pico de gallo

2017-01-22 a.o.

Pico de gallo is a spicy Mexican raw vegetable salad that can be served as a side dish in its own right, but is more often used as a sauce with just about any Tex-Mex dish, especially with tacos.

The ingredients for pico de gallo is pretty much the same throughout Mexico, but quantities can be adjusted to your personal preferences. Use a lot of raw onion or none at all; make it mild or flaming hot. Use parsley if you don’t like cilantro. As you can see in Pic2, we serve the cilantro, serrano peppers and raw onion separately, so everyone can serve themselves however much or little they want.

Keep pico de gallo as dry as possible. The vegetables deteriorate very quickly when they are floating in liquid. Not juicing the tomatoes and adding more lime juice shifts this preparation towards salsa.

Marielos usually prepares this. She cuts the veggies smaller and more evenly than I do without crushing them.

2017-01-22

Pic1: pico de gallo
Pic2: cilantro, serrano, onion

INGREDIENTS

This is what you need for 4 servings:

4 large plum tomatoes
1 celery stalk
1 small cucumber
cilantro
1-2 serrano peppers
lime juice to taste
S&P

Directions

Optional:
- Remove seeds and veins from serrano peppers for less heat.
Core, juice and deseed the tomatoes.
If you don't squeeze the juice, the sauce will get soggy very quickly.
Chop / cut all the vegetables small.
Mix tomatoes, cucumber and celery. Add S&P to taste. (Pic1)
Add a few drops of lime juice.
Don't make it soggy.
Add raw onion, cilantro and serrano to taste. (Pic2)
Know your hot peppers. Add only as much as you can tolerate.
Serve and enjoy.

B. Mango salsa

C. cucumber salsa

All pictures below were borrowed from the internet.

I include these two here on this page, because in many ways, this recipe is closer to the 'dry' unblended pico de gallo than to the wet salsas. Cucumber salad is the same as mango salad, but with cucumber substituting for the mango. (Pic7+8) Of course, you can also do both. (Pic9)