Salsa with an Asian Flair

Salsa has become a more popular condiment than ketchup, according to some sales reports. Most say that this points to Americans’ growing love of hot and spicy foods, and their interest in ethnic foods. Salsa helps us meet the goal of working more fruits and vegetables into a healthful and delicious diet, and also offers yet another opportunity for chefs’ innovation.

In recent years, Americans have been using it as a condiment almost any place they would put ketchup: on burgers, baked potatoes, eggs and other foods. During this time, inventive cooks have been changing our definition of what makes salsa. It can be cooked or uncooked, and popular salsa recipes on cooking Web sites and television shows now combine vegetables and fruits − and may even omit tomatoes. Examples include black beans, sweet red peppers and hot chili peppers with orange and avocado; peach, cucumber and lime; mango and avocado with cilantro; and pineapple, corn and mango.

And if we shift from a small amount, used only as a flavoring, to a half-cup portion, it adds an extra serving of vegetables or fruit to our daily tally. A tablespoon of a condiment, whether ketchup or salsa, cannot supply a very large amount of nutrients, no matter what the ingredients are. But in larger portions, the various vegetables and fruits in salsa can supply a wide range of antioxidant vitamins, natural phytochemicals (such as lycopene in tomatoes), and the mineral potassium that is in such short supply in our diets.

“Dressings and sauces that are full of fat are the undoing of many an otherwise healthy meal. That's why we included three salsa recipes and even a salad with salsa for dressing in The New American Plate Cookbook,” notes Jeff Prince, Vice President for the American Institute for Cancer Research. “Our cookbook shows people they do not need to choose between food that promotes good health and food that is absolutely delicious. Salsa adds an extra serving of fruits or vegetables and lots of flavor to your meal.”

The minute that anyone hears the word ‘salsa,’ they think of Mexican food. If the word ‘Asian’ precedes it, you might categorize it as another jargon of chefs who rave about fusion. This "fusion cooking" can be laughable when it goes to excess, like pizza topped with duck and pineapple, or captivating when it succeeds, like French vichyssoise with a Mexican jalapeño kick. Still, fusion cooking has created a growing acceptance of new ingredients and unexpected flavor combinations. Asian salsa is definitely one of the successful culinary innovations, which also works as a reminder that fusion makes sense only when there are similar and compatible factors in cuisines that are to be fused. Is there counterpart of salsa in Asian cuisine? Yes, nam prik can be considered the Thai version of salsa.

In Thai, "nam" means water and "prik" means chile, so nam prik is chile water. In Thai cuisine, nam prik appears at nearly every meal. Just as with salsa, which can play a wide range of culinary roles and encompass all sorts of ingredients, styles of nam prik stretch from simple dipping sauces to chunky, fish- and meat-studded concoctions.

Most tables in Thailand are set with a basic dipping sauce called nam pla prik -- fish sauce with rounds of sliced chiles on top – which is used as salt and pepper. Vinegar or lime juice and sugar might round out the seasonings set on a table at home or by a roadside. Savory, sweet, sour and spicy -- four of the five basic tastes – all come to the forefront in a wonderful balance.

Thai cooks use all sorts of ingredients to achieve just the right mix. For salt, the fish sauce can be replaced by shrimp paste, fermented anchovies (freshwater) or soy bean paste. For sourness, tamarind and other tart fruits such as green mango step in. Palm sugar and other fruit, as well as cooked shallots and garlic, complete the sweet profile. And for spice, there are always chilies, chilies and more chilies – dried, fresh, red, green, long, short, Northern, Southern, homegrown.

Nam priks often accompany vegetables. Thai market vendors display big bowls of several nam priks alongside raw, grilled or deep-fried vegetables. These intense accompaniments also encourage eating mounds of rice, the basis of Southeast Asia's grain-based diet. What lifts the vegetables and rice out of the bland and ordinary is the nam prik. You might make a nam prik with vegetables for your meal, but you end up putting nam prik on the rice to make it go down. In the same way, a good salsa makes beans and corn tortillas more interesting.

A good way to enjoy nam prik is as a dip for parboiled, grilled or deep- fried vegetables. Thai cooks also include bitter vegetables like raw pea eggplants and banana blossoms; in Northern Thailand, pork rinds are common dippers. You can also try fried rice cakes, or serve nam prik as a condiment with a meal based on rice – heaps and heaps of rice to quell the heat.

Sources:www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14126756, www.pioneerthinking.com/aicr_salsa.html,
www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/07/14/FDGH07J9TH1.DTL

Thai Salsa for Grilled Salmon

Recipe courtesy of Caffeines

Ingredients:

3 cups cucumber, medium diced
1 cup scallions, medium diced
¾ cup red radishes, medium diced
¼ cup fresh mint
3 tablespoons ginger, minced
3 tablespoons lime sugar
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 ½ teaspoons sesame oil
1 teaspoons fish sauce

Combine all ingredients in bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour to blend flavors.

Recipe Source: http://www.wwlp.com/news/segments/recipes/thaisalsa.html

Seared Tuna with Japanese Salsa

Recipe courtesy of Sushi Katsu-Ya

Ingredients:

1 tomato, finely chopped
8 cilantro sprigs, finely chopped
1 red onion, finely chopped
4 (6-ounce) fresh tuna fillets
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
4 teaspoons vegetable oil
2 avocados, sliced ¼-inch thick

Sauce:
1 cup soy sauce
1 cup rice vinegar
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 teaspoons sugar
 
Mix all the ingredients for the sauce. Add the chopped tomato, cilantro and onion. Season the tuna very well with salt and pepper. Heat a large skillet over high heat and add the vegetable oil. When the oil is hot, sear the tuna for 30 seconds on each side. Remove from heat and slice the tuna into ¼ -inch slices. To serve, neatly arrange the tuna slices and avocado slices on a plate and drizzle the sauce over the tuna.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_31658,00.html