After marriage, in the initial days of cooking, I was content making traditional foods that I grew up with. Like any new bride full of enthusiasm, I laid down feasts after feasts, making my husband feel that our wedding feast was still on a roll! he complained about being full all the time, although I think he secretly enjoyed being pampered this way with home cooked food after staying on his own and feeding on restaurant food for 8 years. I noticed that though he complained, he never failed to finish off all the food without leaving any leftovers!! Anyways, his restaurant eating habit did have one advantage for me since he knew a whole lot on different cuisines. He insisted on me creating his restaurant favorites right at home and it was quite a challenge having never tasted them myself. But thanks to internet, books and his taste testing, I slowly started expanding my horizons until the cooking bug actually caught me big time (...and that which continues till date!).

I used to go to this local library to hunt for books and I noticed this lady who was also a regular. After bumping continuously for 10 times, we actually started talking and discovered a common love. Food. She was a perfectionist - the Alton Brown kind, who believed in knowing the science behind every recipe. We talked so much about food and I have to say she was instrumental in me learning so much. She used to give me recipes to try and I have like 23 or so recipes from her which work every single time I make them. The first ever recipe that I tried was Pico De Gallo or what the world more popularly know as Fresh Tomato Salsa. It is known by various other names - Salsa Cruda, Salsa Fresca, Salsa Bandera, Salsa Mexicana and Salsa Picada !!! Quite a list isn't it? The recipe cannot be simpler. Just chop and throw few things together - Tada - you have this famous Mexican condiment ready! But she taught me the subtle techniques of making the perfect one. Usually, you must have noticed how there is lot of water from the tomatoes after you chop them and place them with other ingredients. She taught me the technique of draining that out first which is what I have shown here. Who knew that even a simple recipe as this needs fine methodologies to make something from good to best! Lets go to the recipe now, shall we? I recently got a bunch of fresh looking tomatoes from the farmer's market and couldn't help myself from making this condiment. We used it as a filling for our tacos along with refried beans and cilantro lime rice.