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Wednesday, September 16, 2009

I'm Salsa-ing!



Not the dance, Silly! Now that would be something. Something scary! What I meant was I am making salsa. Actually, I am finally DONE! I have spent the last week, at least half a day every day, canning salsa. I ended up with about 45 quarts and 20 pints. I know what you are thinking: "WHAT? What are you going to do with all of that salsa?" To answer your question, since I started last week Dan, Tannon and Dawson have already eaten 4 quarts. No kidding. They love this stuff. They would drink it if it wouldn't burn their vocal cords off. I must admit, I love it too. We are definitely a salsa family! 60 quarts just about gets us through a year. Plus I need to be able to send some to Easton on his mission. It is not September without freshly canned salsa!

Dan's dad is a master gardener. He is a hard working and very generous man. Over the past week he has supplied me with nine 5-gallon buckets of beautiful and tasty tomatoes, two 5-gallon buckets of onions, a 5-gallon bucket of garlic, four 5-gallon buckets of green and red peppers, and one 5-gallon bucket of some very hot and spicy jalapeno peppers....all from his amazing garden. He does it for me every year. I love this man.

So, to make a long story not go on any longer, I thought I'd share a few photos of one of the things that has kept me busy this past week as well as my recipe (if you want to make as much as I did, plan on making about 15-20 batches). I hope you like!

Karen Pedersen's Salsa
single recipe makes 5-6 pints or about 3 quarts

Wash and scald tomatoes. Peel. My family likes smooth salsa so at this pint I gently puree the in my blender, but this step is not necessary. Cut in quarters if you are not pureeing. Cook for at least 1 hour in a large heavy pot. Skim off juice while cooking.

Chop the following by hand or food processor. I puree these too, not until it is totally liquid but until it is a nice thick and smooth paste. Be sure to wear gloves while doing your jalapeno peppers. If they are good, hot ones they will blister your bare hands.

2 large white onions
1 sweet read pepper
2 large green peppers
1/2 medium sized garlic clove, minced
2-4 jalapeno peppers (I love my salsa HOT so I use at least 4 of the hottest peppers I can find. If you leave your seeds in it will be even hotter. I leave the seeds in.)

MIx this in the tomato mixture in the pot and cook down another 45-minutes - 1 hour. The longer you cook it the thicker it will be, but it will also make less salsa.

Then add:
1 Tbs. white sugar
2 Tbs. brown sugar
1/4 c. apple cider vinegar
6 tea. salt

Cook again for another 30 minutes. Fill bottles and process* for 10 minutes to seal.

Note from Karen:
*I have never processed my jars in the 15+ years I have canned salsa. If you turn them over right after putting your lids on, they will seal from the heat. I just lay out several layers of towels on my kitchen talbe and turn my jars upside down there and leave them over night. I have never not had a jar seal.

By the way, this is my 2nd post today so be sure to check out the first one. Happy canning, everyone!

11 comments:

kimber said...

Oh my gosh. I can't WAIT to try out this recipe. Oh yum yum yum yum yum!!!!

NancyJo said...

Wow! I'd love to see pictures of Dan's garden! It must be AMAZING! Congrats on all that salsa canning! Love your blog!

Brenda said...

Oooh, this recipe sounds good! It's a little different than the one I have, so I want to give yours a try! Our trip the farmer's market last week is for salsa ingredients, so I'm glad you shared your recipe!

Rhett and Tiffanie Jackson said...

yum! I love to do salsa! I am waiting for my tomatoes to turn red...really slow this year! I use my salsa in everything, spaghetti sauce, soup, meatloaf, ect....also..if you have a bunch of peppers...dry them and then blend them...mixing different kinds all together...(we use Habanero, Jalapeno, Serrano, Anaheim, Mexican Chili peppers, Cheyenne, ect....a little habanero goes a long way) then put it in a salt/pepper shaker (all mixed together) and use it on eggs, nacho's, salads, taco's, soups...ect...we call it Devil Dust because it is hotter than Hattie's! loL! it also works great on naught talk, spitting, and sticking out tongues! lol! my only fear is my kids will start to like the heat! :)(due to all the food we put it in! :)...ttyl...

Tina Sutton- Missgingerdots said...

That looks so good and spicy! I am going to have to try your recipe! I would like to see you Salsa dance too! I bet you could tear up the dance floor too. You are great at all you do!

Rick and Kori said...

Thanks so much for slaving away in the kitchen so that we can have your amazing salsa! THis is your best salsa year ever!

Stampin n da Hood said...

Thanks for sharing your recipe, Karen!
I too have a master gardner and we (as in he and his equipment) have already canned about 3 cases of tomatoes, jalapenos, squash, and yes pickles, and artichoke hearts,too.
Since I love salsa, I'll be showing this to him...
Have a blast and don't take any shots from Nurse Jackie!

Cathy P said...

Hi Karen!

A couple of questions on your salsa recipe. It sounds so yummy that I want to try it but I'm not sure how many tomatoes to use. Did you measure them before/after you pureed them? Also, did you use cilantro? If so, how much?

Thanks so much for sharing this with us!!

Cathy P.

Susann said...

I can attest to how good this salsa is. I brought some home from our team retreat and it was gone in less than a day. Thanks for all your hard work Karen. You are the best!

Tabatha Fergus said...

BEST salsa ever!! I finished canning your recipe last night. Being salsa lovers, we were so anxious to try it. What a hit! It is sweet and absolutely perfect. No wonder your boys have already eaten so much. Thank you for sharing and for answering my 'tomato' question so quickly.

P.S Knowing how much my family will consume I had to use quart jars!!

Unknown said...

Thank goodness one can do a search on blogs. I made your recipe last year Karen and my family LOVED it. So went to find the recipe to start my 'salsa-ing' this year and POOF GONE!

Alas it's here and emailed it to myself and off I go....a salsa-ing!
THANKS FOR SHARING!

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