Recipe: Homemade Picante Sauce (blender or food processor)

HOMEMADE PICANTE SAUCE

"This is the ubiquitous Tex-Mex table sauce and tortilla chip dip; it also tastes great on eggs, tamales, and nachos. Roasting the vegetables adds depth to the flavor of the sauce. Soaking the onions in the lime juice and salt "cooks" them and removes some of their bitterness. Before the blender was invented, this salsa was made in the three-legged stone grinding bowl called a molcajete."

1/2 onion, finely diced
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
6 plum tomatoes
2 jalapenos, seeded and halved lengthwise
1 garlic clove, peeled
1 cup chopped fresh cilantro
salt

Soak the onion in the lime juice for at least 10 minutes.

Roast the tomatoes, jalape o halves, and garlic clove in a hot skillet until slightly charred. Remove the tomato skins. Puree in the blender for about 10 seconds so the mixture remains chunky.

Transfer to a bowl and add the onion and lime juice and the cilantro. Season with salt to taste. The sauce will keep in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Makes 3 cups
Excerpted from The Texas Cowboy Cookbook by Robb Walsh
Copyright 2007 by Robb Walsh. Excerpted by permission of Broadway, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.