fruit salsa

My sister-in-law made her sister's fruit salsa for a Petralia get-together sometime in the '90s, and I think everyone in the family makes a version of it now, because it is so ding dang good. I mean, look at this...

Always a hit at parties.

I try to choose fruit that isn't over-ripe, so it doesn't turn to mush in the bowl.

fruit salsa

1 small papaya or half of a large one (firm, just-ripe)
2 mangoes
2 avocados
2 tomatoes
1 small yellow onion
1 small jicama or part of a large one -- about 2 cups
3 lemons, juiced
1 cup cilantro, fresh
1 TBSP salt (more or less to taste)
(The secret ingredient is love... don't overwhelm your audience with it... or maybe go right ahead.)

Peel the fruit, onion, and jicama, and chop to about 1/4" sized pieces. Chop the tomatoes without peeling or straining. You will need a gigantic bowl, by the way... put all the fruit, onion, jicama, and tomato into that gigantic bowl. If you don't have jicama, use frozen corn, straight out of the freezer bag.

Juice the lemons over the fruit, catching the seeds in my all-time second-favorite kitchen utensil (oh yes, my knife is number one, baby), the julep strainer. I must have gotten this spoon at a thrift store, and never knew what it was made for, but now I do, and yet I still use it to strain the seeds out of citrus. I've lost it in the wilds of my kitchen drawers a couple of times, and WWIII was only very narrowly avoided, let me tell you.

Don't misplace me, baby.

Chop the cilantro very roughly (it likes it), and add it and the salt to the bowl. Stir it around, resist eating the entire deal with the julep spoon, and refrigerate until it's time for the next day's pot luck fiesta. Remember to keep half for your family.

I'm told you can eat this with corn chips, but I like my julep spoon better.

Serves 12 or one, depending on how giving you are.