Mexican Salsa Verde

The following two sauces, green and red, are perhaps the staple of the Mexican kitchen: one or the other seems to accompany almost every meal. Salsa verde can be made either roasted or raw; it’s down to personal taste, so I am giving my favourite, the roasted version.

Salsa roja is traditionally roasted and therefore tends to be the more heady of the two. Both versions are poured over meat, fish or egg dishes.

You can use a mortar and pestle rather than a blender for the fir