Hola!

Salsa

Difference is good.  Even welcome sometimes.  Like the ice cream you get down the street here in Amsterdam.  It's like really cold cream, with a chunk of frozen cream occasionally.  Not your average Australian soft serve, but extraordinarily, differently good.  

Or Dutch apple pie (gebak).  It's kind of cake, kind of pie, kind of totally good.  

Or take cheese for example.  Us Australians know a good Cheddar, a nice Tasty.  But the Dutchies, they've taken cheese to a higher level.  Pesto cheese, potato skin cheese, coriander seed cheese, just a few of the many, many different inclusions that you can get in the many, many different types of cheeses here.  

So, most difference here is good.  With one exception.  Nachos.  My eyes light up when nachos are mentioned.  I'm dreaming of a big, big pile of corn chips topped with molten, gooey cheese, salsa, sour cream, guacamole, maybe some mince and beans.  But here, they're different.  You order nachos in a pub and out comes a basket of corn chips with a little dish of salsa or guacamole.  Not my big dreams of what I think of as nachos.  And the Dutch nachos are nice, but they're more of a 'chips and dip' kind of thing in my mind.  We had some the other night.  But now they've got me craving the real deal.  So we're having it on Friday night.  Friday night nachos.  Replacing Friday night burgers.  A hard exchange, but worth it in my mind.  

Anyhoows, after all that rambling, here's the point of this post.  I just made some salsa in preparation for Friday night (I'm keen I'm telling ya), and it's good.  I found it on Blue Yonder's blog, and seeing as it had been road tested and pronounced good, I've given it a whirl on the other side of the world.  Here's how it goes:

1 can whole peeled tomatoes

1-2 jalapenos, seeded (I used a teaspoon of minced chili, you could leave this out or add some chili powder as well)

1-2 pieces of garlic

15-20 cilantro leaves (or 1 tsp of the dried variety) (this is coriander in Oz speak)

1 tbsp fajita seasoning

1-2 tsp salt  and pepper

1 tsp cumin

The juice of one lime (I used lemon juice instead)

½-1 yellow onion, diced

(I also added 1/4 of a slightly wilted green capsicum/pepper)

Put the juice from the can of tomatoes into the food processor with other ingredients  and blend. Then add tomatoes and pulse to your desired state of chunky or smooth.

Good dipped and eaten, but also good when layered with sour cream and grated cheese.  Now, that's getting closer to the nachos I know and love!