Cooking Home Made Salsa

What do I do when I need more freezer space? Make salsa. During the tomato harvest, I blanch my tomatoes, cut them up, measure them, and freeze them. The summer temperatures are always to balmy for me to stand over a boiling pot, so I got in the habit of freezing my tomatoes for cooking salsa in the winter. The plan did not include making salsa a few days before Thanksgiving, but the sale on turkeys was too good to pass up... Time to make some space in the freezer!

Unfortunately for my son, my hubby was home while the cooking was going on, and he likes his salsa hot. (The taste tester always wins!) I didn't have all of my ingredients for the impromptu session, so I just threw in what I had on hand.

Salsa

15 cups skinned tomatoes chunked
4 cups chopped onions
2 cups chopped green peppers
2 jalapeno peppers chopped (seeds removed)
2t crushed red pepper (dry)
1 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tablespoon salt
1/2 cup white vinegar

Set aside 1/2 cup tomato juice. Mix everything together in a large pot. Bring to boil, cook for 25 minutes stirring constantly, so it doesn't stick. Mix together 1/4 cup cornstarch with the reserved tomato juice. Slowly add (until desired thickness) to mixture, stirring well. Remove from heat. I just freeze any extra in serving size containers.

Yes, it was very hot. So to keep peace in the family, I added a can of stewed tomatoes (with juice) to a quart of salsa and that brought it down to edible for my son.

Here is the recipe that this was adapted from. Above, I used more tomatoes due to mixing up my measurements before freezing! :)

Salsa

11 cups skinned tomatoes, chopped
4 cups chopped onions
2 cups chopped green peppers
3 jalapeno peppers
2 red chillies (I usually skip them due to heat level!)
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoon salt
1/2 cup white vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoon cayenne (if you want it to burn!)

Just follow the instructions above to mix. The jalapeno peppers, chillies, and cayenne can all be played around with to the desired amount of hot. I have made the recipe with 2 jalapeno peppers and no chillies or cayenne, and it was a very nice mild salsa.