Salsa time

I have been processing tomatoes, I made some tomato sauce last week, as well as salsa last week and this week. It is a lot of work, chopping all those veggies. This last session went better, though, because my 11 yr. old helped. She was a great assistant! I even tried to make some 'hot' salsa - mine is typically very mild - even when I try to make it hot. We'll see if I finally succeeded. Next time (if I make any more) I'll use my LaPresse- I think it is called.

Here is my recipe for salsa, I got a great recipe from a friend, and made a few changes:

Salsa

½ bushel tomatoes (about 28 lbs)
2 sliced garlic cloves
2-5 green peppers (or red, orange, yellow)
2-5 other types of peppers (banana, Anaheim, poblano, etc)
3 large onions
2 T salt (non-iodized for canning)
2-3 jalapeno peppers
lemon juice

Scald and peel tomatoes. Dice them and put them in a colander to strain out some of the juice. (I press the tomatoes against the colander, then put the drained tomatoes in a saucepan to cook briefly, and drain and press them again- this results in a thicker salsa)

Clean and chop all other vegetables, put all veggies in the large saucepan to cook until onions are soft, and salsa reaches a low boil, stirring occasionally.

Add salt, and 1 – 3 T. of hot crushed bottled peppers, if hotter salsa is desired. Stir.

Add 1 T. lemon juice to each pint of salsa, process in pressure cooker at 15 lbs pressure for 15 minutes.
Some of my friends use a water bath canner to process this, but I am a bit cautious, and use the pressure cooker. The best thing to do is to check with your local extension office for their advice.