Fire Roasted Salsa

There’s a Mexican restaurant in San Francisco that I really love, and they serve a fire roasted salsa that I find absolutely delicious. Without mentioning any name's—since this version is surprisingly faithful to the original—I thought I’d share a recipe for a variation I make at home.

Ingredients

• 2x 28oz can fire roasted tomatoes
• 2 bunch green onions (~1c chopped)
• 2-3 heads of garlic
• 1 dried pasilla chili (deseeded and roughly chopped)
• 15-20 medium dried chili de árbol (deseeded and roughly chopped)
• 1 guajillo chili (deseeded and roughly chopped)
• 2 bunch cilantro (~1c packed, removed from stems)
• 1/8c canola oil
• 1 tbs kosher salt

Steps

1. Coarsely chop the onion into big chunks. Leave the garlic cloves unpeeled.
2. Pan roast the onions and garlic with no oil for 7-10 minutes until they are slightly blackened.
3. When done, transfer the onion and garlic to a bowl or plate. I find it’s easier to separate them. Remove the skin and cut the stem from the garlic cloves. Set both aside.
4. In a large sauce pan add the tomatoes and deseeded chili’s. Simmer for 10 minutes.
5. Add the chopped cilantro, garlic and onions and simmer for 1 minute.
6. Remove from heat and blend in a Vitamix or other high powered mixer until mostly smooth.
7. Drizzle oil in to emulsify.
8. Add salt to taste.
9. Chill and consume the next day.

Note: Although it might be tempting to add a little water while sautéing or blending, I’ve found it’s usually unnecessary and can easily make the salsa too thin.