Canning Salsa

I love salsa.  With the abundance of really really fresh, just picked off the vine tomatoes and taut spicy fragrant hot peppers at the farmer's market, I couldn't resist the temptation of making salsa and canning it to enjoy during the dead of winter.

So I looked online for a simple recipe.  I came across a blog, which lead me to this blog: oneparticularkitchen.com/2009/05/19/salsa/.  Apparently, this recipe has a cult following, so go check out the recipe 

The following is my adaptation of that salsa recipe.  It's a wonderful salsa, although I would comment that because all the tomatoes and hot peppers were roasted, the salsa does have a "cooked" taste to it.  It's still fresh tasting, but just not as fresh as compared to a tomato salsa made with regular unroasted and uncanned tomatoes.

Salsa Recipe (as adapted from oneparticularkitchen.com)

16 medium sized tomatoes

2-3 medium onions (I used red onions)

4-6 large jalapeno peppers (can use more, depending on the spiciness of the peppers)

2-3 hungarian wax peppers

3-5 cloves of garlic (can use more)

2 Tablespoon of finely chopped cilantro

Juice of one lime

Salt to taste

1.  Slice tomatoes in half and put onto a cookie sheet.  Roast both sides of tomatoes under a broiler.  Take tomatoes out and peel off the skin.  Put the tomatoes into a food processor and pulse five to six times.  Pour tomatoes into a container or bowl.

2.  Slice the onions in half.  Put onions, whole jalapeno peppers, whole hungarian wax peppers, whole garlic (still in its wrappers) onto a cookie sheet and roast under a broiler.  Take out the onions, peppers, and squeeze the garlic out of its wrappers, and put into the food processor.  Pulse five to six times.  Pour this mixture with the tomato mixture.

3.  Stir the salsa, add the cilantro, lime juice, and salt to taste.

4.  Sterilize canning jars and lids.  For each half-pint jar, I pour into each jar 1 and 1/2 teaspoon of concentrate lemon/lime juice, then I put the salsa into the jar.  Then I water bath the jars at 15 minutes.

As an end note, I didn't add too much cilantro to the salsa because I presume that when I open up a can of salsa to enjoy later on, I will add more cilantro and much more fresh cilantro to the salsa.