Salsa

This is a recipe shared with us from our daughter-in-law, Jessica.

Ingredients:
20-25 cups peeled, raw tomatoes
6 jalapenos (1/2 cup chopped)
1 1/2 large onions (2 cups diced)
10-15 stems fresh cilantro
4 limes
6-8 cloves garlic
1/2-1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon cumin

How about these beautiful tomatoes?  Fresh from Mike's garden, washed and set out to dry...

And these jalapenos!  He brought them home from the vegetable stand and I washed them out and left them to dry as well...

Instructions:
Peeling tomatoes with little to no waste:

• Dip whole tomatoes into boiling water for 15 seconds.
• Remove and plunge into ice water.
• Slide peel off tomato.
• Cut out core of tomato and dice.

Salsa Prep:

• Pulse diced tomatoes in food processor in small batches till thick and chunky.
  
• Place tomatoes in large cooking pot.

• Remove seeds and veins from half  to one/third of jalapenos and dice all of them.
• Dice onions and add to jalapenos.
• Pull leaves off cilantro and add to onion/jalapeno mix.
• Juice limes (I even added the zest from a couple of them.) and add to onion mix.
• Mince garlic and add to onion mix.
• Sprinkle in garlic salt and cumin and give mixture a stir.
• In small batches, place onion mixture into food processor and puree.

• Stir pureed mixture into tomatoes.
• Bring mixture to boil and gently boil and stir for about three to five minutes.

Canning Salsa:

• While awaiting salsa mixture to come to boil, place clean pint jars in oven set to 200 degrees.  
• Place jar lids in pot and bring water to boil to sterilize them.
• When salsa is ready, place one jar at a time on a towel and dip salsa into jars with a ladle.  

• Fill jars to within 1/2 inch at top.

• Place lid on jars and screw jar ring on jar.  Do not screw on ring too tight.
• Place jars of salsa into boiling water bath where water covers jars one-to-two inches.

• Bring to gentle boil and allow to boil for 40 minutes
• Remove water bath from heat and allow to cool for five minutes or so.

• Lift jars from water bath and allow to ping and seal.

Yield: 9 pints and a 1/2-3/4 cup sampler

*Note: My first batch was a wee bit runny.  So, I drained out some of the tomato juice after we diced them for the next batch and it was much better.