Wednesday 30 September 2015

Salsa!

I haven't made salsa in about 3 years.  A couple of years ago I was just too pregnant to care about anything but stuffing my face with some sort of cracker/chip/tortilla/any carbohydrate loaded with salsa.  Last year I definitely had the tomatoes from the garden ready to do it but then my appendix decided it wanted to nearly explode.  That experience really waylaid my salsa making.  

So, here I am, with a decent batch of tomatoes with salsa written all over them.  No ginormous belly holding me back.  No exploding organs holding me back.  To add to this turn of great luck, peppers were also on sale this week.  I even have a bunch of cilantro at the bottom of my crisper begging to be used before it turns into a green river at the bottom of the drawer....... 

The time is now.

Ready for salsa

My kids spent approximately an hour chasing each other with snakes yesterday afternoon.  Somehow two dollar store plastic snakes in the toybox were resurrected yesterday and more time was spent loving these toys yesterday than their entire existence.  Again, it's like the moon and stars were aligning....Because that's about the amount of time I spent chopping all of the veggies required for this delicious recipe.  I've used my food processor in the past, but I just don't like the consistency of the results.  I like a nicely diced salsa.  Not the haphazard chopped mess that the food processor provides.  If I was making more than one batch I would change my tune.  Or if the snakes weren't out in full force.  I had the time though, so I hand chopped.  

Now that's an hour of chopping


Here is what you will need:

7 cups diced ripe tomatoes (I don't peel mine.  Some recipes do)
5 cups diced mixed sweet green, yellow, orange and red peppers 
3 cups diced onions
1.5 cups diced jalapeno peppers.  I leave the seeds in one or two of the peppers for a little kick
1/2 cup minced fresh cilantro
6 cloves finely minced garlic
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup white vinegar
1 can of tomato paste (the little 5 oz can)
1 tbsp salt
3 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp paprika
1 tsp oregano

Gently mix all of the above ingredients together in a large heavy pot.  Over medium heat, bring the mixture to a boil.  Simmer, uncovered, for one to one and a half hours.  The mixture should reduce and become thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.  



Fill sterilized, small jars (I used 1 cup jars this time, I often use 2 cup sizes) to within 1/4 inch of top. Make sure the rims are free from any salsa splatter, and seal with new, sterilized rims.  Twist rings over top of jars until finger-tight, and process in a boiling water bath for 20 minutes.  Enjoy!


This recipe makes exactly 9, one cup jars of salsa.

 

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