, I think you'll really enjoy it. Next up, salsa de molcajete, for which we need a molcajete. A mortar and pestle. What makes it [music] different? Volcanic rock. As you can
[24:37] see, it's very rough and porous, unlike granite, which is normally what mortar [music] get a molcajete, you have to season it. And then you season it quite unlike anything I've ever seasoned before. First, start
[24:51] rice. So, we're just going to grind it in there until the rice basically turns black.
[25:03] >> rice treatments. So, I'm going to toss this and get some more. All right. So, as you can see, it's lightened in color and a lot of the grains of rice. Pretty sure this is to help it hold [music] water because it's
[25:15] so porous. This helps block up those pores. So, now that we have it polished, my favorite part, [music] I think, is adding a dozen garlic cloves and a pinch of salt and grinding this into a paste, the oil of which is going to also help
[25:30] the molcajete. You want to work this into a really smooth paste. Make sure to work it all the way up the sides and hit every part. All right.
[25:42] see the oil has really penetrated the stone. [music] So, let's rinse this out and do it again. This time a little less garlic.
[25:56] looks. That is actually [music] quite cool. This also the molcajete, I'm sure can take many forms because really it's saying salsa made in a molcajete. But, the most traditional and and recognizable version of it is pretty
[26:09] simple. Doing one tomato, a little handful of cilantro, a quarter of a garlic, and one serrano pepper. Normally, I would probably do a half of to be spicy, so I'm [music] going to go hog wild. So, a quarter of an onion is
[26:23] so I'm just going to do like a sliver of onion, which I will just kind of rough chop. Chili, I might just chop the stem off, leave it whole. Not going to roast that's it. I'm going to throw these
[26:37] color on them. Okay. Tomatoes and onions are done broiling. I took out the garlic and the chili cuz they were browning a little these up a little bit just to make things easier on myself.
[26:51] That is a huge ratio of chili for this amount of So, maybe I'll do I will just amount of So, maybe I'll do I will just do half of this around of this start. dealing with much here. Just going to do
[27:05] a few leaves again because of the sheer lack of amount. Rough chop the vegetables. the vegetables. And away we go.
[27:21] having hardest time breaking up. Okay. That's ladies and germs is [music] salsa de molcajete, a very very small
[27:36] amount of not even enough to fill our half-sized bowl. Let's give it a shot.
[27:53] some kind. It just adds [music] a lot of depth and sweetness and you know when that much. So, I'm glad that I only made these I don't know what I was expecting. It was one tomato.
[28:07] there it is. Next step, an even more [music] ancient salsa clocking in at over 1,000 years old. How's it What's it called? Sikil P'aak. Sikil P'aak means seeds and tomato.
[28:22] Because that's [music] primarily what's in it. First and foremost, pumpkin seeds toasted and cooled completely. You want to do that because their oil and they're going to process into more of like a paste than crushed
[28:36] want texture. [music] We want crunch. So, I'm going to start their own before adding the rest of the stuff. There we go. Nice and lightly processed. Now, I'm going to add our roasted and
[28:49] cooled vegetables. I just threw these in the oven for about 15 minutes until we got some nice char on them. A couple tomatoes. Let me see if I can put more habanero. I'm doing a half recipe, so that technically means go with a half
[29:02] habanero, but uh you know. Then I've got two cloves of garlic. This time when I roasted the garlic, I left them in their skins, [music] so that way you still get some nice color and caramelization on the clove without
[29:14] see? Ooh, bam. And it's all nice and soft. through. This [music] also calls for sour orange. If you don't have sour sour orange. If you don't have sour oranges, the juice of half or quarter of
[29:27] lime. Let's also get some [music] salt in there nice and early so it's well distributed throughout. I should have chopped up the onions before I did this. That was foolish.
[29:40] Kind of got a pale, pinkish, fleshy kind of color about it. Not crazy about that. Here we go. Let's slop that right out of the drainage bag into the bowl. Very chunky drainage today, Mr. Um
[29:55] McGillicuddy. Yeah, no. This is uh we need to get some Shouldn't come out like that. So, let's uh eat it. Let's try it. delicious. Like it's really good. I want more tomato in it. I want more acid,
[30:11] [music] too. I might actually just add some more juice. The nuts, all the fat from the nuts and the richness just really cuts through the heat. And it's a joy to taste. It's really, really, genuinely tasty. Good and spicy
[30:24] >> [music] >> rich fattiness from the nuts just like close your eyes when you eat it. That's the That's That's what Siku Pak actually [music] translates to is closed eyes. Which would be so sick, honestly.
[30:39] Imagine a dish called closed eyes cuz it's disgusting looking, [music] but it's delicious. >> Next up, salsa de aguacate or salsa of the water cat. >> Or
[30:51] so avocado salsa. It's a easier way. I that. So, this is a very easy one to put together. It's just basically an avocado puree with salsa stuff in it. So, grab yourself a nice ripe avocado that uh
[31:07] Rachel incredibly found at this time of year. To the avocado, we're adding the juice of at least one lime. Uh this avocado being avocado, it oxidizes [music] quite quickly. So, this salsa will turn
[31:21] without the presence of a fair amount of acid. So, I'm starting with one [music] whole lime. Might add more. I've got a handful of cilantro that I'm going to serrano. Might as well throw that in there. Plus
[31:36] some fresh and raw one clove of garlic. Squidge of [music] salt. And make sure that this reaches a lovely A quarter cup of water. I'm going to start with half of it just cuz we want
[31:49] to be able to adjust as needed. Here we go. >> [music] >> Also, I do want this a little thinner.
[32:02] further with a little splash of tequila. [music] I've added it to my guac in the past and I But, [music] still need a little bit more water.
[32:18] but it just it looks and smells so nice. I just I just don't want to mess with it So, let's see just what the hell it tastes like.
[32:31] more acid and that will again help preserve its appearance. Mhm. amount of lime juice to play against the fat, to help preserve its color, and for
[32:43] to lessen [music] the intensity of the cilantro. Like that is >> [music] >> The lime juice is definitely going to help prevent it from oxidizing, but it still will definitely oxidize. So, if
[32:56] wouldn't do it more than, [music] you know, several hours in advance. And if you do, cover it with plastic wrap directly down [music] onto the surface because oxidise. Oxygen? Oxygen bad. Remove oxygen from the situation.
[33:14] That's what kills us in the end. Oxidization. Why our bodies break down. >> Yet we need it to survive. >> Beautiful paradox. apart from a dozen or so recipes for delicious and diverse salsas?
[33:30] all we learned. And you know what? For an episode about salsas, that's exactly right. But which salsa was the best? Which one was the worst? [music] To find latest episode of my new podcast In the Booth with Babish, available now on
[33:44] podcasts. In the latest episode, I surprised Josh Scherer with all these salsas. [music] We taste test each and every one and find our favorites. >> It's garlicky as
[33:56] leave a comment below what you want to see next on this show. Which salsas did >> [music] >> What's your favorite color color of M&M? I'm curious. Mine's blue. And yellow, green,
[34:11] orange. Purple. Well, that's Skittles. I'm [music] thinking of Skittles. What's your favorite color Skittle?