This is a terrific salsa recipe from my friend Tracy Wolfe in Kansas!! It can be made with either fresh tomatoes or canned(She prefers canned, as she says that fresh can be expensive and very labor intensive, because of the blanching and peeling). Salsa is wonderful served with chips, on tacos, enchiladas, eggs, fish, anything and presents so well, as you can see from the picture. Her recipe makes about12 pints or if you want a few jars and some to eat, cut the recipe in half. So use a little creative license and jump in... OLE!
2 very large size cans of whole tomatoes, should be 5 lb. institutional size
or 20 lbs. fresh tomatoes, blanched and peeled
12 jalapenos or other chile if you like it milder, like me( I use Anaheim chiles which have wonderful flavor but nearly as much "heat")
1 green pepper, seeded
1 large onion
2 garlic cloves
Habanero chile, if you want even more "heat"
canning salt
Mexican oregano, if desired
snipped fresh cilantro
12- pint canning jars, rings and lids
Put tomatoes, chiles,green pepper, onion, and garlic cloves in the bowl of a food processor, working in batches. Put the salsa in a large soup pot on the stove and warm before putting in the hot jars for canning. Add some chopped fresh cilantro RIGHT before filling jars so it doesn't turn dark. Can also add 1 TBLS. canning salt at this point, if desired. Mexican oregano is what keeps you dippin at the Mexican restaurants, according to Tracy. Add a little at a time( 1 teaspoon), tasting as you go. Tracy finds that running all of the jars in the dishwasher, prior to canning, makes this easy. Pull them out and fill to top leaving headroom, with warm salsa while jars are still warm. If you just want to make some to be used fairly soon and to take as a gift. Eliminate the canning salt, and fill jars. Will keep in the frig for quite a while really, with the chiles in there. Boil the jars in a water bath for 15 minutes, remove and let cool on racks. Tighten lids before processing too.
