Recipe: Strawberry salsa perfect for May celebrations
Fresh strawberry salsa is a bright spring accompaniment to tortilla chips, or to grilled chicken or pork. Kathy Morrison
Cinco de Mayo arrives Monday, and our regional BerryFest Strawberry Festival is May 10-11 (Mother's Day weekend) in Woodland. Today's recipe covers all the bases for these celebrations: Strawberry salsa is fresh and bright and just spicy enough, perfect with chips and a classic margarita or grilled chicken and cerveza.
The salsa is best served the day it's made, and fortunately goes together easily.
Some chopping (by hand or with a small electric chopper) is required for the jalapeño, onion and cilantro, but the strawberries really should be hulled and diced by hand. You don't want those gorgeous in-season berries pulverized!
Note: If you're not a cilantro fan, try chopped mint (spearmint, not the sweeter peppermint) or a combination of mint and parsley as a substitute.
Fresh strawberry salsa
Makes 3 cups
Ingredients:
Zest and juice from 1 lime
1-1/2 teaspoons honey or agave syrup
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro, about half a bunch
1 large fresh jalapeño, seeds removed and diced
Half of a medium red onion, diced
Freshly ground pepper, to taste
1 pint (2 cups) fresh strawberries, hulled
Chips for serving
Additional salt, lime juice or honey to adjust seasoning, as desired
Instructions:
In a medium bowl, whisk together the lime juice, zest and honey or agave. Add the salt and cilantro, then stir in the jalapeño and onion. Add the ground black pepper. Carefully stir in the strawberries.
Taste and adjust the seasonings now or, if you have time, wait 30 minutes, stir gently and taste after flavors have blended a bit. Add more lime juice or honey if needed. If you plan to serve the salsa with tortilla chips, taste it with a chip before you add more salt to the salsa -- the chips may be plenty salty already.
Leftovers, if any, can be stored tightly covered in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 days. Adding a bit more lime juice can brighten up leftover salsa.
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Food in My Back Yard Series
June 10: Battling early-season tomato pests
June 3: Make your own compost
May 27: Where are the bees when you need them?
May 20: How to help tomatoes thrive on hot days
May 13: Your plants can tell you more than any calendar can
May 6: Maintain soil moisture with mulch for garden success
April 29: What's (already) wrong with my tomato plants?
April 22: Should you stock up on fertilizer? (Yes!)
April 15: Grow culinary herbs in containers
April 8: When to plant summer vegetables
April 1: Don't be fooled by these garden myths
March 25: Fertilizer tips: How to 'feed' your vegetables for healthy growth
March 18: Time to give vegetable seedlings some more space
March 11: Ways to win the fight against weeds
March 4: Potatoes from the garden
Feb. 25: Plant a fruit tree now -- for later
Feb. 18: How to squeeze more food into less space
Feb. 11: When to plant? Consider staggering your transplants
Feb. 4: Starting in seed starting
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Garden Checklist for week of June 15
Make the most of this “average” weather; your garden is growing fast! (So are the weeds!)
* Warm weather brings rapid growth in the vegetable garden, with tomatoes and squash enjoying the heat. Deep-water, then feed with a balanced fertilizer. Bone meal can spur the bloom cycle and help set fruit.
* Generally, tomatoes need deep watering two to three times a week, but don’t let them dry out completely. That can encourage blossom-end rot.
* From seed, plant corn, melons, pumpkins, radishes, squash and sunflowers.
* Plant basil to go with your tomatoes.
* Transplant summer annuals such as petunias, marigolds and zinnias. It’s also a good time to transplant perennial flowers including astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia, salvia and verbena.
* Pull weeds before they go to seed.
* Let the grass grow longer. Set the mower blades high to reduce stress on your lawn during summer heat. To cut down on evaporation, water your lawn deeply during the wee hours of the morning, between 2 and 8 a.m.
* Tie up vines and stake tall plants such as gladiolus and lilies. That gives their heavy flowers some support.
* Dig and divide crowded bulbs after the tops have died down.
* Feed summer flowers with a slow-release fertilizer.
* Mulch, mulch, mulch! This “blanket” keeps moisture in the soil longer and helps your plants cope during hot weather. It also helps smother weeds.
* Thin grapes on the vine for bigger, better clusters later this summer.
* Cut back fruit-bearing canes on berries.
* Feed camellias, azaleas and other acid-loving plants. Mulch to conserve moisture and reduce heat stress.
* Cut back Shasta daisies after flowering to encourage a second bloom in the fall.
* Trim off dead flowers from rose bushes to keep them blooming through the summer. Roses also benefit from deep watering and feeding now. A top dressing of aged compost will keep them happy. It feeds as well as keeps roots moist.
* Pinch back chrysanthemums for bushier plants with many more flowers in September.
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