Habanero Salsa

If you have any good salsa recipe, the substitution of habanero for whatever other pepper you used before should work just fine. At work, the salsa was a big hit and I had people ask me for the recipe. Here's Ricky's favorite fresh, uncooked version:

Ancient, family recipe. . .

Tomatoes - enough quarters to fill a blender (preferably homegrown)
Garlic - 2 whole cloves (plus/minus to taste)
Yellow Onion - 1/4 of a medium sized one (plus/minus to taste)
Lime Juice - 3 tablespoons
Cumin - 1 teaspoon ground
Seasoned Salt - 1 or 2 teaspoons (to taste)
Cilantro - 1 cup chopped
Jalapenos - 4 to 6 whole fresh (vary number to taste)
Habaneros - 4 whole fresh (vary number to taste)

Fill blender with tomatoes, run at lowest setting until no large chunks are left. Add remainder of ingredients and repeat running blender until no large chunks are left. Sample and add items to taste as necessary. If
you're not sure how something will affect you in the quantity given, use the smallest unit of it at first, then progressively add more until you are satisfied. This is really important with the habaneros. . .

*** NOTE: The salsa will be at its hottest right after you make it, but will cool down the longer it sets. Since it's fresh, keep it refrigerated if you somehow have any leftovers.

*****Added NOTE From Ricky: I generally cut back on the amount of cilantro and peppers I put in it. I just add cilantro and peppers until it seems right. This time I only used two jalapenos and three habaneros and the salsa is plenty hot. If you use the full amount of peppers in this salsa, it’s really gonna sting!

A few other bits of information about it. Use fresh ingredients and squeeze your limes and use real garlic cloves. Three to four teaspoons of seasoned salt tastes best to me. One cup of cilantro might be a bit much for some people. Scale back to 1/2 to 3/4 cup the first time you make it unless you know you like cilantro.

So far I’ve refused to use gloves when working with habaneros, but after this weekend, I changed my philosophy. All it took was me cleaning three habaneros and two of my fingers turned red and began throbbing. I washed my hands several times and washed them with lemon juice, but nothing worked. I pulled out my trusty Google search engine on the Internet and after a quick search, determined the two favorite fixes for this are washing your hands with alcohol (such as rubbing alcohol or vodka) and popping a benadryl. I grabbed a bottle of vodka from the freezer, cleaned up, and most of the pain was gone. Lesson learned and note to self. Immediately after making a meal with hot peppers, wash up with vodka!