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Salsa - the lazy way

Posted at 11:18 PM on September 12, 2008 by Sareen Dunleavy Keenan (5 Comments)

Seriously, we make salsa (and most other meals) by putting whatever we have into a pot and making it work. So, to say that we have a recipe for salsa (or anything) would be just a lie. So here is what I can remember about last weeks salsa endeavor:

Like I said, recipe is a bit formal for our type of cooking. We have more of a set of guiding principles for salsa and an end result is frequently variable. Also after repeated annual attempts to make a homemade 'chunky style' salsa de gringo, we gave up and went with a more pureed salsa as it cans better. Start by getting the biggest bowl in the universe and your food processor out. If you don't have a food processor a blender is fine, we used one for years pureeing some portion of our salsa mix to pour over the chunky bits. Also smoking roasting and toasting selective ingredients are great ways to make your salsa distinctive.

Alright, the ingredients and philosophy all at once: since our garden airs on the side of tomato overabundance we get all the garlic, onions, tomatillos, chiles, peppers, cilantro and hot peppers we have and combine them then we add tomatoes to taste and season with some form of citrus juice. To ballpark our latest batch this year (yielding about twelve pints) we used (approximately) three jalapenos, five roasted banana peppers, a head and a couple cloves of garlic, eight to ten peppers ranging green to red with stops in between, a quart or so of tomatillos, two purple onions, two handfuls of fresh cilantro, juice of three limes(not from MN sheesh) and about twenty or so tomatoes half of which were oven roasted. We pressure canned, so we were less fearful of acid content etc., that comes with water bath canning.

Anyway. It results in a very tasty but puree o' salsa. Good Luck!

Comments (5)

Sareen,

I'm impressed at what you accomplish with a new baby at home and another little one. Maybe because I'm learning with my first, but I am just not that coordinated with my food and the baby!

Good job Mama!
April

Posted by April | September 16, 2008 1:22 PM

Thanks for the encouragement. For every day that I am out canning or making some extravagant meal, there are at least three days that I don't even get out of my pajamas. Sareen

Posted by Sareen | September 19, 2008 1:29 PM

This is your last week for the pj's Sareen.
She returns to work next week and even though I would let you wear your pj's I don't think the boss will.

Posted by Laurie | September 24, 2008 8:35 AM

In my defense... they are really nice ones. They even match with Michelle's. Are you sure I have to go back?

Posted by sareen | September 24, 2008 9:24 PM

Yes, you have to come back...I'm making something yummy just for you!

Posted by Laurie | September 26, 2008 1:09 PM