Friends

Monday, September 21, 2009

Salsa Anyone?

We were down to the last jar of salsa so it was my "duty" to replenish the canning cupboard. Yesterday afternoon was spent doing the tedious job of blanching, skinning, dicing and chopping.

First you have to get as many tomatoes as you can gather from whatever sources are available. Some were from my 2 plants and the rest from a local farmer.

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

Once they have been blanched and skinned, the dicing begins and never seems to stop. Once they have drained well it is on to adding the real flavor. Do be careful when working with the jalapeños, they can cause some uncomfortable moments!

Image and video hosting by TinyPic Image and video hosting by TinyPic

While your canner is coming to a boil, get your salsa cooking. Make sure you time it so that you don't end up with juice instead of chunky salsa. Ladle into clean hot jars and process.

Image and video hosting by TinyPic Image and video hosting by TinyPic

When that timer goes off, you should have............salsa! Image and video hosting by TinyPic


Salsa
Source: Annie from CF (I reworked it a little bit to suit our tastes!)

8 cups tomatoes, peeled, chopped and drained
2 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 1/2 cups chopped green pepper
3 – 5 chopped jalapenos or other hot peppers of your choice
6 cloves minced garlic
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp ground pepper
1/8 cup canning salt
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon sugar
¾ cup of bottled lime juice (this has to be bottled and not freshly squeezed)
¼ cup 5% cider vinegar
16 oz. canned tomato sauce

Mix all ingredients, bring to a boil, boil for 10 minutes. Pour into hot jars, process at 10 lbs of pressure for 30 minutes for pints.....or BWB 15 minutes for pints and 20 minutes for quarts after the BWB comes back up to the boiling point. Do not use quart jars; just pints or half pints.
Makes 6 pints

1/2" headspace in the jars. Be sure with boiling water bath to use the full cup of lime juice and 5% vinegar.

If you are pressure canning the salsa you use only 1/4 cup of 5% cider vinegar and no lime juice.

Yes, you can sub any kind of peppers you want as long as you keep the quantities of low acid ingredients the same.
You can do more onion, less pepper or vice versa, as long as the total amount of onions and peppers is equal to 4 cups.

11 comments:

Carol said...

Looks great!

Kathleen said...

Wow, you've been busy!
It looks delicious..what could be better than fresh?

SavoringTime in the Kitchen said...

I wish I had enough tomatoes to make salsa! Looks delish!

Debbie@Mountain Breaths said...

Nothing like homemade salsa! Welcome to Blogland Marigene. This is the first year I won't be making salsa; all our tomato plants perished due to blight.

A Grain of Salt said...

Yum! We made 4 batches here. Hope it's enough to get us through the year!

Marsha said...

Marigene - greetings from another blogger that lives in the middle of nowhere ;) Great to see you have a blog started and I look forward to seeing everything you share! Homemade salsa is the best...I am lucky to have a neighbor that shares many jars with me.

Suzy said...

I still have tomatoes left. I really do need to make at least a small batch of salsa. Thanks for the inspiration.

Foley said...

Thank God I have two sisters that both put up enough salsa for an army!! Perhaps one of these days I will help them out and decide if it is something I want to tackle myself!

Love your header with your kitty - even the pillow matches your background!!

Tootsie said...

I have always wanted to try to make my own Salsa...but have always been a chicken! this sounds like a great one to try! thanks for the visit today!

Jane said...

Thanks for the great salsa recipe. Chips and salsa are one of my favorite things!! Thanks too for visiting my blog today.

Karine said...

Your salsa sounds delicious! Thanks for sharing:)