Pico de Gallo!

January 21st, 2016

All the things you need to produce a perfect Pico de Gallo.

A couple of days ago, you may or may not recall, I gibbered at length about my homemade chorizo. While I personally prefer it in a pork configuration, my latest batch utilized turkey instead this time around, because I am trying to cut those delicious, delicious calories out of my diet. I do miss my delicious, delicious calories, but in a pinch the turkey definitely works.

We used it to build us a homemade taco dinner last Friday night. And last Sunday night, as well. And I think Tuesday, if memory serves. Because the stuff is just that good. But chorizo in and of itself does not a taco make. No, you need shells, which Brenda can now build from scratch, along with some toppings. And the topping of choice on our tacos, of late, is Pico de Gallo.

Pico de Gallo is a sort of salsa, I suppose, that's nice and tart. While this specific recipe here wasn't mine, in that I got it from Brenda, how I prepare it is a bit different than hers. I do it that way mostly because I like to have crunchy ingredients on my tacos; in other words, I just like the texture of diced tomatoes and onions a bit better.

What you should see once you've processed all your ingredients.

So that's what I do here. I spend a probably inordinate amount of time dicing up a container of baby tomatoes that is about ten or so ounces in size, though some of those are a bit bigger. And sometimes I use two eight ounce boxes of the things. You can use whatever tomatoes you want, really, though we went with simple grape tomatoes this time around because they were on sale.

Then I grab me a small-ish white onion, and cut off anywhere from one fourth to one third of it to use. You can use more, but that will really onion up the Pico, and most people seem to shy away from that. I love onions, though, so I would add even more if I could get away with it. But I can't, so I simply dice up that much, nice and small, because giant onion chunks suck to eat.

Once I've got these two diced up, I'm almost home. This is when I pull a bunch of leaves off some cilantro stalks. Stalks? Is that the word? I don't know, because my head is still not working properly. But pull the leaves off, until you've got about a cup or so of them, and then mince them up nice and small. They can be of decent size, but smaller is better. More flavor is more! MORE!

The end result of your mixing up a delicious batch of Pico.

Then, juice a lime. The more lime juice you use, the more tart the Pico will be. I like to use one lime, but you might not be so bold, and may prefer less. You need only squeeze it out, really. After that, juice one jalapeno, if you have a fruit juicer, or failing that, you can use some green Tabasco sauce. I prefer two tablespoons of either, but your tastes (and how hot you want the Pico) may cause this to vary.

Finally, mix it all up. You can add in a pinch or two of salt if you prefer, though we found that the Pico has enough salt from the other ingredients to cover this need quite nicely. That's pretty much it. It takes me about an hour to produce this, but it will last for several meals, which means all your taco (or whatever) dishes after the first will come along more quickly. Until you need more Pico, anyway.

Of course, you might not take so long. I chop fruit and vegetables painfully slow, as I am told, and you may lack this obvious handicap. I suck in the kitchen, after all, and am more than a little paranoid about having any digits cut off again. Yes, again. Well, I managed to only get a finger cut off halfway, once, and that wasn't me that did it but my friend Acers, but that's a different story for another time.

Until then, I leave you with the itemized list necessary such that you, too, can make you some Pico de Gallo!

firebomb@obnoxiousjerk.com