Salsa

This recipe is for two batches of salsa. It can easily be cut in half.

Salsa - from Linda
12 quarts Roma tomatoes
4 cups onions
2 each green, red and yellow pepper
12 jalapeno peppers (or 6 jalapeno and 6 red finger - I just couldn't find any red finger this time)
1 1/2 cup vinegar
3 cans tomato paste
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp cumin
2 T cilantro
1/2 cup sugar
6 tsp salt
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 T lemon juice

1. Peel and chop tomatoes. To make peeling easy, mark each tomato with an X on the butt (Thanks for the tip, Taryn), dip into a pot of boiling water for 30-60 seconds and then transfer to a bowl with ice cold water. The skins will just fall off. As you'll see below, I had a little station set up where I had the pot of boiling water on the stove (you can just use a kettle and boil some if you're only doing a few tomatoes), a bowl of icy water beside the stove, a cutting board and small bowl for the skins and the pot to transfer chopped tomatoes into.

2. Place tomatoes in a large stock, begin to boil, stirring often. Drain off excess liquid if necessary. By using Roma tomatoes, which are a paste tomato, you will have less liquid to drain off. Using other varieties, such as beef steaks or better boys, will make your base much runnier as they are watery tomatoes.

3. While tomatoes are boiling chop remaining ingredients. Remember to wear gloves while you chop your hot peppers to avoid having the jalapeno flavour on your hands for days. If you like a little more spice, leave the seeds in some (or all) of the hot peppers. I left the seeds in 4 of the 12. I don't like it too spicy, but I like a little bit of a kick.

4. When tomatoes are boiled down (about half hour or so) and drained to your liking, add remaining ingredients, stirring after each addition. 5. Boil for approximately an hour and a half, stirring often, until thickened to your liking.

6. Process into jars. Click here for a detailed description of the canning process I use.

Makes 13-14 pints.