Fall's Bounties
As the days get crisper and we head toward the first frost, it becomes even more important to preserve what we can for the winter months. If you live in the Okanagan like I do, there is still time to freeze (or dehydrate) strawberries and plums, preserve apples, tomatoes and peppers and buy onions, potatoes and other root vegetables in bulk to store over the next few months. This week we started with salsa, and plan to can tomatoes, make hot sauce and preserve apples in the next week.
A great salsa recipe that we discovered a few years ago is this one: https://thehungrybluebird.com/fire-roasted-salsa-canning-recipe/, however we modified quantities as follows:
75 lbs tomatoes (makes about 59 cups of chopped, drained tomatoes – you want to get rid of the excess moisture prior to adding the other ingredients)
24 poblano peppers (approx. 6 cups, chopped)
16 jalapeno peppers (approx. 2 cups, chopped)
12 cups chopped onions
24 garlic cloves, chopped
8 cups apple cider vinegar
4 cups chopped cilantro
5 tbsp oregano
4 tsp cumin
5 tbsp salt
4 tbsp honey
These quantities should make about 40 pint jars of salsa (which barely lasts the year, especially if you like to entertain).
Salsa is always a labour of love due to the time consuming nature of finely chopping all of the ingredients, and this recipe adds the extra step of grilling the tomatoes on the barbecue first to impart a hint of smokiness. However, I guarantee that once you taste it, you’ll never buy another jar from the grocery store!! Feel free to add extra peppers to some jars as well; this year we experimented by adding chipotle hot sauce to one batch. This salsa goes well on eggs and anything Mexican.
Please drop your me a comment if you try this recipe, or have other favourite canning recipes.
