homemade chips + salsa

You know what I hate?  When someone leaves the ziplock baggie full of tortillas unzipped, rendering them all dried out and hard.  Unfortunately I also feel like I can't just throw them out, it's not like they've gone bad or anything, they're just a little...crunchy.  I'd been wanting to make some salsa anyways, since the weather has been oh so summery, so I thought I'd try my hand at making the chips to go with it!  Back in college I used to work in the campus cafe, which was a little fancier than the cafeteria, and I was stationed at the Baja Grill, making burritos, quesadillas, nachos, etc.  We'd make our own chips by chopping corn tortillas into wedges and taking them over to the burgers and fries section of the cafe and use their deep fryer to make the chips.  If we had leftover chips at the end of the night, whoever closed got to take a bag home full of them.  Oh man, did I ever eat a metric ton of tortilla chips that year.  


 

Salsa 

(recipe adapted slightly from pioneer woman)

Ingredients

1 can (28 Ounce) diced tomatoes with juice

2 cans (10 Ounce) diced tomatoes with green chilies

1/4 cup chopped onion

1 clove garlic, minced

1 whole jalapeno, quartered + sliced thin

1/4 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 cup cilantro

1/2 whole lime juice

1/2 can (15 oz) corn, juice drained.

This recipe makes a lot of salsa.  If you're not planning on using a ton of salsa, I'd suggest halving it.  If you don't have a big food processor, you can process the ingredients in batches and then mix everything together in a large mixing bowl.

1. Combine diced tomatoes, diced tomatoes with green chilis, onion, jalapeno, garlic, sugar, salt, cumin, lime juice, and cilantro in large bowl.  If you want to have a bit chunkier salsa, take a small bowlful  of this mixture and set it aside.  I like my salsa a bit more chunky.

2. Working in batches (if you have a small food processor like me), add the mixture to the food processor and pulse until you get the salsa to the consistency you'd like.

3. When you're done processing the mixture of salsa, add in the un-blended portion and the corn.  Test seasonings with a tortilla chip and adjust as needed.  If you like a bit spicier salsa, add Tapatio (or your favorite hot sauce) until it gets to the spiciness you prefer.

Refrigerate salsa for at least an hour (while you're making chips!) and serve.  YUM.

Chips

(recipe via simply recipes)

Ingredients

3/4 to 1 cup canola, grapeseed, or corn oil (a high smoke point oil), more or less depending on how many chips you are making

Small corn tortillas, each tortilla makes 6 chips, 12 tortillas will yield 72 chips

Kosher salt

1. Cut each tortilla into 6 triangle shaped wedges.  I use a pizza cutter and do 2-3 tortilla at once.  The chips will fry better if they are a bit dried out first. You can leave them out overnight, exposed to air so they are stale the next day, or dry them out in the oven.  I needed chips, like, now so I used my oven to dry them.  Just lay them out in a single layer on a baking sheet and baked them at 350°F for 5 minutes. You don't want them super crispy, just as if you'd left them out overnight.

2. Pour the oil into a medium skillet to a depth of 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch.  Heat the oil on medium high heat until a small piece of tortilla placed in the oil sizzles, about 350°F. Don't let the oil to get so hot that it smokes, if it does, remove it from the heat and let it cool off.

3. Place a paper towel onto a large plate and have several other paper towels ready (I was out of paper towels so I used newspaper and napkins). Place a handful of tortilla triangles into the hot oil, in a single layer. Use metal tongs to arrange the wedges so they aren't overlapping and so that all sides get coated with oil.  Fry for about 2 minutes until the chips just begin to color and they are firm, no longer pliable. Remove the chips from the oil and lay them on the first layer of paper towels. Sprinkle with salt and lay another paper towel over the top, to be ready for the next batch.

4. Continue to cook the chips, working in batches, placing the freshly fried chips over a new layer of paper towel each time, and sprinkling with salt. When the chips are all fried, pat any excess oil from them with a fresh paper towel, and eat!