Ersatz Papalote Salsa
TIME/SERVINGS
Total: 35 mins, plus cooling time
Active: 15 mins
Makes: About 3 cups
San Francisco’s Papalote makes such a great salsa that we had to get the recipe. They weren’t willing to reveal their secret, so we spent some time in our kitchen to uncover their magic. We reverse-engineered the recipe and discovered just what roasted tomatoes and pumpkin seeds can do for a salsa.
Special equipment: Whenever a recipe calls for a blender, we turn to this powerhouse by Waring.
Note: This salsa stays good for seven days when stored refrigerated in an airtight container.
This recipe was featured in the Build Your Own Burrito Bar story.
INGREDIENTS
- 5 medium roma tomatoes, cored and halved
- 10 dried chiles de arbol, stemmed, halved, and seeded
- 2 teaspoons ground dried pasilla peppers
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 2 tablespoons unsalted hulled pumpkin seeds
- 3 tablespoons white vinegar
- 1/4 cup minced scallions
- 1/4 cup coarsely chopped cilantro
INSTRUCTIONS
- Heat the broiler. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil, then place tomatoes skin side up on the baking sheet. When the broiler is hot, char tomatoes until skins are slightly burned. Turn off the broiler.
- Remove tomatoes from the oven and place them in a stainless steel pot. Add chiles de arbol, pasilla peppers, salt, sugar, and water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cook for 20 minutes, stirring often.
- While tomato mixture is cooking, heat oven to 350°F and toast pumpkin seeds on a rimmed baking sheet until just browned. Remove seeds from the tray and cool.
- After the 20 minutes, add vinegar to tomato mixture and cook for 1 minute. Add toasted pumpkin seeds. Place mixture in a blender, and blend until smooth.
- Pour salsa into a container and stir in scallions and cilantro. Refrigerate for several hours before serving.
COMMENTS | ADD YOUR OWN
Made this salsa yesterday. I live in NYC, so am not familiar with the original recipe. It was delicious! the chiles used give a nice smokey flavor. Don't skip on any ingredients in this recipe. It's a good one.
I had this salsa at the CHOW launch. It's one of the best salsas I have ever tried. Great work reverse engineering it.
I threw a Mexican food party this weekend, and this salsa was a huge sucess - everyone was asking me for the recipe!! I am looking forward to finding many more on this site :-)!
I did make two minor alterations - I used lime juice instead of vinegar (that was just a personal preferance). I didn't have any ground pasilla peppers so I used a whole dried one. I toasted it in pork fat before I added it to the roasted tomatos (a common trick I used for pasilla peppers).
I used to live in San Francisco and was addicted to this salsa. This recipe is a wonderful match. I stayed exact to the recipe. I would suggect making sure you core the tomatoes very well because my first attempt turned out a little too watery. I fried up some tortilla chips and sprinkled a little garlic sea-salt blend on them and it tasted divine with this salsa. Thank you Chow! ...i love you...
Oh yum! Salsa is my first love, and I can't wait to try making this! Thanks for your tenacious labor of love and sharing this recipe with us. I am going to a baby shower this weekend, (hubbies are invited too, so I think it's more of an excuse to drink, eat good food and have fun!) I think this will "wow" the crew! Thanks again...
Made this salsa this evening, it is great. The pumpkin seeds definately add a great flavour to it.
Wow. Wow wow wow. I polished off a jar of Papalote salsa yesterday and made this today. It wasn't 100% the same color--maybe because I didn't blend it smooth enough or should add more pepitas--but the flavor was very, very close and it was delicious in its own right. Easy to make too. Thanks, Max La Rivere-Hedrick!
I was dying to find the secret to Papalote's salsa till you posted this recipe last year, and I've been happily making it since then. One trick I found to get the texture just right: blend the pumpkin seeds with just 1/4-1/2 cup or so of the tomato mixture before adding the rest. That way you can really hit 'em hard, creating the brighter orange color and creamy texture you want. Then add the rest of the tomato stuff and blend again. Yum.
I also tend to use a little bit more than 2 tbs of the seeds, but that's just 'cause I love them so much.
