Salsa

We did not make any salsa last summer and so ran out some time ago. When I went looking for my recipe I dug up a list of ingredients but unfortunately had not recorded the procedure before, so I was shooting in the dark a bit here. This time I'm recording it all for posterity though!

Note that due to the lack of vinegar this recipe is not suited to canning by any means other than pressure-canning. The lack of vinegar makes for a nice sweet, fresh flavour that is very similar to the fresh salsas that are so popular these days. This is easy to make, though does take some time to boil down. We cheat and add a bit of corn starch to help thicken it.

This is pretty mild for spiciness.

• 17.5 lb roma tomatoes
• 5 lb tomatillo
• 2 large spanish onions (one red, one white)
• 6 large bell pepper (3 mostly green, 1 yellow, and green/yellow and one mostly red)
• 4 green hot peppers (will have to look up exact type)
• 4 red hot peppers
• 2 whole bulbs garlic
• 2 large bunches cilantro, washed and chopped about 5-6 cups
• 5 tablespoons corn starch

First I blanched, cored and skinned the roma tomatoes and put them all into a pot. See my video on canning tomatoes for complete instructions on how to do this part. I decided early on that I was going to puree the romas for a smooth tomato base, and leave everything else chunky - just how chunky you leave it is really up to you. You could also leave half to 2/3 of the romas chunky as well, if you like.

When you get all the romas into the pot, add your corn starch and puree them with a hand blender. If you do not have one, then do it in batches in a regular blender. Turn on the burner on 4 (5 is half), and simmer slowly while chopping the other veggies and adding them in. Tomatillos do not need to be peeled or cored. I also did not peel the bell peppers. The hot peppers got chopped pretty small. Some of the veggies I did in a mini-chopper food processor from Kitchen Aid, and it did a really good job given that I wanted smaller chunks. It would probably not do such a great job if you want larger chunks. The mini-chopper did a good job on the cilantro as well, in 2 batches.

This needs to be simmerly low and slow for 4 to 7 hours to get to the desired thickness, then pressure canned. Mine started about 10 litres and got down to 8 - I probably could have thickened it up a bit more than that but just got tired of tending to it. After simmering for 2 or 3 hours it gets thick enough that you have to reduce the heat to 2, and make sure you start stirring it well at least every 10 minutes thereafter.

I got 18 x 500ml jars. The taste is absolutely fantastic.