Smoky Tomato Salsa

This month’s cooking magazine has a whole chapter on smoking on the grill – I was really eager to try it out, with the unfortunate fact that I live in a New York City studio and do not, therefore, have a grill for smoking. I even dallied with the idea of buying one and storing at a friend’s house, but since they run about $600, my boyfriend quickly dissuaded me from the idea.

My next thought was a stovetop smoker. I found one for about $50 that got great online reviews, so I snatched it up and set it aside just for this recipe.

Well, I tried it tonight, and to my dismay, the apartment reeked of smoke 4 minutes in, to the point where my neighbour across the hall knocked on my door in concern! In embarrassment – and a little bit of fear – I quickly turned off the burner and put my smoker away, I imagine, forever.

But I still wanted to impart smoky flavor to my tomatoes for this salsa. So I put them in a skillet over low heat, covered it, and cooked for about 12 minutes until they were nice and tender – okay, so this isn’t the most authentic recipe I’ve made, but I found that it still worked.

If you do have a grill, smoke 5 whole plum tomatoes (about 2 pounds total) and one jalapeno pepper for 50 minutes over indirect heat, according to your grill’s instructions. Here's a website with a general how-to on smoking: http://bbq.about.com/cs/barbecuetips/a/aa052502a.htm

If you don’t have a grill, do as I did on the stovetop above. After 12 minutes, remove the stem for the jalapeno, then place the jalapeno and the 5 tomatoes in a food processor or blender along with one tablespoon lime juice, half a teaspoon dried marjoram and 2 minced garlic cloves. Blend until smooth.

Transfer to a bowl and add one cup chopped red onion, 3 tablespoons chopped cilantro and a quarter teaspoon salt. Cover and let chill in the fridge at least 45 minutes before serving. A quarter cup of salsa is 20 calories – delicious with tortilla chips!

Cost:

plum tomato $3.00

jalapeno $0.20

garlic $0.48

red onion $0.92

cilantro $1.99