May 15 2009
Homemade Canned Pico de Gallo – Pre-Salsa – recipe
Right before our trip to the US we canned a whole bunch of tomatoes from our garden (a post about that will follow eventually). We had a few ingredients left over that we needed to preserve since everyone else we knew was also going on vacation at the same time.
We decided to make a sort of pico de gallo. Now that it has a had a few weeks to set and soak in the flavors, we opened a jar to have with some breakfast tacos.
It was lacking in flavor. The lemon juice flavor was gone and it needs much more salt to taste. Everything also should have been diced instead of chopped. What can I say…after a whole day of canning, we were lazy.
What I did end up making was a great pre-salsa. This would be the great foundations of a salsa. I would pulse this in the food processor a few times. Then, just add some more tomato, cilantro, lime juice, salt, and some seasonings.
So, I think this is what we used:
Ingredients:
1/2 kilo Roma Tomatoes
1 large Yellow Onion, chopped
2 Jalapeño, seeded and chopped
2 Tablespoons chopped Cilantro
1/2 teaspoon Salt per Quart Jar
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice per Quart Jar
Directions:
Peel tomatoes. To peel: bring a pot of water to a rolling boil and have a bowl of ice water ready and set aside. Cut a small X at the tip (bottom) of each tomato. Place a few tomatoes at a time in the boiling water for a few seconds, or until the peel at the X point starts to loosen. Quickly remove from the boiling water with a slotted spoon, place in ice water, and, with your hands, slip off the peel of the tomato by lightly squeezing it off. Discard tomato peels.
Roughly chop tomatoes, onion, jalapeños, and cilantro to desired size – you can always make them smaller in a food processor before adding to another recipe.
To can:
Bring water to a boil in a large canning pot.
Ladle the sauce into pre-cleaned jars for canning, leaving 1/2 an inch of air at the top. On top of the sauce in each can add 1/2 teaspoon of salt per each quart jar and 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice per quart jar – do not mix, just leave it on top.
Wipe down the edges of the jars thoroughly and then seal with a lid.
Carefully place the jars in the boiling water (use a protective glove that can stand the heat or use canning tongs) and make the the cans are completely covered with water over the lids. Boil for 15 minutes.
Remove jars from boiling water, wipe down, and set someplace room temperature where they will not need to be moved for 24 hours. Once 24 hours have elapsed, you can move them to where ever you’d like to storage them.
