During our trek on the Inca Trail, every evening’s dinner was accompanied by salsa-like condiment.  However, our guide Santiago would just call it, “The Spicy”.  SO, we’ve taken to calling hot sauces, salsas, etc. the same.  Nevertheless, “The Spicy” was always very tasty.  Here is a simple version of it that I made this week.  Would be great in soup or on an entree, like we had in Peru, or just eat it with some tortilla chips.  Or just spoon it up by itself!  This is ideally done I think using a rocoto pepper, which we had lots of in Peru.  It works perfectly for this because the inside veins are spicy, but the pepper is large enough, so that its flesh also provides some flavor and substance.  Alas, we don’t have an analogous pepper here.  Bell peppers are too sweet, and habaneros don’t have enough meat on them.   I suppose a jalapeno would work, but you never know what you will get spicy wise.  The habanero is great to guarantee a high level of heat.

Beware of the spicy!

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
• 2 tablespoon finely chopped tomatoes (no seeds)
• Finely chopped habanero pepper (as much as you want)
• Generous amount of lime juice, at least 1 tablespoon
• Salt
• Black pepper
• 1 teaspoon finely chopped cilantro for garnish

Mix together and eat!

Tags: salsa, spicy