Jalapeno Salsa

My sister and I decided to pool our (garden) resources the other day...

What do you do with that many tomatoes and peppers?!

Well you make salsa of course!

We had a little "canning" party and made several pints of salsa and pickled jalapenos.  It was quite a task, but I'm so glad we did it!  I've never made salsa before, and we had so many jalapenos, that we went with a recipe from a trusted fellow blogger.  

We made Jalapeno Salsa from The Perks. (A Ball Book of Canning Recipe)

Ingredients - 

3 cups chopped peeled cored tomatoes

3 cups chopped jalapeno peppers  *We used 2 cups jalapenos and 1 cup assorted peppers (bell, banana, hot banana)
1 cup chopped onion
6 cloves garlic, minced *We used 3 cloves (they were huge!)
2 tablespoons minced cilantro *We doubled this
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 cup cider vinegar

Directions -
Combine all ingredients in large sauce pot.

Bring mixture to a boil.
Reduce heat.
Simmer for 10 minutes.
Ladle hot salsa into hot, sterilized jars, leaving 1/4-inch head space.
Adjust 2-piece caps.
Process for 15 minutes in boiling-water canner.

This is pretty simple once you get all your ingredients washed, cut/chopped/diced, etc.  (that part takes a while)  The easiest way to peel the tomatoes is to blanch them in boiling water (not long, maybe a minute?) and as soon as the peeling starts to peel away (make a little slit in the side of your tomato to make this easy to spot) then remove them from boiling water and place in a bowl of ice water.  You want to stop the cooking process so you don't end up with tomato sauce.  The peeling will then peel right away.  

We threw all of our ingredients (separately) in the food processor.  Rough chop for the tomatoes, finer chop for the onion and peppers.  We were going for a 'restaurant style' salsa consistency.  The only thing we didn't do is remove the seeds from the jalapenos.  Yeah, this stuff is H-O-T!!  But delicious.  However, next year, will be removing at least half the seeds. We also doubled the recipe and got 6 pints out of it.  

With the second batch, instead of adding vinegar, we added 3 T. of lime juice to each jar and then proceeded as written.  You can definitely taste the lime juice, but I love lime, so I like it.  I haven't opened the other jars with vinegar yet, so I'm curious to see the difference.  

I've also used the same recipe to make fresh salsa...I doubled the cilantro, used lime juice, and didn't cook it. I also used only the bell peppers and hot banana peppers that I had on hand.  It is delicious too, but not quite hot enough, so I've been mixing the fresh with the spicy hot canned!

It was a fun little project to do with my baby sis, and a great way to use our garden veggies.  I'll share the pickled jalapenos later in the week!

One year ago on Mo'Betta - No Bake Oreo Cheesecake (made by my daughter from her Sandra Lee kid's cookbook!)

I'm linking this recipe up with Homemaker on a Dime, Delightfully Dowling, Mouthwatering Monday @ A Southern Fairytale, Skip to my Lou, Just Something I Whipped Up @ The Girl Creative, Delicious Dishes at It's a Blog Party, Tuesdays at the Table at All the Small Stuff,  Hearth and Soul Blog Hop, Dr. Laura's Tasty Tuesday, Tasty Tuesdays @ 33 Shades of Green, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, Made from Scratch Tuesday, Tasty Tuesday @ For The Love Of Blogs,Blue Cricket Design, At Home with Haley, Lady Behind the Curtain,  Little Brick Ranch, These Chicks Cooked, Miz Helen's Country Cottage, Mangoes and Chutney for Fat Camp Fridays, EKat's Kitchen, Simply Delish, Feeding Four, It's a Keeper, Bacon Time with the Hungry Hungry Hypo, The Sweet Details for Savory Sunday 
Also linking up at Canning Week!  and Memories by the Mile, Finding Joy in My Kitchen, The Gooseberry Patch blog