Our friend Chris turned 40 recently and to celebrate, his Chilean inlaws threw him a party. We were honoured to be invited, and excited to be part of the festivities!
On the lunch table, accompanying the prawns, amazing pumpkin soup, huge hunks of meat and tasty salads, were pots of pevre, a Chilean salsa. This delicious sauce was spooned generously over every dish.
Now, recipes are closely guarded secrets within the host family, so I and the handsome Polish boys, Sebastian and Maciej, sat huddled at our end of the table, deconstructing the recipe sotto voce and taking notes on my iPhone…
The following day, I went straight out and stocked up on the necessary ingredients. I went overboard with the lime juice on my first attempt, but the second batch was a winner…
- 500g tomatoes
- ½ Spanish onion
- ½ bunch coriander, leaves and stems
- ½ clove garlic, minced
- 2 small chillies, deseeded and chopped finely
- salt
- pepper
- extra virgin olive oil
- 2 teaspoons lime or lemon juice (or to taste)
1. Pick gorgeously ripe tomatoes (not an easy task in late Autumn!) and chop them up finely. I used a mix of truss tomatoes and Bella Rosas…
2. Finely dice the Spanish onion and taste a little of it. If it’s too sharp, scrape it into a sieve and pour boiling water over it to mellow the flavour a little. Drain well. Finely chop the coriander. Combine the onion, coriander, tomatoes and garlic together in a large bowl. I only used a tiny bit of the garlic from the photo below…
3. Season the mixture well with salt and pepper, then add the lime or lemon juice and a generous glug of olive oil. Taste and adjust as necessary. Cover the bowl in clingfilm and rest it for a couple of hours in the fridge to allow the flavours to meld. Taste again and adjust seasonings if necessary.
Our pevre is perfect on sourdough ciabatta toast…
…and dolloped into roast butternut pumpkin soup…
And you’ll be pleased to know that I didn’t waste the failed first attempt – I whizzed it up in the blender with stale sourdough (crusts removed, soaked briefly in cold water and then squeezed dry), a little bottled passata and a splash of sherry vinegar. Instant gazpacho soup!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Celia I wasn’t too sure about this post when it popped up in my inbox I thought it said perve!
I love that you figured it out from tasting it. So clever. That blue bowl is just gorgeous.
Well…the Polish boys really were very handsome, but I resisted oggling them.. ;-)
I didn’t really figure it out just from tasting, Seba and Maciej had inside info.. ;-)
I love developing recipes in this way, Celia. One of my favourite things to do! Love the sound of this, so tasty!!
Lizzy, thank you! It’s really delicious, although I’ve tasted my version so many times now that I can’t exactly remember what the original at lunch tasted like! Nonetheless, we’re pretty happy with ours.. :)
Now there’s a recipe for my mother-in-law! Why didn’t she return to Australia with that??? That looks so refreshing and I love how inventive you are and how you can turn a disaster into a masterpiece. You would be so good on Master Chef! xx
Charlie, it would never have worked for your MIL – no corn! ;-) The pevre soup was tasty – not a real gazpacho (no cucumber or green capsicum), but delicious nonetheless. It made a nice lunch yesterday! :)
Lime juice, salt and tomatoes is addictive – when you have good tomatoes it’s best to treat them in a simple way like this.
Sally, thanks – I imagine this will be even better when tomatoes are in season!
Hi Celia,
I have been quiet lately…too busy with work ..but it is all good. BUT when I saw that you loved the Chilean pebre, I wanted to help you out with a recipe …here is a link to a blog of an American girl “foodie” with her recipe…http://eatwineblog.com/2009/06/08/chilean-tomato-and-cilantro-salsa/
I hope that all is well in your world Celia!!
I think of you every time I use my shopping bags!!
Hugs,
Jude
Jude, how nice to hear from you! Hope it’s all going well! Thanks for the link – I noticed when I was googling the recipe that it’s spelled both ways, and that some recipes use spring onions and others use white onions. They all have lots of coriander though! :)
Hi Celia
That looks perfect, just the flavours I love. I will definitely try making it. I’m about to check out the link Judy has provided.
Thanks Glenda! Hope you enjoy it!
Oh, when we were in Chile I was spooning the pevre on everything that would sit still. A friend of ours took a cooking class in Chile and she taught me the recipe for pevre that she learned… and it looks a lot like yours! Nice one!
SK, that’s good to know, thank you! I’m sure there are salsa variations all across South America – would love to try them all, actually! :)
This all sounds delicious Celia, I can almost taste it.
