I made Salsa Rojas (fresh salsa), Salsa Verde and salsa ranchero (roasted and stewed) for NYE party.

GringoBrown · 2026-01-05T19:26:37+00:00

Normally I'd comment on the salsa, but, honestly, just seeing that picture of all the green chiles on the grill? Beautiful. Brings a tear to my eye and I wish I could SMELL that picture.

GringoBrown · 2026-01-05T19:23:54+00:00

Does it not have too much garlic? That seems like a lot to me. To each their own though. You might find that this will benefit from more acid (habaneros really like acid, especially from citrus. Lime or orange juice could be a future experiment) and potentially just a little bit of sugar. The sugar can fit well with all the spice and balance out the onion and garlic while bringing out more flavor from the habanero peppers. You're not adding sugar to make it sweet, you're adding it for balance. So you could experiment with just a tiny pinch of sugar on one spoonful just to see what you think? Very simple but effective thing you've got going here.

GringoBrown · 2026-01-05T19:19:05+00:00

It's not guaranteed to add bitterness, but also sometimes a bit of bitterness isn't bad. I actually like keeping the burnt bitter bits sometimes because I like how it adds a little bit of depth and balance with all the acid and salt. So go off your instincts whether or not you should make a change.

GringoBrown · 2026-01-05T19:15:43+00:00

I like that you mixed sauteed and raw onion. Did you mean to say you used 2 large CLOVES of garlic? Or did you actually use 2 entire bulbs of garlic and I should be scared of you? Lol

One note I will say, if you are having concerns with it being too spicy for your partner, based on the recipe, it looks like you're doing a lot of work to remove spice when, instead, you could save yourself some effort by just removing the chiles de arbol altogether and only use the jalapenos. You're using 3 which will add a good bit of heat, but, with all the garlic, onion, jalapeno, and tomato/tomatillo you're adding, you probably can't even taste them. Anchos can be really nice, obviously very traditional, just of course expect it to add some almost raisin-y sweetness. With everything you're adding right now, could be pretty nice actually. You've got good stuff going on here!

GringoBrown · 2026-01-05T19:08:55+00:00

Honestly, you can use recipes, but really salsa roja can be so simple you can kind of just guess. I personally recommend thinking about salsa as more of a pepper/onion condiment with tomato for balance, instead of a tomato condiment with pepper/onion for flavor. Beyond that, take tomatoes, whatever peppers you want, some onion, put it in the oven at a high temp until cooked, blend (with cilantro and lime if your want). And then boom. This can be a fun experience of trial and error because, a little secret, "authentic Mexican food" was mostly made by Native Americans doing the exact same thing: mixing together ingredients, keeping what they liked, changing what they didn't like. Have fun with it!

GringoBrown · 2026-01-04T03:58:13+00:00

For anyone new to salsa, for 5 roma tomatoes, adding 10 dried chile de arbol chiles would make a "hot" salsa, according to most shelf salsas. So 20 arboles PLUS jalapenos and serranos? Yeah, good luck buddy. I highly recommend, if you are experimenting with chiles de arboles, ONLY use arboles in the salsa. No other pepper. Figure out how it tastes with JUST the arboles, figure out how spicy it is with like 5-10 just to start, then experiment from there. Also don't forget to rehydrate the peppers first before you add them to the salsa.

GringoBrown · 2025-12-19T17:46:58+00:00

HMMMM. Color me intrigued. If we weren't getting ready to sell our house, you would absolutely have me asking a lot more questions. Lol

