Woody's Canned Salsa

 

Time to make my salsa to keep me stocked up for the winter here at Home and at my 2 Buddies houses when we get together on Saturday Nights during the Winter to play cards and everyone chips in for something to snack on...

 

Sorry Folks, no pictures, someone was messing with the camera the other day and did something to it and the Wife is trying to get it fixed (NO It was not me, I'll not say who it was so my Daughter doesn't get busted on to badly  ) 

 

I take a mess of tomatoes, A Mix of everything we Grow, Sweet Juliana Grape Tomatoes, Amish Pride, Pepper Tomatoes, and Beef Eater and blanch them to take the skins off...

I cut an X in the bottom of them and then place them in water that is just shy of the boiling and stir them around till I see the skins start to bust from the X I Cut --Different then what I used to see my Mom do, she just had the water boiling and dropped them in and back out in 15-30 seconds, which to me seems not enough time and the skins are hard to take off...the way I do it, the skins come off rather easily!

 

After the skins start to bust, I spoon them out and into an ice water bath to cool fast and then go to skinning..

 

Once I have them skined ,  I dice them up and into a Bowl and then dice up the Onions and Hot Peppers (What ever type of Hot pepper one likes, I use  jalapeño and thai peppers and use different amounts to each batch, what ever looks good to the eye, I'm not 1 to have weights of things into my salsa) After dicing those up, I put them in the bowl with the diced tomatoes and mix them up real good, then I take about 2 tablespoons of Kosher salt, 1 teaspoon of black pepper, 1/2 tsp of chili power and 1/2 tsp of paprika and mix that all up into the diced veggies... I then ruff cut some garlic cloves and cilantro leaves and throw them into a blender..I add some juice from the bowl to the blender and blend the garlic and cilantro up real good and then put that in with the diced veggies and stir it up, I then put the bowl in the fridge over night and let sit...the next day I take a large strainer and strain the juices out of the veggie mix and pour that juice into a pot and boil it down till it is pretty thick....After it has boiled down to a good thickness, I add the diced tomato, hot pepper and onion mix into the pot and boil that for about 15 minutes... the end result is the, onions and hot peppers still have come crunch to them, they are not like they are raw but they are not mush like if you boiiled the crap out of them to make them mush...

 

I let that cool down and after it is cool, I add 2 cap fulls of apple cider vinager to the mix to add more acidity....after that is mixed up and has sat for about 10 minutes, I taste it, if it is not hot enough ,I go and grab more hot peppers from the garden and dice them up and add them into the mix and let it sit an hour and taste... when everything tastes just right in the heat, I ladle into half pint canning jars and put the lids on them and into a water bath for atleast 30 minutes to 45 minutes, when the time is up they come out of the water bath and sit to seal up...into the basmeent shelf to await opening...

 

I made a batch last Monday...12 half pint jars, Wednesday I got into a jar and that was all it took, I emptied 5 jars since wednesday...Had to start another batch last night...

 

I perfer the veggies to have some what of a bite to them or crunch, some Body, not mush...The way I do it, they come out like I like them...

 

I have heard so many friends say they would love to make their own Salsa but they are afraid to try....you can not mess it up if you take your time and taste if before Canning!!  I try to tell them that all the time but they can not understand you do not need measurments of exact numbers to do it, you can just eye it and add the spices you like and make sure you taste it before going into the jars to can and when it tastes the way you want it, jar it boil it in the waterbath and let them seal up...your good to go to have salsa that you like that came right from your own garden!

 

Don't be afraid to try it folks, try a small batch first and work from there!!