Fire Roasted Tomato Salsa

Hello All!!!
I have been doing so much cooking that I haven't had time to blog! Let me tell you, I have so much to share ya'll are going to flip! We have canned tons of salsa, tomato sauce, and apple sauce, we're stocked up for winter, or until I give it all away. If I haven't told you all this already I LOVE TO SHARE FOOD! If I had it my way I'd pack a whole plane with food and visit every hungry village in the world and give them food. When I see homeless I want to give them a good meal, when I see starving undergrads, I want to give them a good meal (or load them up with cookies which are just as good as a nice meal!). Anyone who is hungry I want to feed them. Since I can't carry perishables around with me, I routinely hand off canned food to friends, family, and co-workers. Matt teases me that the only reason I make so many jars of jam, salsa, etc. is so that I can give it away. So the good news for all of you is that I will be sharing these recipes and in turn you can share the food too! You don't have to share, but if you make big batches like me, please hand off at least 1 jar to a friend, a family member, or co-worker and share the joy. You would not believe what fun it is to give this stuff away! The smiles and joy you can provide are just out of this world!

Now, this is my favorite salsa recipe, you can eat it right away or can it the way we did. One of the reasons I love this salsa is because it is not very labor intensive (minus the tomato grilling) and you don't have to remove the seeds. Ugh! That is the worst chore about tomato sauce and salsas! Seed removal! Why is it so bad? Because usually the tomatoes are hot and so you have to wait. Then after they cool, they're cold and slimy and that just grosses me out! Plus they're acidic so if you have cuts on your hands, OUCH! So with this recipe, you grill the 'maters, and toss them in with lots of other stuff and hit go on the food processor! Voila! Ready to heat and can!

Salsa ready to go! All we need are some nice tortilla chips OR a taco!

The recipe below makes 4 cups (2 cups/pint) so that means you get 2 jars of salsa from this recipe. I don't believe in going small so I usually multiply everything by 10 just to make 20 jars :-) You can make as much or as little as you like, but its just as easy to do 10 batches as it is to do 1 batch. Also, I've made some mistakes and will point them out to you as I go, but mistakes and all it was DELICIOUS!

Ingredients:
1/2 Tbs Olive Oil
1/2 onion- peeled and chopped
2 lbs of Roma tomatoes - Grilled/blackened
4 tsp. finely minced roasted garlic (I didn't use roasted and it was SUPER garlicky, roasted would make it more mellow)
1/2 c. minced cilantro leaves
4 chipotle chiles in adobo, chopped
1/4 c. red wine vinegar
1 Tbs salt
1 tsp sugar
2 Tbs of lemon juice

Chop the tomatoes and onion

Grill the tomatoes until they are lightly blackened.

To cook all these tomatoes, it takes about 10 minutes to grill on a gas grill set to medium

No need to flip the tomatoes during grilling, leaving them on one side for ~10 minutes works just fine!

Watch out! Some will fall through the cracks so make a bit more than the recipe calls for!

Look at all those roasted 'maters!

Blackened roasted tomatoes!

Heat the olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat and add onion.

Saute onion until caramelized (about 10 minutes).

Transfer the onion, half the blackened tomatoes and garlic to a food processor and pulse until finely chopped but not pureed

Add the cilantro and chipotle chiles and pulse again to mix

MISTAKE!!! Used frozen cilantro and didn't like it so Matt ran to the store (God bless him!) and got me some fresh

Still looked good until I could add the fresh cilantro

Pulse the last of the tomatoes and mix everything together in a pot

Add vinegar,  salt, and sugar

Sugar! I keep mine in a jar on the counter, so there isn't a sugar bag to show.

Heat mixture to a boil and allow to boil for 10 minutes.
While mixture is boiling,  put 1 Tbs of lemon juice into each pint jar

 Ladle salsa into jars. BE SURE TO LEAVE 1/2 INCH HEAD ROOM IN THE JAR BEFORE PUTTING THE LID ON, and process for 35 minutes in a water bath.

Set jars aside and let cool. If the lids suck in (they don't pop when you touch them) then the salsa is shelf stable for at least 6 months unopened. Once the salsa is open it will keep for 2 weeks in the refrigerator.

 Alright! Now you know my salsa secret! This is a HUGE hit at parties and if you want to make a dip, you can mix 1 pint with 8 oz of cream cheese and toss in some cheddar cheese if you want. YUM YUM! I have been making this salsa now for 5 years and every year I run out before the next batch can be made. Another interesting thing about canned salsa is the longer you let it sit on a shelf, the hotter the salsa gets, so keep this in mind when you make this. Also, you can add more chipotles if you want it hotter now, but the smokey garlicky flavor is so great everyone will want more.

I hope you enjoy this recipe and as always, Happy eating!