September Salsa

Sweet Labour Day

Ah, sweet Labour Day, the last great weekend of Edmonton's glorious, but fleeting summer. Some people hit the road to escape the city, others hie themselves off to Fort Edmonton Park, Symphony Under the Sky, or the River Valley.  Many stay home to watch Edmonton trounce Calgary in the Labour Day Classic. Her Majesty and I worked our fingers to the bone. She weeded the garden and I made salsa.

Ring of Fire

While she hoed and raked and pruned, I chopped Roma and Beefsteak tomatoes, Yellow Banana, Hungarian, Green Bell, and Ring of Fire chilli peppers, garlic, and enough onions to make me bawl.

The four batches that I made range in heat from incendiary to piquant, hurting to hot, and spicy to searing. Insanely hot? Not quite, but full of flavour and zest, for sure!

Preparation is Key

What did I learn from making salsa this year? That wearing gloves when handling hot peppers is a really good idea. Adding just one more Ring of Fire Pepper can hurt. Sharpening a knife before hand makes chopping tomatoes a breeze. Having a selection of India Pales Ales to enjoy while putting together the salsa makes all the difference.

 

All good things take time, patience and determination. Cooking and real estate are no different. They take experience and attention to detail.

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Greg's International India Pale Ale Salsa

Ingredients

·       5 lbs slightly under-ripe Roma

·       10 lbs Beefsteak tomatoes

·       A handful of hot peppers, including, but not limited to Hungarian, Jalapeno, Ring of Fire, and Yellow Banana. (Use caution. You can always add extra hot peppers to increase the heat, but you cannot easily reduce it.)

·       Assorted sweet and mild peppers. The greater the variety the better. I buy mine from the Italian Centre.

·       2-3 large onions

·       13 oz tomato paste

·       1/2 Cup Pickling Salt

·       2 Cups Vinegar

·       2 TBSP Sugar

·       Oregano, Cumin, Black Pepper

·       Garlic

·       A selection of India Pale Ales from Belgium, Britain, and Canada

Stage One

Chop tomatoes into eighths. (I leave the skin on, but you can blanche the tomatoes and remove the skin, if you wish.)

Throw chopped tomatoes into a plastic pail and mix in salt. Let sit for 12-24 hours.

Carefully drain tomatoes. The more salt water you pour off the better.

Enjoy a well-earned IPA from Belgium.

Stage Two

Place tomatoes in stockpot and turn heat on to medium. Have your assistant constantly stir the salsa or it will burn. Keep it at a gentle simmer.

Seed and chop peppers. Wear gloves while working with the hot peppers. Slice or grate onions. (I do not seed the Ring of Peppers.) A serrated grapefruit spoon works perfectly for seeding and removing the pith.

Place a small bowl in the freezer.

Add peppers, onions, tomato paste, vinegar, garlic, and spices.

After an hour or so, spoon 6-8 tablespoons of the salsa into the chilled bowl. Return to freezer for 5 minutes. Once the salsa is cooled to room temperature, if it is too mild, add a couple more chopped hot peppers to the pot and cook for ten minutes more.

Monitor assistant while enjoying an IPA from Britain.

Stage Three

Have assistant remove salsa from heat. Fill sterilized jars to about an inch from the top. Fit on sterilized lids. Place in canner and process at a full rolling boil for 15-20 minutes, depending on the size of jars.

Supervise canning with a delicious IPA from Canada.