Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Sweet Corn and Chipotle Salsa

Before mixing in the chipotles, jalepenos and cilantro.

At my BBQ last Saturday, every last morsel of this spicy salsa disappeared. I may have finally figured out the exact proportion of food per party attendee, but I like to think it's because it was addictively delicious. I know I was dipping a chip every 15 seconds. Uh-oh, maybe I was just a rude host and ate it all.

Smoky, sweet and spicy, chipotles (chee-POHT-lehs) are smoke-dried jalepeno chiles, and they're often canned in adobo sauce, which is made of spices, vinegar, tomato sauce and sometimes other chilis. These days you can find chipotles at most grocery stores in the Mexican food section.

I based this Sweet Corn and Chipotle Salsa on a recipe from The San Francisco Chronicle Cookbook, but I didn't measure a thing. Here's what to include, in proportions that suit your fancy: fresh or frozen sweet corn kernals, chopped & seeded tomatos, chopped red onion, chopped jalepeno peppers, chopped cilantro, chopped chipotles in adobo sauce, and a generous squeeze (or two or three) of lime. You can also add some salt if you like. This'll taste best if you let it sit in the fridge for an hour or two before serving.

Other yummy chipotle recipes:

Pumpkin with tomatos, tomatillos and chipotle chilis from Mental Masala
Chipotle meatballs from Simply Recipes
Roasted sweet potatos with chipotle-maple sauce from Gastronome
Chipotle chickpea salad from A Veggie Venture

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The colors in the salsa are spectacular. It must have attracted party-goers like a Greek siren.

Outside of sweet salsas (like mango) I've never seen corn used. I bet it offsets the spice nicely.

Freya said...

YOu can never have too many salsas at a barbeque and this one looks stunning as well as delicious!

Connie said...

that is a great looking salsa

Erin S. said...

Thanks everybody--it was worth all the chopping, even the tomatos (a task I truly hate!).

Alanna Kellogg said...

Delicious! It's so great to have "ready recipes", the ones you know are just perfect and can be used again and again!