Heirloom pico de gallo

My tomatoes are really coming on good now. I have to go out every day to keep up with them! Otherwise those fucking raccoons will steal them, take a few bites and then leave them there to rot. This is what they’ve been doing to my pond plants, anyways. Fucking raccoons.

The rest of my jalapeños, I’m letting ripen to red so I can smoke them into chipotles. But once in awhile I actually need a chile for something, and it is so satisfying to just step out into the garden and help myself. My half-assed efforts are finally paying off! Thank you, unseasonable heat and rainstorms.

Pico de gallo is such a no-brainer for using up tomatoes. It’s one step away from gazpacho, but unlike gazpacho, I actually like pico de gallo. Oh, don’t look at me like that. You have disbelief on your face. What, I don’t like everything. Surprised? I’d rather just dip some crispy tortilla chips in this than pretend I’m eating soup when it’s too damn hot for soup.

I grabbed a day’s worth of yellow pear tomatoes, a few Sungolds brought to the office by a co-worker (I really can never pass up free produce, especially if no one else was taking any), and a fist-sized Cherokee Purple. Gave them a gentle dice with a sharp knife (to prevent mashing them), minced some onion, garlic and a jalapeño, then a handful of chopped cilantro, salt and pepper. That’s it! If you’re one of those people, you could throw in some cucumber and give the whole lot a blitz to make gazpacho. But really, why would you? Pico de gallo is way better.

It’s particularly nice draped across a brekkie burrito, too. Quite nice indeed.