My Homemade Salsa

This winter I have enjoying making homemade salsa from the tomatoes and hot peppers I grew and canned last summer. I finally ran out of hot peppers between my kids loving hot peppers and myself liking to make my own salsa. I ran out of the diced tomatoes I canned so I opted to use a can of store bought diced tomatoes and jarred jalapeno peppers. It seemed lacking from what I had become acquainted with. When I canned the peppers I used jalapeno, serrano and banana peppers. Most people probably wouldn't have thrown in the banana peppers but I had tons of them. They were suppose to be red peppers that my grand kids had started but I figured the manufacturer must have put the wrong peppers in the packs, to be honest I really didn't know what a banana pepper was, never have had a reason to use them before. I used a pickling recipe and canned some of them by themselves at first. After tasting them I decided that was the peculiar taste one often gets eating a Chicago dog or that they'd dress up chili pretty good. They might even add quite a splash to goulash. I decided my lack in taste for my homemade salsa must be hidden in finding some pickled banana peppers since it had such a unique taste to them.

My last shopping trip I sat out to find pickled banana peppers. I couldn't find any but in the Mexican food section I came across pickled jalapeno peppers and pickled serrano peppers in a can. I bought one can of each, I already had plenty of store bought can tomatoes from the impeding "epidemic" stockpile from the beginning of last year. I had a variety of those so I opted to use ones canned with sweet onions. To give it some depth I also decided to use a jar of stewed tomatoes I made during canning last fall. When I tried making it with just store bought canned diced tomatoes it just seemed different than my own canned diced tomatoes. I wanted more of a little chunks of tomato taste along with a tomato like consistency base. The whole trick I found was it was in the pickling of the peppers and adding some of the pickling juice and letting it sit for a day or two. The more it sat the better the flavors infused and turned into the salsa I had become accustom to all winter.

The pickled cans of peppers I bought were more than I needed to get to the level of hot that I could tolerate so how many you opt to use during this process would be determined upon on hot you like your salsa. I used about half of the cans of each. This is what you will need to make the salsa.

1 8 oz can of pickled jalapeno peppers (dice up the amount to your own preference)
1 8 oz can of pickled serrano peppers (dice up the amount to your own preference)
1/2 cup diced white onion
1 12 ounce can diced tomatoes (drained but save some of the juice)
1 12 ounce can stewed tomatoes (drained, you may want to dice up a bit, the object is to make a heftier tomato base)
1 bunch of fresh cilantro (the amount you use will be determined by your own preference)
1 bag of your favorite tortilla chips

After mixing in all your ingredients you can add about a quarter cup of the tomato juice left from your can tomatoes then pour in anywhere from a quarter to half a cup of the pickling juice. Just enough to give the ingredients something to swim around in, to much it would be to runny. At first I only added about a quarter cup of the pickling juice then did a taste test, I added a bit more until I got the desired taste consistency I wanted.

The longer the salsa sits the more the flavors marry and the salsa seems to get spicier. You can also take your leftover cilantro, cover it between a couple paper towels and let it dry out for a few days, remove the stems then jar and put it in your pantry to use with your other cooking dishes.