Roasted Red Salsa de Molcajete

If you don’t yet have a molcajete, then the first step in this recipe is to get one (or you can just use a blender or a food processor)

A molcajete is the volcanic, vesicular basalt mortar and pestle that's been used in Mexico for millennia. A tool of many uses, it's most famous for making the best salsas. The secret is that the pestle (the tejolote) is used to crush and twist the ingredients to release more of the essential oils in the peppers, onions and tomatoes, creating a flavor that the blender or food processor can not mimic.

Roasted Red Salsa de Molcajete

Ingredients:
4-6 Roma Tomatoes
1/2 Red Onion
2 Garlic Cloves
3-5 Jalapeno Chilies
1/2 tsp Salt
2 Tbsp Cilantro (chopped)
Juice from 1/2 a Lime

Directions:
-Heat your griddle or comal to medium-high with no oil
-Place tomatoes, onion, jalapenos and garlic (still in it's husk) on griddle/comal and allow all to become charred
(rotate chilies and tomatoes to char all sided)
-Take husk off the garlic and mash in molcajete with salt to create a paste
-Dice onion and add to mocajete (here's the secret... the smaller you chop the onion, the easier it will be to crush in the molcajete)
-Remove stems from jalapenos and slice or dice (you can also remove the seeds if you want a milder salsa) and add to molcajete to crush and mix
-Remove charred skin from tomatoes (if you prefer... skins are totally edible), roughly chop, add to molcajete with other ingredients and crush, mash and mix
-Allow salsa to rest for a couple of hours to enhance flavor
-Add chopped cilantro and lime juice before serving to brighten the salsa (can also be skipped and just go with the roasted veggies)

Grab some chips and start to dip!