Recipe: This salsa is great for summer meals and parties
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| Cherry salsa is delicious on grilled chicken or pork as well as with tortilla chips. Try it with chips that have a hint of lime. (Photos: Kathy Morrison) |
The Northern California cherry farmers were looking at a bumper crop this year, but Mother Nature had other ideas. The mid-May storms ruined 50 percent of the cherry crop just as it was ripening, according to the California Fresh Fruit Association.
However, because the season was running late this year, growers with June-ripening cherries should be in good shape, the CFFA says.
All the more reason to enjoy the cherries out there now and in the next few weeks. The Brooks and Rainier varieties give way to Bings, my personal favorite, but they all work well in this salsa recipe.
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| Yes, pitting cherries is messy. I like my little plunger pitter. |
Fruit salsas go so well with grilled meat in the summer, but some of the salsas get too gloppy. This cherry salsa is bright and tasty, and you can give it a little more kick if you want. Set out a bowl of it with some hint-of-lime tortilla chips and watch it disappear. I've adapted this recipe from one I made several years ago for the Sacramento Bee's Food section.
Note: Pitting cherries can be a chore. I use latex gloves (to prevent finger stains) and a nifty little cherry pitter that works like a plunger. But cherries also can be pitted with just a paring knife.
Cherry salsa
Makes 2 cups
Ingredients:
2 cups fresh sweet cherries, any variety or a mix, de-stemmed and pitted
Zest and juice of 1 lime
1/4 cup chopped red onion
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 jalapeño pepper, seeds removed (keep them if you like more kick in your salsa), minced
1 fresh garlic clove, minced
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Instructions :
Halve the pitted cherries and then chop them. Place in a bowl, then stir in the lime zest and lime juice. Add the red onion, cilantro, minced jalapeño and garlic clove. Add salt and pepper to taste.
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Fresh ingredients make a fresh salsa. The jalapeño missed
the picture, but not the final product.
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Cover the bowl and let the salsa chill in the refrigerator 45 minutes for the flavors to meld. When ready to serve, taste and adjust seasonings. Serve over grilled chicken breasts or grilled pork tenderloin, or with tortilla chips.
Variations : This salsa also is delicious with any of these mix-ins: 1 chopped ripe but firm avocado; 1 chopped white nectarine; 1 chopped ripe mango.
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Garden Checklist for week of May 12
Get your gardening chores and irrigation done early in the day before temperatures rise.
* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. Time to set out those tomato transplants along with peppers and eggplants. Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.
* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.
* Harvest cabbage, lettuce, peas and green onions. This heat will cause leafy greens and onions to flower; pick them before they bolt.
* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters.
* Plant dahlia tubers. Other perennials to set out include verbena, coreopsis, coneflower and astilbe.
* Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia and verbena.
* Keep an eye out for slugs, snails, earwigs and aphids that want to dine on tender new growth.
* Feed summer bloomers with a balanced fertilizer.
* For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers on roses as well as other flowering plants.
* Got fruit trees? If you haven't already done so, thin orchard fruit such as apples, peaches, pears, pluots and plums before they grow too heavy, breaking branches or even splitting the tree. Leave the largest fruit on the branch, culling the smaller ones, and allow for 5 to 6 inches (or a hand's worth) between each fruit.
* Thin grape bunches, again leaving about 6 inches between them. For the remaining bunches, prune off the "tail" end, about the bottom third of the bunch, so that the plant's energy is concentrated in the fruit closest to the branch.
* As spring-flowering shrubs finish blooming, give them a little pruning to shape them, removing old and dead wood. Lightly trim azaleas, fuchsias and marguerites for bushier plants.
* Add mulch to the garden to help keep that precious water from evaporating. Mulch also cuts down on weeds. But don’t let it mound around the stems or trunks of trees or shrubs. Leave about a 6-inch to 1-foot circle to avoid crown rot or other problems.
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