recipe of the month--June salsa

I cannot believe it.

I did my first batch of salsa in June. JUNE! Shocking.

One of the guys Dave works with, Ryan, gave us some tomatoes and peppers from his family's garden in return for Dave going out in the woods with him to hack down a tree and then split it into bowstaves. (big sacrifice for Dave, let me tell ya...) And I thanked him so profusely that Ryan gave us more tomatoes and peppers. And I decided to make salsa.

But then things got a little out of hand on the pepper end of things, so I needed to buy some more tomatoes to balance them out. Thankfully I had heard on the radio someone selling tomatoes for $1 per pound. We went out to their house and the nice older couple treated us like we were their long-lost kin.

They told us about growing tomatoes in Texas, showed us their eggplant and okra and told us if it was closer to supper time, they'd have invited us to stay. And I have no doubt they would have. I loaded up five pounds of tomatoes on the man's scale and he said "Holly, that isn't five pounds!" and proceeded to add another pound and a half of tomatoes and then said "that is five pounds." Then they gave us another huge tomato with instructions to slice it for our dinner. Then they gave us an eggplant and the wife told me how to cook it Southern-style. And the husband gave us some sausage from a deer he'd killed last fall and told us how to cook that. They wanted to know what church we went to and were amazed that we looked so normal, for Mormons. We asked what church they went to and were told that they went to the Baptist church because it was closest but they weren't too crazy about the pastor. Jed tried to poke their dog's eyes out and they thought it was the cutest thing ever. He ate some dirt and threw rocks and the man offered to trade me a bushel of tomatoes for our curly boy. They told us to come back when the okra was ready and they'd show us how to cook it.

I think we'll go.
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Whatever you've heard about Southern Hospitality, it's true.
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a very few of the tomatoes graciously given by Ryan (and the eggplant from our new friends)

Jed helped me slice tomatoes and snuck bites when he thought I wasn't looking.

some tomatoes, onions and peppers getting ready to cook

SO pretty all mixed up!

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This is the best salsa I have ever made, seriously. I will never use another recipe. My mom found it on the program at church when my parents were visiting my grandparents in Sanford, Colorado at the beginning of the month. You should definitely try it.

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Sanford Salsa

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4 quarts tomatoes (I like a mixture of roma and slicing, but use what you have)

4 large bell peppers

4 hot peppers

4 jalapeno peppers

4 large onions (purple onions make for prettier salsa but white have more bite--I do 2 purple and 2 white)

4 cloves garlic

1/8 cup sugar

1/4 cup vinegar or lemon juice

1/8 cup salt

2 tsp ground black pepper

2 tsp cumin, ground or whole

1 bunch cilantro

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To measure a quart of tomatoes, I dice them one at a time and put into a quart jar. When that jar is full, I dump it into my pot and put a toothpick or a spoon on my windowsill so I know I've done one. Keep doing that until you have 4 quarts. Chop your peppers, onions and garlic and put into your large pot. Add sugar, vinegar/lemon juice, salt, black pepper, cumin and cilantro. Simmer this for 2-3 hours. At this point, I like to let it sit overnight (or for a couple of days, depending on how busy I am) in the refrigerator. Then taste your salsa. Make sure you like it! Add more of whatever you need and cook for another hour. Then put your salsa in clean jars and process in a boiling-water bath for the correct time for your elevation. Here at 320 feet, I do it for 15 minutes, but if you live higher, call your county extention agent to find out how long you need to do it. This recipe will make 8-9 pints of salsa.

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When I made this, I had enough for 7 quarts of tomatoes. I only had 3 bell peppers and 2 jalapeno peppers, but I had about 15 banana peppers and 5 green chile peppers. I only had 3 onions but I had about 8 cloves of garlic (of varying sizes). Because I had 7 quarts of tomatoes, I added an extra teaspoon of pepper and cumin and did 1/4 cup vinegar and 1/8 cup lemon juice.
This amount of everything gave me 15 pints of salsa. Next time I make this, it will probably be a little different. It's okay--it's different every time!

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This is my caveat about salsa: Salsa recipes are kind-of fluid. You mix and match what you have and increase what you like and decrease what you don't like--within reason. Because if you aren't careful to keep the proportions mostly correct, you'll get botulism and die (or be REALLY sick). And that's no fun.

This is my favorite jar--it's really old and says "magic mason" on either side. I think I have 4 of these jars.

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Salsa (and everything else you process at home) is so much work! It's tiring to chop and dice and mince and stir and ladle salsa in to jars and hot in the kitchen while things are cooking. But the best reward is hearing the spop of a jar sealing and seeing the jars on my shelves (or under my bed, right now) full of good things to eat for the coming season.