SSSSalsa!

The Black River

Back in the halcyon days of my youth (the late 80s) I spent a couple of weeks with my sister Petunia at her house in (very) rural southern Missouri.  Its a great place;  the Black River runs through it and all summer you can enjoy nature at its Ozarkian finest.
That year Petunia and her first husband had a garden with a capital G.  The produce produced.  And produced.  And produced.  Everything went to zucchini level.  There were midnight runs leaving watermelons on neighbors porches because no one wanted them.  And my god, the tomatoes!

TOE-MAY-TOES.

We picked a gallon or more a day, and after quarts of gazpacho, oodles of marinara, and salad after salad after salad, we decided to make salsa.

Now neither of us (at the time) had anything but a decent sense of taste and a love of cooking under our belts. So we did what we thought would taste good and it did...but...

At that time in (very) rural southern Missouri there was no source for hot peppers unless you grew them yourself, and Sheri hadn't.  So we bought pickled banana peppers by the jar, and they aren't very hot.  We cooked the tomatoes, pickled peppers, onions and assorted spices and let it cool.  It was a bit, let us say, juicy.  Neither one of use thought to drain it.  And very, very mild.  But still quite tasty, and Tabasco goes a long way.  We didn't jar it, we put it in ziploc bags and froze it (which by the way is a great alternative preservation method to canning for most things).  

Petunia and I August 1971.  She's the tall one.

So this post is dedicated to my sister and the glorious summer of watermelons.











This recipe is my own and makes a great chip salsa.  It doesn't use any cilantro, which has unfortunately become ubiquitous in salsas here on the western front.

All the produce is from my garden!

You will need:

~3 qt of tomatoes (mine are yellow pear, Roma and some rather weedy looking Better Boys the master of the house grew)
~2 large onions
2-3 bell peppers
hot peppers to taste (I used 12 Anaheim, 3 jalapenos and 4 dried habaneros)  I didn't seed the peppers to give them more kick
3 cloves garlic
3T kosher salt
1/4 C granulated sugar
1/3 C white vinegar

1 large non reactive pot to cook the salsa, one large pot with a canning rack, and sterilized jars, lids and rings.

Wash and rough chop the tomatoes and onions and put in the non reactive pot.

Wash the bell peppers, remove the stems, seeds and ribs and rough chop the meat.  Add to the pot.
 Wash and dice the hot peppers.  Remove the seeds and ribs if you don't have a taste for spice.  I recommend ALWAYS using gloves to handle hot peppers and I use a designated cutting board for them as well.

Note the VERY IMPORTANT gloves

If you don't wear gloves while handling hot peppers, eventually you are going to wish you had.  Eyes, nostrils and other "sensitive" areas will burn burn burn like a burning ring of fire if you touch them even after multiple hand washings (not that it has ever happened to me, ahem.)

Dice the garlic and add the garlic and peppers to the pot.

Pour in the vinegar, sugar and salt and cook over medium high heat stirring every few minutes until the onions and bell peppers  are translucent ~20 minutes.

Drain the mixture.  Drain it as if your life depends on it (ok, hyperbole.)

But seriously, this is 2 1/2 cups of liquid you don't need!

Take the immersion blender to the drained mixture and blend to your desired texture.

Place in sterilized, heated jars.  Wipe the rims, place the lids and rings and tighten gently.  Process as directed for salsa.

Finished product!  This recipe makes just over 3 pints of deliciousness.

This is an honest-to-god thing!

*To go to zucchini:  When one's garden produces so much of anything one cannot eat it or give any more away.  In extreme cases of zucchini, friends and neighbors actively avoid you because they don't want anymore damn vegetables and you are reduced to midnight runs to drop of produce at peoples' doors.  The problem arises that if your garden is this productive, so is everyone else's and you come home to bags of "goodies" on your porch too.