Spicy Tomato Salsa

This salsa we made utilized a product that I’d never really used before- dried chilies.  I’ve only ever used them in curries, and then I used just one or two dried chili in the pan for a few minutes before it was removed. In this case, you take dried chilies, soak them in hot water, and then blitz them in a food processor to make an amazing chili puree.  I believe the chilies we used were Cascabel chilies, and I’ve been surprised, since using them, how prevalent dried chilies actually are at a lot of the grocery stores around here.  Everyone has them, and inexpensively too.

I have just a few notes about this salsa. One, is that when you puree the chilies in your food processor with their soaking liquid, you should plan to do so in batches.  Just trust me on this- chile juice spattering All. Over. The. Kitchen. is not fun to clean up- especially when you’re not working in your own kitchen!  The recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups tightly packed cilantro.  I actually doubled this recipe, so I needed 3 cups- that took about 5 bunches of cilantro. Once you start chopping and packing, they shrink fast.  And you definitely want the full amount of cilantro.  Yum!

I left out the red pepper flakes because we didn’t have any at the time, but this ended up being a good thing because the twelve jalapenos I picked from the garden were not all jalapenos as it turned out, and four of them ended up being a much more spicy pepper.   This salsa has some heat, but it’s softer, and really allows the depth of flavor from the dried chilies and the red wine vinegar to come through.

This one is also from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving

Spicy Tomato Salsa

Makes about twelve 8-ounce jars or six pint jars

9 dried chili peppers (Cascabel, Ancho, Guajillo, New Mexico)

Hot water

12 cups diced, cored peeled tomatoes

3 cups chopped red onions

1 1/2 cups tightly packed finely chopped cilantro

15 cloves garlic, finely chopped

6 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped (leave seeds for more heat)

3/4 red wine vinegar

1 TBS salt

3/4 tsp hot pepper flakes

Directions:

In a heatproof glass or stainless steel bowl, combine dried chilies with hot water to cover.  Weigh chilies down with a bowl or a weight to ensure they remain submerged, and soak until softened, about 15 minutes.  Drain off half of the water.  Transfer chilies and remaining water to a blender or food processor fitted with a metal blade and puree until smooth.

Meanwhile, prepare canner, jars and lids.

In a large stainless steel saucepan, combine chili puree, tomatoes, onions, cilantro, garlic, jalapeno peppers, vinegar, salt and hot pepper flakes.  Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly.  Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring frequently, until slightly thickened, about 10 minutes.

Ladle hot salsa into hot jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace.  Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary by adding hot salsa.  Wipe rim.  Center lid on jar.  Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip-tight.

Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water.  Bring to a boil and process both 8-ounce and pint jars for 15 minutes.  Remove canner lid.  Wait 5 minutes, then remove jars, cool and store.