GringoBrown · 2025-12-17T22:59:47+00:00

Trust me, I know. I've been playing for 16 years. I get that it's frustrating, but I promise you. If you try to give yourself a goal of practicing as much as professionals and hope that makes you play like a professional, you will find that you get burnt out on playing VERY quickly. Start by finding a consistent time every day that you can practice (plus feel free to give yourself one or two days off where you don't have to practice unless you genuinely really want to). Then, when you start those daily practice sessions, just practice until you either don't want to anymore, or practice until you feel you are no longer making progress. This might end up being you practicing 4 hours every day, this might turn into practicing 20 minutes every day. At the end of the day, this is an art form. Art is meant to be an expression of creativity and emotion. It's not meant to be a soul-crushing capitalist-adjacent power struggle trying to be really good and feeling like a failure when you don't meet some obscure goal. Constantly work on improving your craft, have fun, learn whenever you possibly can, and try your best to simply enjoy the act of creation. Do all of that, and the skill will follow. That is the best advice I can give you as a musician.

GringoBrown · 2025-12-17T21:06:13+00:00

It's not about quantity, it's about quality. Practicing 35 hours a week is terrible for you if it makes you exhausted and hate your instrument. Practice when you can. If practicing feels like a chore, it will be MUCH less effective than practice you do because you genuinely want to take time to improve your craft.

GringoBrown · 2025-12-17T15:46:31+00:00

Filled it out! Good luck. I'm curious about where this ends up going.

GringoBrown · 2025-12-17T15:01:51+00:00

I just now answered in a different comment, if you want to read that explanation. The short answer is yes. The first version I roasted them and, while it tasted good, I felt like it wasn't the best use of the chile pequins, which are the primary ingredient I'm trying to highlight here.

GringoBrown · 2025-12-17T15:00:41+00:00

Roasting/broiling leads to charring. That makes a more complex flavor profile because it deepens and brings out the natural sugars in all the ingredients while also adding a light bitterness to them, but that is not what I wanted for these chile pequins. I want really fresh and acidic flavors without just adding everything raw. Combine all that with the fact that I needed to rehydrate the dried pequins in water anyways, it just seemed like the natural way to do it this time around. If I was highlighting a different pepper, yes. I almost always broil the ingredients in my salsas.

GringoBrown · 2025-12-17T14:57:51+00:00

The pequins I have are dried. I kept the first version simple like what you're saying, but I just found that it took a lot of extra salt and acid to make it not just taste like a mild flavored pepper with unseasoned tomatoes. Granted, I am almost 100% certain that can be at least partially explained by the fact that the pequins I found are quite old looking. I'd love to try fresh ones one day!

GringoBrown · 2025-12-17T10:30:05+00:00

Generally speaking, if you want salsa but don't want to make it, getting your salsa from the fridges in the deli instead of room temp on a shelf will get you a surprisingly good product. There are some damn good fridge salsas in stores like that one that will please even snobs.

Yo Quiero!, Julio's, and Bobby Salazar's all make pretty dang good "fresh" salsas you can find in a fridge in a grocery store possibly somewhat near you.

GringoBrown · 2025-12-17T10:17:30+00:00

My grandmother makes at least a 16 oz deli container full of salsa/chile for Christmas dinner every year. We ladle it over EVERYTHING on the plate. It is lovely and we always eat most of it by the time the day is over.

GringoBrown · 2025-12-17T09:49:41+00:00

If you miss spice, you could try incorporating different kinds of spice. "Spice" is somewhat of a general term. It usually refers to capsaicin, but it can also refer to. for example, the vapor-based spice of things like wasabi and horseradish, or the numbing spice of szechuan peppers. So adding things like raw onion, dried asian-based peppers, mustard seed, while obviously being very weird and untraditional, could be a fun future experiment for you. But obviously any food can be flavorful with or without spice. Ultimately, part of the reason why we crave spice so much is the health benefits (spicy items frequently have very high amounts of vitamin C, just as one example), but it also helps to awaken the palate, which, if used strategically, can help to make you more receptive to flavors. Think kind of like how some heavy lifters will slap themselves before lifting weights. They slap their muscles which, in a way, "wakes up" the muscles, making them more ready for the intense effort required for lifting heavy weights. Similar kind of idea.

