Pico de Gallo

(about 2 cups)

Whenever I go out for Mexican food, pico de gallo will appear in some form on the table. Sometimes it's tossed over a salad, a filling for a taco, or garnish on a plate. It always contains three ingredients; tomatoes, onion and green chili pepper. It might also contain green onion, cilantro or cucumber. Sometimes it's simply diced and on it's own, other times it might be seasoned with salt and pepper and a splash or two of fresh lime juice or vinegar. Essentially it's salsa, although what's considered salsa here (in Dallas) is usually a thin pureed sauce accompanied by tortilla chips. I love having pico de gallo with corn chips.

3 medium tomatoes, diced
1/2 an English cucumber, diced
1 small sweet onion, diced
1/2 - 2 jalapeno or serrano chili peppers (to taste), seeded and diced
small handful cilantro, chopped
juice from 1 small lime
salt and pepper, to taste

Combine everything in a bowl and toss. Check and adjust the seasoning to your liking.

Serve within an hour or two of combining (it will still be quite good later than that, but it will gather more liquid as time goes on).