Pico de Gallo
A grill out or campfire cuisine is Aries’s idea of culinary fun. He likes a bit of a sizzle! Even better if it comes with a bit of a dare – and what could be more daring than a chili challenge?
The name, Pico de Gallo literally translates as the beak of the rooster’. Depending on the number of chilies you put into this blend, this hot sauce certainly can have quite a fierce bite.
Ingredients:
- 1 onion
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 2 fresh tomatoes
- 7 (Jalapeño) Chillies (if you dare)
- 1 tablespoon of lime juice
- pinch of salt
- cilantro leaves
Chop up the onion and the fresh tomatoes into small pieces.
Add a little bit of water if necessary.
Finely cut the chilies (careful with your hands! The heat rubs off!) and garlic and add them to the blend. Seven chilies will give you a good bite, but feel free to adjust the number according to your taste and Scoville tolerance.
Season with salt and lime juice.
Sprinkle with cilantro leaves.
Traditionally the medium hot Jalapeño or Serrano chilies are used for this recipe, but if you can’t find them, you can use other types. The actual Scoville* rating will depend on the type of chillies you use. Jalapeños are relatively mild. Habaneros are killer hot, but also have a funky flavour that isn’t everybody’s taste. Bird chillies are somewhere in between. Thai chillies are kicking.
*Named after the American pharmacist Wilbur Scoville, the Scoville scale measures the ‘heat level’ of chillies. The old highly subjective organoleptic method has been superseded by a high-performance liquid chromatography test. Every chilli is rated accordingly. Jalapeños rank in the lower medium range with between 1000 and 10000 Scoville heat units, while Habaneros are a couple of steps up (but still not the hottest) with about 100 000 – 350 000 Scoville units.
