Salsa recipe

[Ed_L]

This isn't realy a recipe, but Jak will probably be looking for it so here it is. This is the way I made it last year, and it was good enough to take notes on. The jalapenos we had last year were medium hot, and the ones we have this year are very hot, so we had to make changes this year according to taste. It is best to make the taste test when making the salsa to accomodate your own palate.

Salsa

(1) small onion

(2) 2 1/2 inch long jalapeno peppers

(6) small tomatoes

1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

(1) 8 ounce can tomato sauce mixed with 5 ounces of water

(1) teaspoon vinegar

This makes about 1 quart of salsa. To make more, simply adjust the amounts accordingly.

Ed

[Jakaleena]

Yum, Ed! Thanks.

I'm gonna try this out tonight. Like I said, we're overrun with tomatoes...

I'm planning on canning it. You said something about a cold canner. Is that the same as a water bath canner (not a pressure canner)?

If so, do you happen to have a processing time for the canning part? Most of the tomato stuff we've been doing is about 30 minutes in a boiling water bath...

[Bill Guy]

Fresh is best.

[Ed_L]

Jak,

You're welcome. It's the same thing as a water bath canner Jak. I think your time is about right. I think she was using 25 minutes, but I'll check with her to make sure. She's sleeping already, so it'll be tomorrow before I let you know Of course by now, you probably already know!

Hey Bill! Welcome to the site. All I can say is you're gonna love it! And the cilantrois good.

Ed

[Jakaleena]

Hey Bill, welcome to RP! And you're right about the cilantro of course...

I just made 6 quarts of the stuff and it is GOOD! I didn't have any jalapeños, but I'm growing habañeros in the garden so I used those (5 small ones for the 6 quarts). This is some seriously hot salsa...!

Thanks again, Ed.

[Ed_L]

Jak,

I'm glad the salsa came out good. When I read about your habaneros my monitor started smoking. Did you add other ingredients? We're more than willing to try new recipes. I asked my wife about the canning time. She said she leaves it on for 25 - 35 minutes.

Ed

[Jakaleena]

I pretty much followed your recipe, Ed. I didn't have any cilantro on hand and needed to get those tomatoes used before they went bad, so this batch is without. We'll have tons more tomatoes soon though, so I'm going to make the next batch with and see how that works out.

I used your ingredient list, but made it by "feel" for the amount of tomatoes I had on hand.

Here's what I did:

4 large onions

5-7 lbs tomatoes, peeled

1 c. vinegar

salt, pepper, garlic to taste

2 small cans of tomato paste

5 habañeros, seeded

Peeled the tomatoes by blanching and then putting into cold water.

Chopped everything and put it in a large pot to cook (I used the pressure canner for a cooking pot)

The tomatoes were pretty juicy, so I cooked it until it was well reduced.

We like our salsa smooth, so I used the blender to puree it a bit at a time till it was the right consistancy (careful when blending the boiling salsa. It can end up all over the kitchen walls! )

It turned out kind of sweet-hot, so I probably could have used more vinegar if I wanted. We all agreed here that the sweet-hot taste is kind of pleasing though.

I was looking through some canning books I have and one had salsa, which said to process in a boiling water bath for 20 minutes, so that's the time I used. They all sealed up nicely afterwards so that seemed to work fine.

[Ed_L]

Cool! But why did you seed the habaneros? Getting those skins off the tomatoes is a real pain isn't it? Yeah, she did that too.

Ed