A Very Spicy Christmas - Canning Salsa

Merry Christmas!

I'm a little late. Bear with me.

Yesterday I was in the kitchen slaving over the most delicious green chile enchiladas I have ever tasted (my first endeavor with tomatillos!).  In addition to the long grocery list of items that I don't keep on hand, the process was also time consuming and required the use of several pots plus a food processor and crock pot, so clean up was no breeze either.  In the end, it was all totally worth it, but I had my doubts at first.  (I would post a link, but I actually got the recipe out of a real life cookbook! How old school.)

I don't know if it was how hot the kitchen was, how many burners I had going, or how similar the cuisine was, but I was reminded of this past Christmas.  Big time.  Because for the first time in my life, I gave away homemade gifts for Christmas.  And they were delicious.

It was actually all Stephen's idea.  I'm not really sure how it all came about, but we were deciding between hot cocoa mix and salsa (made with New Mexican chiles) and ultimately decided to go with something more native to our new home.  I had never canned before, so I started pouring over how-tos online.  I found this recipe and just dove in.

NOTE: I do not ever recommend just "diving in" to canning.  It can actually be very dangerous if done improperly, causing botulism, aka paralysis or death.  Had I understood the dangerous potential at the time, I certainly would not have attempted without someone experienced showing me what to do.

We made a list of over 20 people we wanted to give our salsa to.  That translated into almost 25 lbs of tomatoes alone!  Here are some pictures of the process. Stephen was a huge help, and didn't even complain that we did nothing but canning for almost two entire days (it was his idea, after all!).

Step one: cut up one million roma tomatoes.

also enough onions to make you cry one million tears.

Weigh your chiles...

Roast it all.  Tomatoes, onion, chile, garlic.

While that's roasting, we boiled our dried chile pods. (And sterilized jar lids)

We used dried chile pods instead of Anaheim chiles because the original plan was to can enchilada sauce.  That's when I realized I couldn't can that without a pressure canner (low acid content = big botulism risk), which I was not ready to invest in, so we put the chile pods to good use by de-seeding them and then boiling them for about 20 minutes to plump them up.  Then we just put it all in the food processor with all the rest of our roasted and peeled vegetables!  Oh, and here's Stephen after seeding the chiles (and yes, gloves are necessary!)

We didn't have a pressure canner, but we also didn't have a water bath canner, so I used a big pot and a rack in the bottom from our rice cooker, so the bottoms of the jars wouldn't be unevenly hot and crack. 

So many jars waiting to be sterilized and filled.  So much work to do.

And we added all our seasoning and acid to our vegetables, and boiled for about 20 minutes.

And then we finally filled the jars!  I could only fit five in the pot at a time.  Because of our altitude, we had to process for an additional ten minutes, so a total of 30 minutes.  If the water ever stops boiling, you start counting from the beginning.  It was so time consuming, and one batch made about 10 pints, so after the first five came out, it was time to sterilize and fill five more.  It was a little disheartening to move so slowly.

When I finally took them out of the water, I felt a huge swell of pride in my chest every time I heard a lid pop. It didn't mean the salsa was disease-free, but it meant it was sealed from anything additional entering the jar!  And after an entire day of roasting, peeling, chopping, seasoning, boiling, sterilizing, and processing, I finally had something to show for our efforts.

Beautiful.

I didn't touch them for two whole days to let them cool and seal completely.  I tested the seals by picking up each one by the seal alone (without the band) to make sure it was secure, and all of them passed the test.  I replaced the band, then fitted the tops with some festive fabric and little photo of me and Stephen in New Mexico with a little note on the back.

Cute and delicious!

It was about this time I became extremely fearful of killing a loved one with botulism.  I contemplated throwing out all 20+ jars, because there was no way I wanted that on my conscience!  Luckily, I was discussing all my fears with a woman who has been canning for 30 years.  She dismissed most of them. And you know what?

No one got sick. And everyone enjoyed their little piece of New Mexico :)

Maybe one day I'll can again, because this salsa truly is maybe my favorite, ever.  But I'll stick with making it fresh, for now, because... canning? Ain't nobody got time fo dat!

Anyone with me on this?  Have any canning experiences to share, or other homemade gift ideas I can borrow? Any friends want to chirp in so I know you're still alive and that you loved it? ;)

posted by Emma