Pineapple Sriracha Salsa | Food Wishes

Hello this is Chef John from FoodWishes.com with Pineapple Sriracha Salsa. That's right, sweet heat is hard to beat. Especially when we use it for a sauce for meat. Like I did recently on this amazing Hawaiian Kalua pork. And then shortly thereafter on some chicken tacos. And I actually wasn't planning on filming and sharing this. But it was so beautiful, easy, and delicious. I just had to. And to get started we will dump a 20 ounce can of pineapple chunks into a strainer. And we will let it sit there and drain for about five minutes. Before we transfer the pineapple onto a lightly oiled foil lined pan. Oh and be sure to save the juice because we're going to need that. And yes of course you can use fresh pineapple for this. In which case pineapple juice sold separately. And then to our pineapple we will add some roughly chopped onion. As well as five or six cloves of garlic still in their skin. And then what we'll do here once we have that arranged into a nice even layer. Is broil this in the oven under high heat until everything is nicely charred. Which for you could mean a light char or a very dark char. Or what I went for which I would describe as a medium char. But the point is we need some kind of char. Since that's what's going to activate all these amazing flavors. And then what we'll do is let this cool down before we blend it. And we'll also want to remove and separate our garlic cloves. Since we don't want to blend those skins in. So we'll pull those out and peel them before we add them in. And that's it once that's cooled down to room temperature. We will transfer that into a bowl where we're going to blend it. Or an actual blender. But I'm going to use a stick blender. So I'm going bowl. And then once that's been transferred in as I mentioned earlier. We will peel our garlic and toss those partially roasted cloves in. And even though these weren't under the broiler very long. Those cloves have softened and sweetened. And taken on a wonderful subtle smokiness. So if you ever feel like roasted garlic spread on bread. Doing it under a broiler is a great shortcut. And then to finish this simple salsa up. We will pour in a generous splash of sriracha. Followed by the most pineapple friendly herb of all time. Some fresh mint. And we'll also season this up with a nice big pinch of salt. Oh by the way the reason we let our charred pineapple and onions cool before we put this together. Is because that he would have kind of cooked our mint. And we would have lost that lovely fresh sweet flavor. And that's it we'll finish this up with our reserved pineapple juice. Plus a nice big splash of rice vinegar. And then we'll grab a stick blender. And we'll get in there and get in there deep. And we will blend this as smooth as we want. Which for me is very smooth. But if you prefer your pineapple to have a coarser texture. Feel free to not blend this as much as I'm going to. I mean you are after all the Dwight Schrute of how to process your fruit. And now I'm wondering how a charred beet salsa would be. Well there's only one way to find out. So I might have to try that sometime. But anyway as promised I went full smoothie on it. Before I grabbed a spoon to give it a taste. And that my friends was so refreshing and delicious. And just bursting with all kinds of flavor. I was so so excited. But these kind of things always get better if we wrap them up and chill them a little bit before we serve them. Which is exactly what I did. Before transferring it into this traditional pineapple salsa bowl. And then for a little bit of extra flavor and color. And of course texture. I topped this with some finely diced red onion. Followed by a generous sprinkling of hot chili flake. And last but not least some freshly sliced green onion. And that's it my pineapple sriracha salsa was ready to enjoy. And not only does the flavor improve by letting this chill a little bit in the fridge. But as you might notice as I drip some of this dramatically off this spoon. The color has also darkened up a little bit. Which is partially because of those little charred bits. But also because when you first blend this there's going to be lots of air bubbles in it. And as it sits those will dissipate. Revealing its true absolutely gorgeous color. So to summarize it looks great. Smells great. Tastes great. And is great. Which brings us to the most difficult part of this recipe. Deciding what to serve it on. I mean you can't go wrong using it to top some pulled pork. Like this Hawaiian style kalua pork we just posted. But this stuff is literally good on anything. And I know people overuse the word literally. But here that is literally true. I mean not literally literally. But you know what I mean. And besides creating one of the best pulled pork sandwiches I've ever had. I also enjoyed this on some chicken tacos. Where I attempted to do some chicken thigh carnitas. Which I have not perfected yet. But if and when I do you will see it. And then above and beyond those two very obvious uses. You could simply enjoy this with some nice crispy tortilla chips. Or maybe use to top a nice piece of seared salmon. Right for whatever reason these tropical fruit salsas work really really well on seafood. And then for one last possibly insane sounding suggestion. Believe it or not this totally works as a topping for ice cream. Maybe top with a few roasted cashews. Now that is a dessert your guests will not have had before. But no matter how you enjoy this. I thought it came out incredibly well. Which is why I really do hope you give this a try soon. So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts. A printable written recipe and much more info as usual. And as always enjoy.