Salsa Bobos is laden with large chunks of tomato, black beans and kernels of corn. Behind it, Cowpoke Artichoke Salsa. Photo by Melody Lan | THE NIBBLE. WHAT IT IS: Gourmet salsas. WHY IT’S DIFFERENT: Twenty-three different flavors, mostly tomato-based, each truly different from the rest. WHY WE LOVE IT: Top-quality ingredients and mouth-watering recipes. Plus, the wide range of choices means that no matter how much you love salsa, you’ll equally love the anticipation of discovering something new. PURCHASE AT: JardineFoods.com.

Jardine’s Gourmet Salsa: Salsa To Dance About Page 5: Fruit Salsa Flavors   This is Page 5 of an eight-page review. Click on the black links below to visit other pages. INDEX OF REVIEW Page 1: Capsule Report Page 1: Overview Page 2: Types Of Mexican Salsa Page 3: Jardine’s Salsa Varieties Page 4: Jardine’s Hearty Salsas Page 5: Jardine’s Fruit Salsas & Quesos (Cheese Sauces) Page 6: Global Salsa Recipes & Other Ideas Page 7: Buy Jardine’s Salsa Online Page 8: Cooking With Salsa—Recipes MORE TO DISCOVER Salsa Glossary History of Salsa Other NIBBLE Salsa Articles

Fruit Salsas

Raspberry Chardonnay Salsa is a sweet-and-tangy dip, and also delicious with grilled chicken, pork or fish.

Since most salsas are savory, fruit salsas may come as a surprise to those who haven’t had them. The taste of sweet fruit is a perfect counterpoint to the heat and spice. Fruit salsas are wonderful with food—or of course, with chips. Our personal favorite is the Pineapple Chipotle—the fruit provides the sweetest contrast to the smoky chipotle. Fruit salsas pair well with the foods that the regular fruit would be served with. Cowboy Cherry, not surprisingly, is an excellent match with ham, pork chops and duck. Cranberry Salsa paired with smoked turkey is heavenly. We loved it with grilled sausages as well. Of course, it would make a wonderful Thanksgiving salsa or hostess gift.

• Peach Salsa is the company’s number-one seller, a first-place Scovie Award from Fiery-Foods Magazine and a first place award in Chile Pepper Magazine’s Fiery Foods Challenge (fear not, it’s on the mild side of medium). It is delicious with a chicken breast, a pork chop or rice (so are all of the fruit salsas). The Peach Salsa is lovely, but it’s less complex than the Pineapple Chipotle and Raspberry Chipotle, e.g.: the notes of vinegar and jalapeño heat soar over the peach fruit flavor. Still, it’s wonderful with fish tacos, grilled fish or pork tenderloin, as is the Mango Mariachi Salsa, which we didn’t have as part of this tasting but have enjoyed previously.
• Pineapple Chipotle Salsa’s sweetness compliments blackened seafood or chicken. It’s also terrific with ham. Heck, it’s terrific with anything—we couldn’t stop eating this pineapple wonder straight from the jar! We love how the combined sweet and smoky chipotle flavors of this salsa unite with the chunks of fruity pineapple.
• Pomegranate Salsa is the newest in the line, riding the pom popularity wave. Pomegranate is a delicate fruit flavor, so this salsa wisely lacks the heavy chile layering of the other fruit salsas. Instead, cranberry and orange peel, orange juice and vinegar combine to make this a very sweet-and-sassy salsa. It’s mild enough that we used it for dessert, both on vanilla ice cream and to dip fruit with fondue forks: orange segments, pineapple, strawberries and watermelon cubes. It’s not only tasty, it’s fun!
• Raspberry Chipotle Salsa, a union of raspberry, tomato, smoke and heat, is a very sophisticated, even sexy, combination of flavors. While it went well on chicken, we especially liked it on fish, and it is a dynamite dip for shrimp—boiled, broiled or fried. We enjoyed it with rice, and look forward to trying it on duck.

While we’ve recommended specific food pairings, salsas are very versatile. There’s a caveat, though: with fruit salsas especially, quality counts. We’ve tasted brands as cloying as if soda fountain syrup had been blended in, and brands that added an obvious amount of sugar when sweet, ripe fruit should have been used. For an introduction to great fruit salsa, we suggest Jardine’s Fruit Salsa Sampler, smaller (8-ounce) bottles of five different flavors.

Quesos: Cheese Salsas

Quesos: cheese sauces in regular (Loco) or hot (Caliente).

In the Southwest, cheese salsas are very popular with corn chips. For an easy recipe, people melt blocks of Velveeta and add a can of chopped jalapeños. Jardine’s quesos provide a more elegant solution. You also can use the quesos as a general cheese sauce for: Baked potatoes Broccoli No-melt cheeseburgers and cheese dogs Macaroni [and cheese] Quick nachos

Warm the queso for a few seconds in the microwave. The hot dip is especially nice.

Go To Page 6: Global Salsa Recipes

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