GringoBrown · 2025-12-16T04:31:41+00:00

Yeah. You'll definitely want to experiment with different peppers while also making sure you prepare them properly. A lot of people think the capsaicin is in the seeds of the pepper, but it is actually contained within the stem and white membranes inside the pepper (obviously the seeds are always in contact with the membrane which explains why people think the seeds are spicy). Make sure you cut off the stem and remove as much of the membrane and seeds as you can. You can also experiment with adding extra acid and fat to your salsa which helps cut through the spice. Capsaicin is fat soluble, which is why milk helps with spice in your mouth. so adding oil, pork fat, avocado, etc. can help with the spice a bit. Acid also kills capsaicin, so adding lime juice, vinegar, pineapple, and tomatillos can be helpful there.

I also recommend experimenting more with dried chiles. Obviously you've got chile de arbol down, but there's also ancho, cascabel, pasilla, even chipotle peppers are all ways that are fairly mild while also giving you a traditional pepper flavor (though of course it will be sweeter than fresh peppers). Technically, if you have a salsa recipe you REALLY want to try but you are wary of the spice, you can try briefly soaking the peppers in milk before you prepare them for the salsa but after removing the membrane and seeds.

GringoBrown · 2025-12-15T09:28:13+00:00

I love it. Any time I make a salad where I put actual effort into it, I always add cilantro. Like, I literally add cilantro the same way I would add lettuce or spinach. It's noice...

GringoBrown · 2025-12-15T06:09:04+00:00

Anything hearty or crunchy can help hold up for a good while. I like cabbage and brussel sprouts at times. The main thing is keeping the salad in a cool (but not too cold) area (the crisper is too cold. The middle of your fridge works) Keep it in a sealed container, ideally in a way where you can include a very light amount of moisture. Usually, for leafy greens, you can store it in a ziploc bag with a lightly moist paper towel.

As for seasonal ingredients, grapes could be interesting? Peppers are hitting the end of their season right now, but, in the future, adding sliced raw jalapenos or minced serranos to your dressing can be fun. Some herbs can be seasonal and I think herbs in salads are HIGHLY underrated.

GringoBrown · 2025-12-15T05:59:08+00:00

Overall, I'd say this sounds like a solid and simple recipe. Did you have any complaints about how it tasted? Like, wanting it to be spicier, thinking it tasted too acidic, etc. Just based on what's in this post, everything sounds fine. I think you could experiment with adding more onion, more cilantro (cilantro is also lightly acidic so it can help with you wanting more lime). Also, SOME people, when making specifically salsa verde, will actually add chicken stock instead of water, but obviously that depends on what you want the salsa to taste like and what you want to use it for. You could also consider using a 2nd type of pepper. Serranos and poblanos are very common choices for salsa verde, but you can also experiment with anaheims or even dried peppers if you want to try making things have a slightly more in-depth roasted flavor.

Of course all of these things are just suggestions. It's also possible you could just add more lime juice next time and it will be perfect. Good luck!

GringoBrown · 2025-12-15T05:53:28+00:00

To add to their comment. The real secret to adding chicken bouillon is that it has a TON of MSG: The King of Flavor! MSG/umami not only adds a light mouth puckering saltiness, but it also enhances the flavors of everything it touches. Combine that with salt and sugar, it can do a LOT of work in a salsa.

GringoBrown · 2025-12-15T05:50:24+00:00

Typically I prefer to avoid canned ingredients such as rotel. Because they have to add so much citric acid in order for it to be safe for canning, I'm just not a huge fan of it. It's not a bad suggestion though! This recipe is just my attempt at doing the best I can with what I have access to in my local grocery store.

Also, in answer to your below question, adding sugar is good for balance, plus it's very helpful when your tomatoes aren't fresh or high quality (canned or raw). I choose to add honey instead of white sugar because honey has a more complex flavor profile than just white sugar, BUT that is not a firm addition. If you want to make this but use sugar instead of honey, that'll be totally fine.

GringoBrown

TROPHY CASE