Numbski
October 21st, 2007, 02:55 PM
I've been toying with this for years, and as of today, I've finally come up with a recipe I like. Sans the overnight marinate, I can knock out a batch of this stuff in about 20 minutes, half hour if I'm taking it slow. I'll be expanding upon it, but here's the basis for it:
1 pair of rubber gloves (NOT optional)
1 food processor, optional, but speeds things up!
2 x 14.5oz cans stewed tomatoes, or stew your own. I like quick. :D
1 x large red bell pepper
1 x large yellow bell pepper
3 x Jalepeno Peppers
1 x small-medium onion, depending on how much you like onions.
1 x clove of fresh garlic
lemon/lime juice, to taste
optional - cilantro, to taste
Slice the bell peppers up, removing the cores, and rinsing away the seeds. Slice them up into ~ 1 inch squares. Set aside. Peel the onion, quarter, and separate into small-ish slices, approximately the same size as the the peppers or smaller. Toss in with the peppers. Put on the rubber gloves. Rinse the jalepenos, slice off the stem, cut into 1/8-1/4 inch slices, then take a small knife and poke out the seeds. If you didn't put on gloves, have plenty of milk, olive oil, and degreaser handy to remove the pepper juice from your hands. Pepper juice does not dissolve in water, but in oils and alcohol. It will burn for hours. You've been warned!!!
Anyway, add the jalepeno slices to the pile. Peel your clove of garlic, being sure to split up the lobes and peel those too. You'll know you've done it right because a fully peeled garlic lobe will be smooth and stink. ;) Use a twisting action to get the skin off of the more difficult lobes. Toss the lobes into the food processor, and pulse until you get lots of tiny bits of garlic.
Crank up your favorite large skillet to medium heat. If it's teflon, non-stick, you're good. If it's stainless or otherwise, grease with a small amount of olive oil. Put your peppers and onions into the skillet, spread them out, and then add your garlic. Stir up really good, put the lid on the skillet. Stir occasionally, cook until it's all pretty tender, and even slightly browned in places. Remove from heat, allow to cool to just above room temprature. Move to an airtight container, and place in the refrigerator overnight. This could be optional, but it allows the pepper, onion, and garlic flavors to blend well.
The next day, pull out your mixture, put into the food processor, and add your two cans of stewed tomatoes, and a splash of lemon or lime juice to taste. If you wanted to add cilantro, now would be the time too.
Pulse the food processor until the salsa is your favorite consistency. You could make it puree, or slightly chunky. It's up to you. :) Put into an airtight container.
Here's the thing - the salsa will improve over the next couple of days as the flavors continue to "gel". The problem is that salsa turns fuzzy FAST without preservatives, and this does make quite a bit, enough to fill a large jar easily. You could just as well double the batch, add some fruit fresh or similar, and jar it. That's up to you, but part of hte benefits of this is the lack of preservatives. Then again, we're using canned stewed tomatoes, which DO have preservatives...again, it's up to you. I go through salsa pretty fast personally, so it doesn't matter. :D
The canned tomatoes I get from Sam's club in a package of 8, and it's a little over $5, enough to do this 4 times, so $1.25. Sam's sells 6 packs of sweet peppers for $3, but I can get that same price from the local grocery, so $1 for those. The 3 jalepenos were by weight, but I got 4 for $1. The onion wound up costing $.75, garlic was about $1. So $5 or so for the batch, and it's a pretty large batch. If you did it in bulk you could probably bring the price per batch down. This stuff is GOOD though. I love it. ;)
1 pair of rubber gloves (NOT optional)
1 food processor, optional, but speeds things up!
2 x 14.5oz cans stewed tomatoes, or stew your own. I like quick. :D
1 x large red bell pepper
1 x large yellow bell pepper
3 x Jalepeno Peppers
1 x small-medium onion, depending on how much you like onions.
1 x clove of fresh garlic
lemon/lime juice, to taste
optional - cilantro, to taste
Slice the bell peppers up, removing the cores, and rinsing away the seeds. Slice them up into ~ 1 inch squares. Set aside. Peel the onion, quarter, and separate into small-ish slices, approximately the same size as the the peppers or smaller. Toss in with the peppers. Put on the rubber gloves. Rinse the jalepenos, slice off the stem, cut into 1/8-1/4 inch slices, then take a small knife and poke out the seeds. If you didn't put on gloves, have plenty of milk, olive oil, and degreaser handy to remove the pepper juice from your hands. Pepper juice does not dissolve in water, but in oils and alcohol. It will burn for hours. You've been warned!!!
Anyway, add the jalepeno slices to the pile. Peel your clove of garlic, being sure to split up the lobes and peel those too. You'll know you've done it right because a fully peeled garlic lobe will be smooth and stink. ;) Use a twisting action to get the skin off of the more difficult lobes. Toss the lobes into the food processor, and pulse until you get lots of tiny bits of garlic.
Crank up your favorite large skillet to medium heat. If it's teflon, non-stick, you're good. If it's stainless or otherwise, grease with a small amount of olive oil. Put your peppers and onions into the skillet, spread them out, and then add your garlic. Stir up really good, put the lid on the skillet. Stir occasionally, cook until it's all pretty tender, and even slightly browned in places. Remove from heat, allow to cool to just above room temprature. Move to an airtight container, and place in the refrigerator overnight. This could be optional, but it allows the pepper, onion, and garlic flavors to blend well.
The next day, pull out your mixture, put into the food processor, and add your two cans of stewed tomatoes, and a splash of lemon or lime juice to taste. If you wanted to add cilantro, now would be the time too.
Pulse the food processor until the salsa is your favorite consistency. You could make it puree, or slightly chunky. It's up to you. :) Put into an airtight container.
Here's the thing - the salsa will improve over the next couple of days as the flavors continue to "gel". The problem is that salsa turns fuzzy FAST without preservatives, and this does make quite a bit, enough to fill a large jar easily. You could just as well double the batch, add some fruit fresh or similar, and jar it. That's up to you, but part of hte benefits of this is the lack of preservatives. Then again, we're using canned stewed tomatoes, which DO have preservatives...again, it's up to you. I go through salsa pretty fast personally, so it doesn't matter. :D
The canned tomatoes I get from Sam's club in a package of 8, and it's a little over $5, enough to do this 4 times, so $1.25. Sam's sells 6 packs of sweet peppers for $3, but I can get that same price from the local grocery, so $1 for those. The 3 jalepenos were by weight, but I got 4 for $1. The onion wound up costing $.75, garlic was about $1. So $5 or so for the batch, and it's a pretty large batch. If you did it in bulk you could probably bring the price per batch down. This stuff is GOOD though. I love it. ;)