Salsa

This afternoon I made up a half-batch of salsa to can. I got the recipe from my Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. I've made fresh salsa before and never thought it was that big of a deal. But I'd never had to peel, chop, and de-seed tomatoes before either. What a pain in the tush - at least I thought it was. Very time consuming, even after boiling them for 30 seconds or so to make the skins just slide off - the chopping and removing the seeds was the time-consuming part. I'm not sure I really want to try out another salsa recipe, which had been my plan going into this, hence only doing half a recipe. We'll see, I guess.

We haven't tasted this salsa yet, but it sure looks good and smells good! I got 2 pints and 4 half-pints out of half the recipe.

Zesty Salsa
(Page 207 of the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving)

10 cups chopped, cored, peeled tomatoes
5 cups chopped, seeded green bell peppers
5 cups chopped onions
2 1/2 cups chopped, seeded chili pepper, such as hot banana, Hungarian wax, serrano, or jalapeno (I used jalapeno)
1 1/2 cups cider vinegar
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 Tablespoons chopped cilantro
1 Tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce, optional (I left this out)

Prepare the canner, jars, and lids.

In a large stainless steel saucepan, combine tomatoes, green peppers, onions, chili peppers, vinegar, garlic, cilantro, salt, and hot pepper sauce, if using. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring frequently, until slightly thickened, about 10 minutes.

Ladle hot salsa into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles, adjust headspace, wipe rim, center lid, screw band down to fingertip tight.

Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water. Bring to a boil and process both half-pints and pints for 15 minutes. Remove canner lid, wait 5 minutes and remove jars, cool, and store.

Makes about 12 half-pints, or 6 pints