Jane, I hope you make it, it’s perfect on sourdough toast! :)
You sneaky thing you! I do the same whenever I go out too! What a lovely fresh sounding dish indeed, and I love that top bowl :)
Becca, thank you! It was a bit of fun at the party, in amongst singing to Donna Summer and the Bee Gees, and stuffing our faces with food! :)
Oh my dear Celia, these are all so beautiful and so delicious… and your photographs are so nice too. Especially I loved how you served them… Thank you, love, nia
Thank you, Nia! I’m very chuffed that you like the photos! :)
I suggest that Claire should read things more closely – that sort of misapprehension could get one in trouble :D. What if I had been a Chilean perve? Anyway, this looks delicious, Celia!
Hehehe…surely not a Chilean perve, Nick? ;-) We probably should all stop writing that word though, this post is probably going to be picked up by all sorts of unwanted google searches…hahaha
Haha – I asked for that one… Haha, yes – then again, some of the searches that have led to my blog are a bit odd – one wonders how they find me…
Pevre = tasty!
I got the recipe from a Chilean woman – minus citrus in her version.
I feel a pevre moment coming on again – inclusive of lime this time, Celia. Delicious.
Grilly, I meant to link to your recipe! It was one of the first ones that came up on my searches! :)
http://gillthepainter.blogspot.com.au/2009/05/pevre.html
Did it really – good old google.
We had some last night, inclusive of lime and it was light and zingy.
My favourite word ….. Zing!
Oh la la – what a winner Celia. Well done on doing all the hard work of deciphering what went into this scrumity salsa. LOVE the bowl in the first pic!
:-) Mandy
Thanks Mandy! I so love all my Turkish bowls – they’ve ended up well used! :)
this sounds perfect for so many things! I will try it without the onions :)
Tandy, I don’t know if this helps, but lots of recipes for pevre use spring onions instead of white ones?
What a great idea – I like the idea of spooning it on to different foods, like soup and even better as a type of bruschetta. Lovely flavours, roll on summer and fresh tomatoes!!
Claire, at the party, it was spooned onto everything except dessert! It went over the prawn entree, into the soup and over the meats! And I imagine it will be even better with summer tomatoes! :)
I also wondered about the title of this post! :) Love the idea of using it in soup, wonderful pics!
Sue, it was very yummy in the soup, changed the character of it completely!
Ha, I read “perve” too for a moment!
It looks a lot like salsas from other parts of the world, lovely on bruschetta, I bet. Mmm!
Guys, we all have to stop typing that word. The search engines are going to have a field day.. ;-) Kavey, I think there’s a great commonality between all the different salsas. Exploring them all might be an adventure for another day…
I love all of those dishes!
And your photos are so very good!
Not to mention the beautiful bowls!
I do that at parties too, sit with friends and figure out elusive recipes… it is fun – especially when you get it right! And it sounds like you did.
Thanks for sharing the fruits of your discovery with us!
Heidi, as I said, I didn’t really figure it out, as the handsome Polish boys had inside knowledge. They didn’t know quantities though, and there was some discussion about the parsley, so I left it out.. ;-)
Wow, this salsa looks and sounds absolutely fantastic! I am bookmarking this recipe to try out this summer, it looks so refreshing!
Thanks Amber! Hope you enjoy it!
That looks very light and refreshing. I am sure it would go great over some grilled fish.
Thanks Connie! I’m sure it would be great with fish, actually!
Sounds like pico to me. I love the look of it!
Oooh pico, cool, I’ll look that up, Greg. Thank you!
Here’s mine: http://rufusguide.wordpress.com/2011/07/18/pico-de-gailo/
Ha! Thank you, figures yours would have tequila in it! ;-) Am checking out the links to your other salsas as well…
Looks very good!! Will have to try here when the tomatoes are at the farmers’ market. Love the look of the pevre on bread and on top of the roast butternut pumpkin soup. You’re making me hungry! I love to ‘figure out’ a recipe that I don’t have, but am eating. So fun to try to recreate.
Melanie, it was great fun, but I probably should have experimented when tomatoes weren’t $8/kg. Ah well, I doubt I could still remember the taste in December when they’re in season! :)
This looks fab-like it would go with anything really! And good job getting the ratios on the second go too (I always go overboard with lime :P).
Thanks Lorraine! :)
[…] Celia, at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial, wrote a post about Chilean Pevre (here is the link). It struck a cord with me because, as soon as I read her post, I knew I would like […]
Great investigative work….. I know i can call on you if I need a spy. I am sure this fresh and beautiful salsa is good for everything
http://www.mykitchenstories.com.au
Tania, I’ve been eating it on crackers today.. :)
This is a great salsa that I have not had in such a long time. Thanks for putting it out there…hope you and yours are well.
Norma, it’s always so nice to hear from you! Hope you enjoyed the holiday! :)
Although I’m sure you’ll find a similar salsa throughout South America, I’m amazed at how similar this one is to Mexico’s salsa cruda – I’m also sure that Mexico would say that all others have stolen it from them, since they most often refer to their’s as Salsa Mexicana, and after all, it does contain all the colors of the Mexican flag.
I’ll google salsa cruda now, Doc.. :)