Fresh, Homemade Pico de Gallo

Pico de Gallo means "the beak of the rooster" in Spanish.  It does not contain the beaks of roosters.  I always wondered how it got that name.  After researching, there are a couple of theories - some say it is because you eat it with your thumb and index finger (like a rooster's beak).  But we always eat it with chips.  Some say it is because the serrano peppers look like a rooster's beak.  I don't know about that.  All I know is that it tastes great, and we can wipe out a bowl of it in no time flat.  That is quite a feat when I don't like raw tomatoes!

We have most everything fresh from the garden to make fresh, homemade pico de gallo right now, so we are eating plenty of it.  First, we have homegrown heirloom tomatoes in many different varieties and colors.  It makes for an interesting looking dish.  Then, we have just harvested onions and jalapenos.  We also have cilantro, but it is all store-bought right now as ours all bolted to seed.  A couple of limes are store-bought as well.

So here Tricia is assembling it.  We've chopped up jalapenos and have begun to core the tomatoes.  She's selected a molcajete to put the seeds and cuttings into and a talavera bowl that we'll serve the pico de gallo in.  Talavera is pottery that originated in Spain and was brought to Mexico.  A lot of it is made in Puebla, because of the fine clays needed to make it is found there.  There are six colors permitted: blue, yellow, black, green, orange and mauve and all those colors are from natural pigments.

It is a simple dish with few ingredients.  The flavors of everything mixed seem to really compliment each other.  We have chopped up tomatoes, jalapenos, cilantro, onions and are ready to add them all together.

Everything is mixed all together in the bowl and then salt and pepper is added.  Then the juice of two limes is squeezed on top and everything is mixed together.

The longer you let it sit in the fridge, the better it tastes, but we never let it sit for long.  We bust open a bag of chips and it is like magic.  We can make the whole bowl disappear!

I even like when we're at the bottom of the bowl.  I like to crumble up the chips and let them soak up the lime/tomato flavors and eat it up with a spoon.