A few posts ago or comments on some else’s blog, not sure which right now, I noted that it isn’t a good idea to change-up canning recipes since they have a chemical balance to them, and changing things could change that and so cause problems. I guess I don’t always follow my own advice. So, I will tell you to look at this recipe with some hmmm, maybe trepidation. I will also say that I have not, to date, gotten sick on my own salsa. So with that out-of-the-way, I will give you the original recipe then my version.
So this is Sharon’s Salsa. Sharon is a good friend who used to be a next door neighbor, but we have both moved, and so….
5 qts tomatoes–blanched
3 cups diced onions
2 cups diced green peppers
3-4 dried red peppers
1-2 garlic cloves
3 TB salt
1 TB pepper (Sharon says this is too much pepper for her so she skips it)
1/4 cup sugar
1 TB cumin
6-7 TB corn starch mixed with some of the simmering juice then returned to the mix. (I compare it to making gravy from the drippings with flour.)
Cook on low heat for 1 hour and pack in hot jars no need to process.
Here is the line up of photos of the salsa I made with Paulina’s help.
Blanching the tomatoes.
Tomatoes blanched and cooling.
Tomatoes in the pot.
Celery and peppers diced up for the salsa pot.
Celery and peppers in the pot too.
Simmering salsa
Salsa in the jar
First off, I started with as many tomatoes as were ripe today. From the results, I can say there were 8 qts of tomatoes–blanched. We skip the onions just because we don’t like them, instead we use celery. It makes a blander salsa. Paulina diced up nearly a whole stalk of celery. I held out four sticks to use in tomato juice later. I diced up several green peppers, which amounted to about 3 cups. I cut in one fresh chili pepper and added three dried peppers, seeds and all. We were out of garlic, so that was omitted, I normally add that. Because there were more tomatoes, I put in 1/4 cup of sugar and 1/4 cup of canning salt. On Sharon’s advice, I do not add the ground pepper. Because the flavor didn’t seem quite right, I put in 2 TB of cumin. As the mix got to boiling it smelled like salsa. I let it simmer for about 45 minutes then boiled it for a few minutes. I don’t like the lumps that come when putting in the corn starch so today, I ran that part through the blender, and it worked like a charm. I will for sure do that again. Anyway, the pictures are above and you can check them out. I ended up with 8 full quarts and one was about two tomatoes short of being full, so that will be opened and eaten soon. My favorite way to eat this salsa is mixed with nacho cheese and warmed in the microwave then devoured on salsa chips.
This is all I really have except for the two pictures below. One is my set up yesterday at Farmers’ Market. I took small fairly ripe tomatoes. They were about the right size for a BLT. I chose them to sell because it is rather a pain to cut up all those small tomatoes when blanching. Next is a picture of the poor neglected moss roses. I think they look a bit better today because I watered them right after I took that picture. I need to get outside later and give everyone a good long drink. It is getting very dry here, to the point of scaring me about gardening next summer. Without lots of snow, we will be in some serious trouble next year. Oh well, I guess, I will just worry about all of that later, as Scarlet said, “Tomorrow is another day.”
Dried up moss roses.
Table at Farmers’ Market.
lucindalines 