Cayenne Salsa

Cayenne Salsa

My friend Jana gave me a pint of cayenne salsa that she had canned a few weeks ago.  We aren’t exactly salsa afficianados here, but we do love a good salsa.  I haven’t found a canning salsa recipe that is “the one”, but this might be it.  I was disappointed that it called for canned, stewed tomatoes and canned tomato sauce, but the resulting salsa is so thick and delicious that those will have to be overlooked for now and perhaps tinkered with in the future.  This salsa has a decent heat to it, but it’s not too hot for my girls and it’s really wonderful with tortilla chips and since it’s thick, it coats them nicely.  A local farm sells fresh cayenne peppers at our farmers market (and I would assume at their farmstand) for just under $2.00/lb.  I’m going to pick up more today to do another batch.  I found one batch to yield approximately six half pints.

original recipe

1 2/3 cups vinegar
1 cup fresh cayenne peppers washed, de-stemmed
1 large white onion chopped
6 medium garlic cloves
1 large carrot peeled, chopped
1 can stewed tomatoes – (16 oz)
1 can tomato puree – (16 oz)
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons cumin
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon freshly-ground black pepper
juice of 3 limes

Puree ingredients in a blender (it will probably take several sessions, as the volume of ingredients is more than most blenders will hold).

Put ingredients in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer for 45 to 60 minutes to reduce salsa to a thick ketchup-like consistency.

Divide salsa into clean mason jars, but leave about 1/2-inch between top of salsa and top of jar. Put on new lids and tighten the bands, but leave them slightly loose.

Set jars in a large pot of boiling water (water should be close to top of salsa). Boil for 15 to 20 minutes, remove jars, tighten bands completely and allow to cool.

This is a moderately hot recipe. You can add more peppers to make it hotter. It keeps for quite a long time on the shelf before being opened.

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