Note... while they list Pasilla powder as an ingredient... I am almost certain they really mean Ancho powder. Not that Pasilla would be bad... but it would end up with a smokier, darker, spicier flavor probably what yongjoo liked (assuming Pasillas are correctly labeled in the NYC area which I would contend is more likely given the Puebla immigrant majority versus the SF Michoacan immigrant majority.
This is a great salsa and I'd love to can a big batch with fresh romas this summer.
With all the acid in it, seems it would be safe to process in a waterbath canner. Anybody know for sure?
Wow was this ever terrific salsa! I couldn't find pasilla powder anywhere so I used one seeded chopped fresh pasilla pepper instead. I also used two 14.5 oz cans of fire roasted whole organic tomatoes with the juice. It saved a lot of time and I don't think the flavor suffered at all. This is a fantastic restaurant style salsa. I had to restrain myself from having chips and salsa for breakfast today!
I made this and loved it, although mine turned out thicker than I think it was suppose to be, and salty than I expect, but I love salt. Definitely the best salsa I've ever had, but it's hard to label this as a traditional salsa.
I'll give it a second try next weekend and see if I can come closer to the intended results.
Good job reverse engineering it... of course its a very traditional salsa... so you just had to peruse a few basic cookbooks =)
I've never tried the original, but this is very good. I think next time I will halve the amount of salt.
I've been making this recipe since it came out in the ("OMG" I really miss it) magazine.I've had the original many times in SF (my old home) But then I come back to Seattle to make it myself. It's perfect every time. Question: I've bought (and used) two types of seeds: Bulk section unsalted roasted pumpkin seeds. And dark green pepitas from my Mex market. They seem like the same thing as the former just unroasted. What does hulled mean? I've searched online and can't get a straight answer. Are the ones I am buying preHulled? I don't know. Any way I just love this salsa. My variation is to use half white vinegar, and half white balsamic vinegar. Yum.
I'm not sure what I've done wrong. I took others suggestions and used organic fire roasted tomatoes (Muir Glenn - spelling?). I also used rice vinegar rather than generic white vinegar. I couldn't find ground pasilla powder, so I used some dried pasilla. The flavor isn't quite there for me. I think I need to add some lime juice, some more scallions or onion. Mine is sort of insipid... tastes jarred.
soleado123: it's most likely a result of having used the canned organic tomatoes. the roasting of the tomatoes lends a depth and complexity that you won't get from "fire roasted" canned tomatoes.
Aidam. Thanks for the help. I will be sure to try this again with tomatoes this summer. Fresh tomatoes are at their "state of grace" for a short period, before they start getting mushy and smelling really bad. Thanks again. :).
The name Papalote reminds me of an herb I've heard of: Papaloquelite, which also might be known as Papalo. Who knows? They might put that in there.
soleado123: I'd go back to white vinegar - rice vinegar is just too delicate. I get good results from the aforementioned Muir Glen fire roasted toms. Above all start with WHOLE dried chiles that look shiny; four ancho or mulatos is not too much. Let the salsa rest overnight and tweak the heat with ground de arbol or cayenne.
SeattleJim: I've always used the green pepitas which look UNhulled to me. OTOH the seeds sold in snack packets are hulled and noticeably smaller.
I love all this enthusiasm about a great salsa. Each of you should try a brand new salsa to the market called Carrillo's Fire-Roasted Salsa (www.carrillosalsa.com). It is available in stores in the norheast (from Manhattan to Hartford, CT) as well as in Sacramento, CA currently, but otherwise can be ordered directly from the website. The Roasted Habanero will likely suit most of the people on this board, based on the comments above. It's all-natural, fire-roasted ingredients and has 7 different types of chiles in it. The stuff is fantastic, and actually received the top billing out of 12 salsas in a newspaper review back in late January (see the website for the article). How do I know? Well it's my product and my company actually. If anybody tries it and doesn't love it, we'd happily refund their money. Give it a try.
I've made this salsa a couple of times, and each time they've been huge hits. Like others, I've never tried the real thing, so I don't know how mine compares, but if requests for more are any indication, I did all right! Also, my boss loved this salsa on smoked turkey and smoked chicken sandwiches.
Check out my salsa making at http://bryan.daneman.org/categories/Eats-and-Drinks/ and my Tequila and Salsa blog at http://tequilaandsalsaparty.com.