Basically, I made 1/4th of the following salsa recipe and 1/4th of Whim's recipe to see which one the family would best canned in a big batch. Mr. B's Lime Salsa won and I think it was completely due to the fact that it had lime juice, added spices and sugar in it (and also, I forgot to take out seeds from the yellow peppers so it had a bit more kick). When I was cooking it on the stove it seemed rather soupy so I called Mr. O and asked him to consult his coworker, Mr. B. That's when I found out he ended up cooking his salsa for 9 1/2 hours! in order to get it thick enough. He suggested that I just add tomato paste and save myself some time.
There was still too much tomato juice, so I just poured the whole concoction (and later Whim's salsa as well) through a metal strainer. I had about 3 quarts of perfectly good, spicy tomato juice. Last night, my neighbor L~ emailed me a recipe for Tomato soup that she cans. I decided to use it as a base for a spicy tomato soup.
Mr. B's Lime Salsa
10 qt. pureed tomatoes
2-1/2 to 3 qt. peppers, diced [6 bell, 10 yellow California hot, 10 jalapenos, 6-10 Deadly California] (We use Anaheim, Garden Salsa, Serrano, Jalapeño, bell, whatever)
4 large onions, chopped (I ran these through the processor too long, but there aren't any onion chunks)
5-6 garlic cloves, pressed (go for it and add more)
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup vinegar
1 cup lime juice
2 Tbsp. ground pepper
1/2 cup salt (plain or Kosher)
4 tsp. ground cumin
4 tsp. paprika
1/2 bunch cilantro, pureed or finely chopped
I did add 2 small cans of tomato paste to the smaller recipe, but I think you wouldn't have to if you poured off the juice.
Blanch tomatoes and remove the skins. Keep seeds of peppers if you want it hot. Cook until desired thickness, bottle and pressure 15 minutes at 12-1/2 pounds. (We just process it in boiling water for 35 minutes.) Unless you have a very large family, I suggest canning this in pint jars.
**This is going to be a liquid mess unless you use Roma tomatoes, so if you'd like some juice leftover for soup just cook the whole mixture for about 45 minutes and then pour it through a strainer, reserving the juice.
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L~'s Souped-up Tomato Soup
Stalk of celery
7 sprigs of parsley
9 TB butter
9 TB flour
1 1/2 quarts of reserved spicy tomato juice
Tbsp salt
Ground black pepper to taste
Cut the end off a stalk of celery (discard end), then cut in half and rinse. Place celery in a pot with one inch of water, add 7 sprigs of parsley and cook/boil until tender. Run through a food processor until it's a pulpy mess, then place in metal strainer and squeeze juice out (or run through a Victorio strainer and skip the food processor step). Set aside juice from celery/parsley - toss out celery guts unless you can think of something to do with them.
In a separate pan, make a roux with the flour and butter over medium low heat, then slowly add one cup tomato juice. Combine all ingredients (tomato juice, roux, celery juice, and 1 tbsp of parsley flakes) in a large stock pot and cook until very hot. It should thicken up quite a bit. If it's too spicy add some heavy cream or milk.
If you're feeling artsy-fartsy pipe some sour cream on top and make it look like a butterfly when you're really going for a spider web effect. Garnish with a few snips of parsley and serve with open-faced grilled cheese sandwiches. Enjoy!
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