Homemade Freezer Salsa

This salsa is at it's best up to 4-6 months from being frozen but can be left in the freezer for 1 year though it may lose taste and texture. Thaw overnight in the fridge before you need it. This is a mild to medium salsa. If you prefer, use serrano peppers or add some red pepper flakes or hot sauce to bring up the heat.

Ingredients:

6 lbs peeled and chopped tomatoes 

2 large onions, diced

2-3 tbsps minced garlic 

1 cup diced sweet bell peppers 

2 finely chopped jalapeño peppers 

2/3 cup tomato paste 

1/2 cup white vinegar 

2 tbsps sugar 

1 tbsp pickling salt

1 tsp ground cumin 

1 tsp dry oregano 

First the tomatoes need to be peeled... an easy process really. Have a pot of water boiling. Place the tomatoes in the hot water for 1 minute then remove them to a bowl of cold water. The peels will easily come off.

Because I was going to freeze this salsa I removed as much of the watery seeds and pulp as possible leaving only the solid flesh to chop.

Combine all the ingredients in a Dutch oven or other large pot. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 30-45 minutes or until you reach a desired thickness. Thicker is better when freezing.

Cool completely then ladle into containers or even ziplock bags that can lay flat in your freezer. Don't forget to label/date them! 

Makes 9 1/3 cups

Serve with tortilla chips, huevos rancheros, or in enchiladas.

Here's the link to Huevos Rancheros:

https://hotandcoldrunningmom.blogspot.com/2018/09/huevos-rancheros.html

And this takes you to my Beef and Cheese Enchiladas:

https://hotandcoldrunningmom.blogspot.com/2017/01/beef-and-cheese-enchiladas.html

Follow hotandcoldrunningmom on Pinterest. You can scan the pincode seen here with your phone if you're on a desktop. If you're on a phone just screenshot it, go to the Pinterest app, click camera. Then instead of taking a pic use the option to use one of your photos. Click on the screenshot you just took and go right to my Pinterest profile where you can follow me 🙂

Sandwich Bread and Butter Pickles

We received these cucumbers from a neighbour who moved away to a place where she has a humongous garden! And she grew these humongous cucs! 

Because they are so big I knew they wouldn't make crispy good dills so why not bread and butter pickles to top a hamburger or stuff in a sub?!

Ingredients:
3 lbs cucumber, thinly sliced
1 cup thinly sliced onion
1/4 cup salt
2 cups apple cider vinegar
3 cups sugar
1 tsp mustard seed
1 tsp celery seed
1 tsp pickling spice
4 allspice berries
4 whole cloves
2 bay leaves
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp dill seed

I actually only used 3 of the 4 cucs pictured below for this recipe, they were just soooo BIG!

I cut the cucumbers very thinly because of their thick skin. If you use younger cucs they don't have to be cut paper-thin.

Place the cucs and onion slices in a large bowl, pour the salt in then add water enough to cover. Refrigerate 6-24 hours.

Then rinse and drain them in a colander. Place them in a large pot and add the sugar and all the spices. Pour the apple cider vinegar in, stir and bring to a boil. Simmer on medium high heat for 10 minutes.

While they are cooking sterilize some jars. Boil water then pour into jars with a piece of cutlery in each to absorb the heat. Sit lids in boiling water as well. 

Then when the pickles are ready empty the water and fill each jar with pickles and some juice. I like using a wide-mouth funnel for this job but you don't have to. Put the lids on just finger tight.

Process in a hot water bath...boil water in a stock pot and carefully place the jars in making sure the water is above the lids. Boil for 20 minutes then again carefully remove them to cool on the counter. The lids should pop down and seal within a little while. Check after 24 hours and store on the shelf for 1 year (if they last that long!!) If they don't seal then re-do the whole process or just store them in the refrigerator.

Makes 3 - 16 oz (500 ml) jars

Fermented Hot Sauce

Last week I participated in a fermentation workshop with my daughter about food preservation through fermentation. Here's what we did...

At the workshop we were given sterilized jars and a variety of peppers to choose from. I used jalapeños, scotch bonnet and yellow bell peppers. Oh, and when handling hot peppers don't forget to wear gloves or you'll have hot hands for days!

