Pineapple Chipotle Salsa

You're probably not going to believe this, but this is another favorite of mine.

I'm starting to figure out why I have as many as 40 salsas at the restaurant. They are all my favorite.

This salsa is easy, easy, easy to prepare and most folks have never had anything like it, so they're gonna think you're a real culinary genius because it's beautiful to look at and wonderful to taste. If you want to tell them that it's an old family recipe handed down from generation to generation and takes three weeks to prepare and you personally grew and hot smoked the chipotle chiles and had the organically grown pineapple air freighted in from Vera Cruz and the red peppers were personally selected by your grandfather in Tamalipas and picked during the full moon and blessed by the local parish priest and then oven roasted in an adobe kiln with rare Elephant garlic from Gilroy and marinated in a first crush extra virgin olive oil from a 2000 year old tree in Tuscany and aged in charred white oak vat in a cave in Bordeaux, go ahead, I won't tell.

Anyway, this salsa is great on any kind of pork, wonderful with barbecued chicken, dynamite plain with chips and makes great quesadillas with most any kind of cheese.

Once again I'm giving the ingredients for a relatively small amount just in case you think it really sucks. Oh, I'm giving you the quick version here - the salsa is actually a lot better if you first saute or pan roast the Red Pepper and Garlic.

Parts List:

1/2 a fresh Pineapple - chopped

1 Chipotle Chile en adobo -chopped fine

1 medium Red Pepper -seeds and stems removed - chopped

1 clove of Garlic -chopped fine

A couple Green Onions -chopped

1 or 2 teaspoons of toasted sesame seeds (optional -to sprinkle over the top)

LET'S DO IT!!!

If you have a whole pineapple, cut the top and bottom off and put them in the garbage or plant them or put them in your compost pile. Slice what's left of the pineapple in half - down through the core. Slice one of the halves in two - down through the core. The core can be tough and woody and tasteless so trim it off and put it where ever it was that you put the top and bottom. Peel the outer skin off of the 2 quarters. Now you don't have to be real anal about this step. It's all right if you don't get every last little bit of the skin off. Just get the real big eyes and any seriously brown spots. Chop the pineapple - don't blend it - and put it in a bowl. For making a small amount of salsa I don't think it's worth it to go through the hassle of dealing with 1 dried chipotle and besides we haven't yet dealt with the dried chiles in this stupid newsletter so open a small can of 'Chiles Chipotle en Adobo' and chop just one of the chiles very finely and add it to the bowl with the Pineapple along with some of the liquid from the can. Chop the clove of garlic and the Red Pepper put them in the bowl. Add the chopped green onions. You might have to add a little liquid but if you let it sit for a little while it will probably make its own liquid. Sprinkle the sesame seeds over it. Bingo, babycakes - you just made a great salsa. Taste it.

Too hot?

- add some more pinepple.

Not hot enough?

- add some more chile.

I repeat - This salsa (I think) is actually much better if you pan roast the Red Pepper with the Garlic instead of using raw. If you are barbecuing you can throw the peeled pineapple and seeded red pepper on the grill until they are a little charred and make the salsa while the chicken is cooking. Call it "Mama Maria's charred Pineapple and Red Pepper salsa", it's great too. Let me know how it turns out.