Sunshine Salsa

May is a golden month, but curiously, in the Golden State days often begin with a foggy condition known locally as May Gray. During May Gray and its complimentary months of June Gloom and No Sky July, the low altitude clouds that form over the Pacific ocean are moved mainland by the same lofty coastal winds that make landing at LAX such a treat for us nervous flyers. If the marine layer is heavy that day, that contributes to the overcast skies.

 

May Gray took me by surprise the first time I encountered it, but no card-carrying goth such as myself can really complain about gray and gloom. Goth may be monochrome, etched with winter's beauty; but contrast is one of the most potent poetries, by and about design. May Gray contributes to everything from San Francisco’s famous fog to the Catalina eddy, and is as much a fact of local life in California as soot is in New York City. That said, May Gray usually burns off by noon, and the sunshine that spills through the clouds and then overtakes them as they move past or evaporate reminds us, every noontime anew, why we came west.

 

This month, Urban Home Blog has been celebrating golden May with golden treats from the kitchen. You could hardly find a more LA-centric holiday than Cinco de Mayo; we celebrated ours with a beautiful and potent tequila sunrise. We snuck a scant shot of tequila into our May canning project of Habañero Gold. Perhaps it turned out so well that we’ll enter it in the county fair that will usher in autumn and its palate and palette just as surely as Memorial Day – almost here! – brings summertime.

 

The vibrancy of our May kitchen continues with sunshine salsa. This is actually a citrus salsa but in our urban home, when I first made this dish John declared that it tasted like sunshine. It remains his favorite and a house specialty. It could hardly be more southern California: it is light and healthy, hot and sweet, and laced with the local crop of citrus. John still calls it sunshine salsa, and now you can not only call it that, you can make it. Serve it with the tortilla chips at your next get together, or alongside poached chicken or grilled fish for a simple, good weeknight dinner.

 

Sunshine Salsa

All of the ingredients for this salsa should be available at the grocery store, farmer’s market, or if your harvest has commenced, from your own garden.

 

1 grapefruit

1 navel orange

1 tangerine

1-2 medium yellow tomatoes

1 Spanish onion

1 yellow banana pepper

1 bunch fresh cilantro

Salt

1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper  

1. Fill a mixing bowl large enough to hold the tomatoes and pepper 1/3 with cool water. Add a few drops commercial vegetable cleaner to the water.
2. Place the tomatoes and pepper into the bowl containing the cleansing water. Swirl the vegetables around to ensure that they are well cleaned.
3. Drain the vegetables into a colander. Run the colander under a stream of cool water to rinse them well.
4. Rinse the cilantro (you will only be using the leaf end) and set aside to drain on a double layer of paper toweling.
5. Place a large mixing bowl beside a clean cutting board devoted to fruits.
6. Peel the grapefruit (put on food safe rubber or latex gloves if you wish). Do your best to remove not just the peel but the bitter white pith underneath.
7. Use your hands to gently break the grapefruit into its segments. Inspect each segment and safely use the tip of the knife to remove seeds if any. If you save seeds for planting or trading, set the seeds aside; otherwise, discard them.
8. Use the knife to cut each grapefruit segment into bite-sized pieces. Transfer the grapefruit pieces and their juices into the mixing bowl.
9. Peel the orange (put on food safe rubber or latex gloves if you wish). Do your best to remove not just the peel but the bitter white pith underneath.
10. Use your hands to gently break the orange into its segments. Inspect each segment and safely use the tip of the knife to remove seeds if any. If you save seeds for planting or trading, set the seeds aside; otherwise, discard them.
11. Use the knife to cut each orange segment into bite-sized pieces. Transfer the orange pieces and their juices into the mixing bowl containing the grapefruit pieces.
12. Peel the tangerine (put on food safe rubber or latex gloves if you wish). Do your best to remove not just the peel but the bitter white pith underneath.
13. Use your hands to gently break the tangerine into its segments. Inspect each segment and safely use the tip of the knife to remove seeds if any. If you save seeds for planting or trading, set the seeds aside; otherwise, discard them.
14. Use the knife to cut each tangerine segment into bite-sized pieces. Transfer the tangerine pieces and their juices into the mixing bowl containing the grapefruit and the orange pieces.
15. Use a large mixing spoon to mix the citrus together.
16. Remove the cap from each tomato. Roughly cut the tomatoes and transfer the tomatoes and their juices to the bowl containing the citrus. Sprinkle the tomato-citrus mixture with salt.
17. Peel the onion and remove the root and stem ends. Halve the onion from root to stem; halve each half. Cut across the halves to form half-moons. Cut across the moons to form dice. Transfer the diced onion to the bowl containing the tomato-citrus mixture.
18. Place the pepper on the cutting board. Cut the pepper in half from cap to bottom. Cut away and discard the stem; cut away and discard any white pith from inside each half. Rinse each half under warm water to remove the seeds; if saving seeds, do this step over a fine mesh sieve to catch the seeds. Working one half of a pepper at a time, flatten each half, skin side down, against the cutting board. Cut each flattened half into 1/2-inch strips and cut across the strips to form dice. Transfer the diced pepper to the bowl containing the tomato-citrus mixture.
19. Use the spoon to mix the vegetables together. It is okay if the mixture is wet.
20. Wrap the sooty root ends of the cilantro with the paper towels. Hold the cilantro head side down over the sink and gently shake it dry. Cut off just the heads of the cilantro about one-third to one-half down the bunch. Transfer the chopped, cleaned cilantro to the bowl containing the salsa mixture.
21. Add the ground cayenne and white pepper to the salsa mixture.
22. Use the spoon to thoroughly mix the salsa.
23. Cover the salsa and allow to sit 30 minutes for the flavors to combine.
24. Serve or refrigerate, covered, up to three days.