LET'S SALSA...

All of you have probably noticed that it's tomato time. Your coworkers have started leaving their extra bounty in the break room. It's the usual end of August, EEGADS, what are we going to do with all these tomatoes? Here in the Valley the 'maters have already been canned as either stewed, soup/spaghetti sauce and so that means it's time for salsa. Put on some 'salsa' music and go for it... Because the only dancing today was happening in the kitchen.

I returned home from town to find Natureman at the sink quartering tomatoes. I was greeted with the fact that we couldn't wait any longer as the tomatoes needed to be picked so despite my sprained foot, it was 'canning time' again. Some recipes call for either skinning and deseeding the tomatoes...

Well, Natureman chose the recipe that called for neither and so I fished around scooping out skins after using one of my favorite kitchen tools, the electric hand blender which got a good workout as it also helped the cooking tomatoes on their way to salsa, Spanish for SAUCE.

As the tomatoes cooked down, cilantro committed hari kari in the cuisinart,the wooden bowl did its job holding the onions and peppers as they were chopped.

I have a confession to make re: last year's salsa. OK , it was my fault that we had sweet salsa as I was a bit heavy handed with the sugar. Well I am a 'Southerner' and can be 'sugary' sweet (Just kidding, keep reading)... WELL this year you could probably hear me getting hysterical in the next valley. Why, you may ask...

Natureman had chopped an entire bowl of habañero. The habañero chile is the hottest variety of chiles... AY chihuahua, my eyes were watering and I wasn't even near the bowl of chopped chiles.

Fortunately, Natureman had worn rubber gloves to work with the chiles while removing the seeds and chopping them but even 'one' could have had a grown man crying. Now what to do with those rubber gloves? I say chuck 'em. What's your vote? BTW this is how Natureman put them back in the drawer. I swear. OK back to the story...
Trust me these pretty yellow chiles are 'potent' and little did I know that the chiles were chopped in the same wooden bowl where the onions and sweet peppers were sitting waiting to be chopped. Oh my - I'm not kidding you, my nostril hairs were burning. I had to have a hissy fit in protest of the big chile chunks awaiting entrance into this batch of salsa as 'someone' was trying to tell me that it would be our best batch yet. If any habañero was jumping in, it had to be chopped smaller I insisted... Ah you gotta love the kitchen wars... What were we going to do with 20 some odd pints of inedible salsa? OK - Compromise: smaller pieces with the majority going into Natureman's very own 'separate' habañero salsa reserve. Trust me, this batch is still going to have a kick...

If you ask for quantities, they are basically an unknown as no matter what the flavor is while it simmers and melds the flavor changes after the canner(pressure cooker). We had started with 2 buckets full of tomatoes so using a recipe is more for ingredients and some guidance of quantity of spices rather than an exact science. Logic tells one if you multiplied by 5, it might be really excessive so it's one of those guessing games of which spices you like more. This year I added more cumin and garlic, less sugar, less cider vinegar to not be too watery and then less salt. I omitted the oregano entirely so we shall see what we think. Anyhow, adjustments can always be made at the time of serving. Corn can be added after opening if we want more of a corn salsa. Hey and if extra heat is needed by adding Natureman's reserve. BTW If you want fresh habañero, let me know.

Now we shall see if this year's 21 pints of salsa will be the End of the Rainbow Valley's best ever...