Garden to Table

Today my 8 year old daughter, Lauren, and I made salsa.  I let her cut the vegetables (yes with a real knife - a sharp one!)  She did great and loved it.  I want to pass on to my children are how to make your own things.  My 12 year old son will be more inclined to build things with wood and such.  It's just in his nature.  Lauren loves to be in the kitchen with me.  She loves crafts and painting.  Sam loves to cook too, though.  So between the two of them, the one thing they have in common that I can teach them is how to make good food.  This summer I want to pass on the art of canning and pickling.  Sam loves, and I mean LOVES, my homemade salsa.  He begs me for it and eats it by the pint.  It's not a complicated fancy salsa.  It's actually very simple, but I love that he loves it so I make sure to make it every summer with as much fresh herbs and veggies from my garden (or local farmer's market) as possible.

The other thing I've somewhat perfected is tomato sauce.  It's not exactly a spaghetti sauce, it's more of a flavored puree, a base.  It can be used to make a spicier tomato sauce or pizza sauce, but can also be used right on noodles too if you like it that way.  Again, a VERY simple recipe.  The biggest thing is time.  You have to have the time to watch these on the stove so they don't over cook or burn.  I don't use a crockpot to make these items any more because they tend to get overcooked too easily - mostly because I forget about them!  When I cook on my gas range I HAVE to pay attention, so this method works best for me.

When I use my garden tomatoes, I use them all except for the skins.  I even save a lot of the seeds of my favorite kinds and replant them the next year.  I save all the juice and use it for other recipes or just to drink - it's much sweeter than store bought tomato juice!

Here's my salsa recipe:

Garden Tomato Salsa - 1 pint
Kitchen equipment:
Food processor
Stock pot
1 pint mason jar with lid
Colander
Slotted spoon
Large mixing bowl
<--Wide mouth jar funnel


Ingredients:
10-12 medium tomatoes (I use a variety of kinds from Romas, Big Boy, and Early Girl)
1 jalapeno (or more if you like it real spicy)
1/4 cup diced green peppper
1/4 cup diced yellow or orange pepper
1/4 cup diced red bell pepper
1 banana pepper - optional
1/2 tsp kosher salt
Juice from 1/2 lime
1/4 chopped cilantro (about 1/2 of a small bunch)
1/2 tsp cumin
1 clove of garlic coarsely cut

Directions:
Fill stock pot halfway with water and bring to a boil.  Place tomatoes in boiling water for 30 seconds to a
minute or until skins on tomatoes start to pop.  Pull immediately out of water and place in a bowl with cold water to cool.  Once cool to the touch pull skins off the tomatoes.  I always do this because the skins can be tough in the salsa if not removed.  Remove the core with a corer device if you have one.  If not, then I just take a small knife and cut it out.  Dump the hot water out of the stock pot and place in your sink.  Squeeze all the juice and seeds out of the tomatoes into the stock pot.  I do it in my sink because the juice tends to squirt in all directions and this will save you on a lot of cleaning time.  Once tomatoes are dejuiced and seeded, cut them into chunks and place in the food processor.  This is when I keep the juice and strain it.  I then put it in a mason jar and keep in my fridge for cooking.

Next, take the cut peppers, salt, lime, cilantro, garlic and cumin and place in processor as well.  Pulse until desired consistency.  In our house we like it pretty smooth.  Not pureed, but no one in my family likes really big chunks.  So I process it 5 seconds at a time until it has the consistency we like.  Usually it's about 15 seconds total for this amount of salsa.  Then I pour it into the stock pot.  Bring to a boil and then simmer for 20-30 minutes.  You don't want it to cook on high heat because it's not about the cooking, it's more about getting flavors to meld and to cook out some of the liquid.  It's especially important to do this if you are going to process this in a canning bath.  If you don't cook it, you run the risk of it going rancid from a popped seal.  Yes, I know this because it happened to me.  I did a batch one time of pico de gallo.  I processed it in a water bath and about a week later the gasses from the veggies bubbled up and popped the seal.  Liquid was everywhere and I had to toss the salsa.  Total bummer.  So take it from me, cook it down a bit.  It will get all the acid and gasses out and the flavors will meld.  If you want a really spicy salsa, add chili powder and more jalapenos after it's cooked.  Cooking will take the heat out of hot peppers so if you want it spicy remember to add more hot peppers before jarring the salsa.

This recipe makes a little more than a pint.  Here's how much I had left in the pan (left photo).  I have a 'garbage' jar I keep in the fridge for all the left overs.  I have been making this one jar at a time this summer because I make it as I get ripe tomatoes.  If you go to the market and get a case of tomatoes, then multiply this recipe by...a lot.  Just figure 10-12 tomatoes per pint and then you can multiply this by however many pints you do.

Garden Tomato Puree
Ingredients
10-12 medium tomatoes
1-2 cloves garlic
kosher salt
fresh basil
olive oil

Directions
Process the tomatoes in the same way I described in the salsa by boiling, skinning, and decoring them.  Put in the processor and blend until pureed...at least 20 seconds.  Stop before the tomatoes get foamy as they tend to lose some flavor when that happens.

Once pureed, put into a stock pot with about a tablespoon of olive oil, minced garlic, tsp of kosher salt, and about 3 or 4 basil leaves.  You can add these ingredients to the processor if you like.  I choose not to because my kids don't always like the 'little green things' in the sauce.  So when I use the sauce I can pull out the whole basil leaves.  If you don't have picky people in your family, feel free to process all ingredients before cooking.

Bring to a boil and simmer for at least an hour.  I try to reduce it to at least 3/4 of it's original amount.  Cooking in this case is what you want to do, but not at a high heat.  High heat tends to burn the tomatoes and that is just a nasty flavor.  That's why the old Italian cooks would slave over a stove all day for the perfect sauce.  Slow and steady wins the race when it comes to tomatoes.

You may ask why kosher salt?  Well, you could use sea salt if you like.  I use kosher because it dissolves more quickly than sea salt.  I don't use table salt because it has iodine in it and may change the flavor or chemistry of what your making - especially if you can it later.  The high heat releases the chemicals in table salt and then turns something healthy into processed yuck.

Again, times this recipe by however many pints you wish to do.  10-12 tomatoes per pint.  You will also get about as much juice as you do sauce or salsa out of this amount of tomatoes.  From the pint jar of salsa I just made, I got a pint of juice!  You can strain it (if you have the patience) or I use a hand crank food mill to process the juice and leave behind the seeds and pulp bits.

Happy canning!