Ingredients:

Hot peppers of your choice, ideally organic
garlic cloves
spices of your choice

cold filtered water (or boiled and cooled tap water)
2% table salt
2% sugar


Fill mason jars 3/4 full with roughly chopped hot peppers and crushed garlic to taste. I used one clove per jar.

Interesting fact I learned...it's the white membrane that holds the seeds and not the seeds themselves that is the hottest part of the pepper! 

They had the brine prepared for us but here's how to do it. 
Weigh the pepper-filled jar, then add the water until peppers are covered and weigh the jar again and subtract the weight of the jar without water. That is your mass of water.
Drain the water out of the jar into another container. To calculate the amount of salt and sugar needed multiply 0.02 by the water mass. So for example if you have 500g of water 0.02 X 500g = 10g salt, 10g sugar. Dissolve the salt and sugar well in the water. (PS: I hate math!)

Add brine back to the jar. Now this part was interesting as well! Because you don't want mold to form on the top of the peppers they must be completely submerged but sometimes they like to float up. If you have a small jar that will fit inside, sterilize it and sit it on top of the peppers (make sure you can close the pepper jar). Or you could fill a ziplock bag with some water, seal it and place it on top of the peppers. 
But once I got home with my jars of peppers from the workshop I used a piece of plastic wrap and pressed it down over the surface of the water to keep the peppers from being exposed to air.

Lids on, but not too tight. Keep in a dark place at room temperature for 1-2 weeks. I kept them on the kitchen counter with a dish towel over them. Some recipes say to not open the jars for the entire fermenting period, others say open a little each day. I loosened the top every morning to let any excess gas out. Didn't want to take a chance of the jars exploding all over the kitchen!

After 1 week the brine became cloudy and had an acidic smell, that's good . I didn't want to wait the second week so I processed the peppers after 1 week.

Again have sterilized jars and lids ready. I pour boiling hot water into the jars, that does the trick.

Here's where you can get creative. Use spices you like. I made 4 different sauces. Strain the brine into a bowl.

With one jar of green jalapeño and garlic I added
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
about 1/2 inch fresh ginger

Process the peppers and garlic in a food processor with your seasonings adding some brine until you get the consistency you want.

What a messy production!

For one of my jars (the round one in the finished picture)
I strained the processed peppers out keeping only the liquid something like a tabasco sauce.

For the other jar of jalapeños and garlic (with a little scotch bonnet) I added
1 tsp pickling spice
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

For the yellow bell pepper/scotch bonnets and garlic
pinch red pepper flakes (which could also be fermented)
1/4 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

For the yellow bell pepper/scotch bonnets and garlic
pinch black pepper corns
pinch anise
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

The apple cider vinegar is not necessary I just happened to use it in each. And the amount of spices I used was small because these were very small batches of peppers.

Fill the sterilized jars, seal and refrigerate for up to 6 months.

The presenters at the Spice Up Your Life - Season Jars workshop peaked my interest in fermentation. I may try cabbage or cauliflower sometime! 

Homemade Salsa

These baskets of tomatoes were only $4.99!!!
And I made 11 quart and 4 pint jars of salsa from one of them! That's a good deal!

Ingredients for 4 cups of salsa:
(I made 8 times this amount)

3 lbs. peeled and chopped round tomatoes
1 large onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup diced sweet green pepper
2 tbsp. minced jalapeño, banana or chili pepper
1/3 cup tomato paste
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 tbsp. sugar
1  1/2 tsp. pickling salt
1/2 tsp. each ground cumin and dried oregano

To peel tomatoes, simply put them in boiling water for 1 minute, then right into cold water.  The skin will peel right off (mostly)

Combine all the ingredients and bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat and boil gently, uncovered for 15-20 minutes or to desired thickness, stirring frequently.

After sterilizing jars and lids, ladle salsa into hot canning jars, filling to 1/2 inch below rim.  Wipe rims and place metal canning lids on jars.  Apply bands to fingertip tight.  Place jars in canner (large, deep pot) of boiling water, covered by one inch.  Cover canner and return to boil.  Process 20 minutes. Remove and let cool 24 hours.  Check seals.  If some have not popped down, store these in fridge or redo process with new lids.

Yield: about 4 cups