Fire Roasted Salsa

UNCHeels08 said:

Looks awesome, I need to try this soon. 

How long do you roast everything and at what temp?

This could not be easier.  Lump + 2 medium chunks of apple wood.  325 degrees +/-.  2 level set up with onions on the bottom grid and the juicy stuff (heirloom tomatoes and romas; interesting bell, sweet and hot peppers; tomatillos) up top.  At about 45/50 minutes I flipped the stuff on the top grid and left them for another 1/2 hour or so; onions on the bottom just sat there the entire time, with a bit more to really sweeten them up.  Also roasted a bunch of garlic in a foil pouch with evoo bc they were cloves with skin on, not an entire head).

You don't need to do this part, but I made it more work than necessary -- peeled most of the skin off the tomatoes and the peppers, which really charred and the skin there was too acrid for my liking.  Because I like very chunky/thick salsa, I also cored and pitted (drained) the tomatoes, reserving the liquid tomato water to add back if necessary (it wasn't).  Rough chop and then into vitamix for pulse blend -- again, didn't want to liquify, which is tricky with all that horsepower.  Added salt and lime juice.  Tested the hot peppers (randos and habaneros, only some of which were really potent) and added a bunch into a cup of the mixture and blended again.  Added some cumin and ancho chile powder.  The cilantro I bought turned out to be parsley (oops), so didn't add that.  

This stuff is soooo good, you can eat it like gazpacho.  I can and will today for lunch, anyway.  SWMBO says it gave me the winds, but that's just my natural state.  And if that's the only downside, so be it.