Yummy Bottled Salsa

From Andrea...

10 cups tomatoes

6 green jalapeños

2 cups onion (white is best)

2 and 1/3 T. salt (not iodized)

6 cloves garlic, minced

1 T. oregano

2 tsp. ground cumin

½ T. pepper

1-7 oz. can fire roasted chilies (you can roast your own Anaheim’s if you prefer)

You can get mild or hot in the can depending on how you like your salsa.

1 and 1/3 cups apple cider vinegar (must be 5% acidity)

One batch makes about 7 pints

First clean all tomatoes of dirt and stems. Scald tomatoes in a pan (just barely covering them with hot not boiling water) for a minute or so. Set on cookie sheet. Wear gloves and use a paring knife to remove/peel skins off—this should be really easy, but quite time consuming. Discard skins. Cut tomatoes into 1/4 –inch chunks. Squeeze tomatoes in two hands to get most of the liquid out. Make sure to do this handfuls at a time. Annie and I use a big clear pitcher to measure and see how many cups of tomatoes we get. We squeeze the tomatoes in two hands letting the liquid drip onto the cookie sheet. You don’t want to remove all the liquid, but most of it. This makes your salsa nice an chunky and thick sauce instead of too runny. And you are not demolishing your tomatoes, just firmly squeezing it enough to get the excess liquid out. Pour tomato juices into another pot (you can discard, or even better use it as a base for a soup!). Once you have the total amount of tomatoes you need put into a big stock pot.

Next take a food processor and chop your onions, jalapeños (keep seeds in if you want it really hot, or de-seed if you want mild) and garlic. We like ours kind of chunky but if you prefer you can finely puree them—just depends on how you like it. Dump this into the stock pot. Add the can of chilies (or cup of your own roasted and de-skinned Anaheim’s).

To roast your own peppers: put on cookie sheet under a broiler or on a grill at 425 degrees. Do this until the skin wrinkles and chars in spots. Turn peppers over and roast on opposite side. Remove from heat. Set peppers into a bowl of ice and water. Remove skins and stems with paring knife. Now you can chop these by hand or stick them into the food processor.

Add the seasoning, salt & pepper and apple cider vinegar into the stock pot. Stir all ingredients well. Cook on medium heat until mixture starts to boil. Once it boils turn it down to simmer (this could take 15-30 minutes total to get it to a point where it boils—This is cooking it down. Next make sure your jars are clean and ready. Ladle salsa into jars leaving ½ inch headspace. Heat lids up in water. Wipe down tops of jars and make sure there isn’t any gook on ‘em so they can seal properly. Put lids on jars, screw rings around jars to finger tight. Process in a water bath for 25 minutes for Utah counties altitude. Make sure that timer is set and the processing time doesn’t start until after the water in the canner is to a rolling boil. You can turn the heat down a little once you start processing; so your water doesn’t boil off. But you still want it to be boiling—just not crazy like. Also, make sure the water in the canner is at least 2 inches above the tops of your lids. (unless you are using a steam canner)

When you are done processing in the water bath take a jar lifter and pull all your jars out. Set an old towel down and transfer your jars to this. Caution: jars will be very hot! Let them set until totally cool and sealed. I love to hear the pop, pop, pop! From the lids sealing.

Label your salsa (hot/med/mild) and put the month and year on the lid. Enjoy!

***Use disposable rubber gloves and it really protects your hands from the acid in the tomatoes and the heat of the peppers! Make sure you have several pairs on hand. This recipe is so easily doubled or tripled. I usually make 4-5 batches at a time.