Angela’s Spicy Salsa

(Makes approximately 6 quarts cooked)

Salsa is a mainstay in our New Mexican kitchen, and our kids love it. Every summer when garden fresh tomatoes are plentiful we process dozens of jars of salsa using variations of this recipe. We boil-water process the salsa in jars and then store it in the basement (for up to 6 months). Processing allows you to preserve summer’s bounty enjoy salsa all year round. (You can find instructions for boil-water processing online or in your favorite recipe book.)

Ingredients:

30 to 40 fresh tomatoes
12 chile peppers (mix and match any varieties, as long as they’re spicy)
1 onion – large chopped
1 T. celery seed or 1 c. chopped celery
¼ t. cayenne pepper (optional)
10 cloves garlic, crushed
½ c. white vinegar
2 T. sugar (or agave nectar)
¼ c. salt
Fresh oregano, cilantro

Directions:

1. Blanch tomatoes: bring large pot of water to a boil, drop in all tomatoes, and leave for 1 minute. Drain water and put the tomatoes into an ice cold bath for a minute or two. Drain. Discard peel, quarter tomatoes and place them in large heavy pot with peppers, onion, celery and cayenne. Bring to a boil and cook slowly for 45 minutes uncovered, stirring occasionally.

2. At this point remove from heat and taste to see whether it’s spicy enough for you. If not add more hot peppers or cayenne. Blend mixture in blender or food processor to desired consistency (as little as possible for chunkier salsa).

3. Return to heat and add vinegar, sugar and salt. Return to simmer for another 30 – 60 min to desired consistency.

4. Process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes for pints and 20 minutes for quarts. See detailed canning instructions online for water bath method. It’s fairly easy.

Note: This is just a basic salsa recipe, and you can always add more or less of anything, to suite your tastes. Experiment with variations. I sometimes do a roasted batch by roasting my tomatoes and chiles over a fire (or a gas grill, or by broiling in the oven) instead of blanching them. If you go that route, you can either remove the seeds and skins for a milder salsa, or leave them in for added roastiness. (If you do leave skins in, though, make sure to blend your salsa a little longer under step 2.) If you want to skip the canning all together, just eat the salsa fresh, or even freeze it. However, freezing salsa will make it watery, so canning is definitely my favorite method.