mango salsa, tortilla chips

Today this was dinner. Actually, it's the only thing I had all day.

I woke up and started running around doing all sorts of things. Right off the bat while exiting the building a very strange appearing lady approached me as if she intended to enter the door I was exiting, and I thought in that moment, "Here we go." She warned me of an imminent storm. She was dressed as a bag lady except her clothes were newer than that. Encouraged by my listening and by my response, she continued conversing. People walked by in groups wearing beads resembling Carnival beads. The lady asked what all the activity was down the block by the library in the direction she was headed. I didn't know. Then she expressed shock at the noise she heard the previous night, the music festival that I already mentioned in the previous post. She said she never heard of such a thing allowed within city limits. I answered it's an annual thing. Then it became immediately obvious there were gay people all over the place, walking in all directions, coming and going, it looked like Castro Street over here. I learned immediately by overhearing an inquiry from another woman who was parking her car to the attendant that the gay pride parade terminated in something huge just two blocks away at the Civic Center, but I didn't even bother to check out the festivities because I was busy with other things. Although I did notice colored chicken feathers here and there on the sidewalks in my neighborhood, like a trail of Hansel and Gretel biscuit crumbs, presumably from colorful feather boas. On the way back home I even noticed a few colored feathers had drifted down into my building's parking level. And you know what that tells you? It tells you those feather boas sure do shed. Or is it molt? 

I came home exhausted and this was confusing, and then I realized I hadn't eaten anything before starting off and then I thought, "You need fuel, you dumb ass." 

These two things are excellent for parties, mango salsa and homemade tortilla chips. The people I entertain really dig these things. I usually have another type of salsa, too, say, pico de gallo (guy-yo -- beak of the rooster, for its peck), some kind of mole, like guacamole, probably the most well known, or hummus. All homemade, of course, or else what would be the point? I'm telling you, and this is no brag, when these things are done well then people really do go nuts. I always make an overabundance, and they are always all gone. 

Mango salsa is simple, just a few ingredients, this version includes pineapple which is not necessary. I decided to Mexican-ify with the customary south-of-the-border spices that I like so well. The cilantro I had on hand was on it's last leg as you can see in the photo, so I used what I could and supplemented with a bit of curly parsley which is not customary, but I did want that touch of chlorophyl. 

This is all shown in previous posts so you're having it now in animated GIF form which necessarily entails lower quality photos. (Incidentally, I took 118 photos as I proceeded with this. See what I do for you?)

This is the mango salsa ↓ starting with the pineapple which is not required for mango salsa. Mangos can be either fresh or frozen. Depending on where you live, frozen can be more reliable. This particular jalapeño pepper happens to be quite hot for a mere  jalapeño, but I did want to include all the membrane that holds the seeds. That is where most of the heat is, in the connective membrane.  You can experiment on this yourself by carefully separating seed from membrane from flesh and taste each one individually. You will  find the seeds are 100% inert, the flesh flavorful but barely hot at all, and most if not all of the heat concentrated in the connecting membrane. FACT !

* Pineapple

* mango

* onion

* jalapeño

* cilantro (coriander leaves)

* powder coriander (seeds)

* powder cumin (seeds) 

* salt / pepper

I've shown this corn tortilla-making process many times ↓. You can skip this whole thing by buying a bag of tortilla chips. They do make very good ones. But I'm telling you what, the chips are simply extraordinary when you make them yourself. Plus it's fun. Alternately, you can buy a bag of whole corn tortilla discs, they're quite inexpensive around these parts, then cut the stack like a big fat pizza, and then shallow fry the triangular chips. I found that different brands behave differently. Some brands are better than others for this sort of thing. Most brands tend to puff up like a balloon when shallow-fried rendering them into two delicate triangles connected at the edges and virtually useless for heavy scooping. 

* equal parts masa harina and hot water. 

Not shown below: the tortilla triangles shallow-fried in oil. 

Oh! I just now realized, you know what my salsa is missing? It's missing LIME! That's what.