How do I make salsa?

One of our most requested recipes… but already made in the jar! LOL.

Homemade Salsa Recipe:

(Excellent! One of the very best I’ve tried & adapted to my taste) ~Sylvia

½ lb jalapeno or cherry peppers (I always use jalapeno, cherry peppers are VERY hot)

8 cups coarsely chopped peeled tomatoes (I don’t peel them)

3 cups chopped seeded sweet banana peppers

1 cup EACH chopped sweet red and yellow peppers

2 cups chopped onions

4 to 5 garlic cloves, minced

2 cups cider vinegar

* I use a total of 5 cups of whatever colour  sweet peppers are either on sale, or in my garden, the yellow banana peppers to give a nice perky flavour, though

1 @ 5 ½ oz can tomato paste

2 tablespoons white sugar

1 tablespoon salt

2 teaspoons spanish paprika

1 teaspoon dried oregano

¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro (the fresh leaves are cilantro, the dried seed is called coriander)

**if you can’t get fresh cilantro you can use 2 teaspoons ground coriander (and up to ¼ cup parsley fresh or 2 tablespoons dried)

Method:

Very necessary note: take out the seeds if you don’t like it hot. Keep some seeds if you like it medium, and so on-wear rubber gloves when doing this, or the oil in the seeds will burn your fingers, if this happens, soak them in lemon juice, it will take out the burn.

Combine jalapenos, tomatoes, sweet banana peppers, onions, vinegar, sweet peppers, garlic, tomato paste, sugar, salt, paprika and oregano; bring to a boil. (do not add cilantro at this stage)

Reduce heat to medium – low, stirring often for 1 hour or until thickened.

Note: After bringing to a boil in my roasting pan, I put the salsa, uncovered, in the oven at 300 – this prevents the chance of burning – for about 2 ½ to 3 hrs or until desired thickness. Add coriander and cook for another 5 minutes.  Bottle in sterilized jars.

Note: I add about ¼ teaspoon of calcium chloride, it keeps it crunchy …it’s okay in moderation, look at any bicks pickles jars, they have it in there to keep the pickles crunchy.  It’s very, very hard to find to purchase it, but if you do, well done! ~ Sylvia

Yield: approx. 10 cups.

Warning: You will now, never go back to store bought salsa again…

EXTRA HOT? – take all the seeds you took out from the jalapeno’s and put them in a side dish & cover with the salsa just made – put in oven to reduce – why make two separate batches? When it can all be done in 1.