sauce first, everything else later
Rick Martinez is a third generation Mexican-American, and he grew up with his mother making salsas and putting them on the table for every meal. He avoided them because he wasn’t used to eating anything that hot. Once he hit college and started drinking with his buddies, treating his hangovers with a big spicy breakfast taught him to learn to love heat. And eating a caramelized onion and serrano salsa in Mexico showed him just how much the right salsa can make a meal complete.
Salsa Daddy is filled with 75 different salsa recipes, but that is just the beginning. Each salsa recipe come with serving suggestions, but Martinez wants you to use your creativity to make the salsas your own. As he was experimenting and writing the salsa recipes, he found himself throwing some extra salsa on a roasted chicken before he threw it in the oven, which meant a lot of added flavor with no extra effort. He used it in soups, to add flavor and texture to the soup base. He used it on his breakfast tacos, because why wouldn’t you?
If you’re worried about the heat, you can dial down the spiciness. Because of course there is a primer on chiles, fresh and dried. Martinez didn’t like heat in his food when he was younger, so there is no judgment. He offers several different tips for calming the heat, from removing the seeds to soaking the chiles in clear alcohol to draw out the heat. Even if you’ve never worked with chiles before, he gives you what you need to know to get started and encourages you to taste and experiment to find out what you like.
The salsas range from the restaurant style salsas that make you eat basket after basket of chips at your favorite Mexican restaurant or a classic chunky pico de gallo that you might get on your burrito to complex salsas made with fruits, nuts, or even chocolate. Some of them are quick, just five minutes of chopping or ingredients you can toss in a blender. Others need to be cooked, or the chiles or fruit need to be roasted. Still others are pickled or fermented and need a few days or even a month to fully ripen. There is literally something for everyone.
And because we need more than salsa to eat in a day, there are several other recipes to go with all these salsas. There are recipes for chips, enchiladas, tacos, quesadillas, soups, and there is even a recipe for Besitos de Salsa Macha, or chocolate chip cookies with added flavor from his vanilla-based salsa. The recipes included in Salsa Daddy include a take on Fettucine Alfredo, chicken cutlet sandwich, and meatball sub. Martinex has a way of making Mexican flavors accessible but also celebratory and playful.
Salsa Daddy is full of bright colors and beautiful photos. The salsas are pictured not just as dips for your chips, but they are on an assortment of delicious look dishes, offering ideas and inspiration for delicious meals. Martinez even offers up tips along the way—an easy way to clean a blender, a quick way to season your cast iron. These ideas are not just for Mexican food. These ideas are for delicious cooking in any kitchen.
I am a fan of Mexican cooking, but I wasn’t sure about an entire cookbook based on salsa recipes. I was wrong. The way Martinez talks about salsas is inspiring. And the layout and photography is gorgeous. I love how versatile and vibrant his food is. And while he talks about balance over heat in the salsas, which I appreciate, I would still need to be careful with many of these recipes. Those with a special diet or with certain digestive conditions may have to pass on this one. I struggle with acid reflux, and the heat from the chiles and the acidity of tomatoes and citrus fruits would make many of these salsas problematic after just a couple of bites. I think this is a beautiful and interesting cookbook, but it’s not for every palette or every cook, sadly.
A copy of Salsa Daddy was provided by Clarkson Potter with many thanks, but the opinions are mine.
