Homemade Salsa

Today we are making salsa. This is one of my families favorite homemade foods I make.  It is really easy, and tastes better than anything you can buy, or at least that's what I've been told by friends and family alike.

Ingredients: 

• Tomatoes (I use Roma/Plum variety)
• Onion
• Peppers of your choice  (Jalapeno, Habanero, Red Hot)
• Garlic (I used 3 large cloves peeled)
• Cilantro (Fresh or dehydrated)
• Lime juice (optional)
• Salt

* If you like a mild salsa de-seed the peppers - if you like it hot then keep the seeds.

First I cut the stems off peppers, peel onion and quarter, peel and break open garlic with the back of a large kitchen knife and I place in my mini food processor.  You can use a regular size processor if that's what you have, or even chop by hand.  I found that the little one chops the smaller food a little more finely and since I have one on hand that's what I use.  *Warning*  When I cut the Habanero pepper by hand no matter how careful I am it somehow gets under the bed of my fingernails and burns like crazy for two days!  I used 3 Jalapeno, 1 Habanero, & 1 Red Hot.

After the contents are chopped very fine I will pour about 3 tbsp. of Lime juice into the mix and spin a few more times.  The lime helps cut the tomato taste a little so at the very end I add lime to the finished salsa till it has the taste I'm after.

Once the spicy mixture is chopped to your preference add the Cilantro and mix one last time. I used dehydrated Cilantro that I put away this summer.

Set the spicy mixture aside.  Next, get a large pot of water boiling on the stove and once the water boils, drop the tomatoes in till the skin splits.

Notice how the skin has split on one tomato at the top. This is how you know the tomato is ready to come out of the boiling water and into an ice bath.

Once in the ice bath let the tomato cool completely before peeling the skin off . Some people de-seed the tomato before chopping but I don't.  I just cut the stem part off and if there is a bad spot remove that as well.  Once peeled I place whole tomato in the (larger) food processor and begin to chop.

 

 

Mix till you have the thickness or thinness of your choice.  We like a thinner salsa as you can see.  For the final step, add the spicy pepper mixture and approx. 3-4 pinches of salt and mix one last time.

I like to store the salsa in the refrigerator for a day before freezing in smaller batches.  This allows for the flavors to marry more, and gives the salsa a nice rich taste.

I know I've probably killed you with steps and pics of this so don't let it scare you off!  Some people just need to "see" each step to make it make sense, so this is for them!