I am a pepper freak!! I love peppers, I will eat them in anything and everything. But I have to admit, up until a few months ago. I had never heard/used Hatch Chiles before. The first time we got them in our basket was the same week we also had them as an add-on, my friend who is also the site coordinator at our Pride site was going crazy when she saw them!! Regular participants were also so excited to finally have these wonderful peppers up here.
They told me how hot they were and I immediately started dreaming up the possibilities of this new wonderful pepper and the exciting spiciness it was going to bring! I brought it home and couldn’t wait to cook with it. So I didn’t, I took a bite straight from the pepper. My first reason was everyone is nuts! This pepper is sweet….It was only later that I learned that you have to roast them in order to get the heat. This recipe was a total experiment. I wanted to try salsa with the Chiles and I do what I do best. I went into the kitchen and let the magic happen. It just so happens that this experiment turned out amazing!!!
Ingredients
- 25 Hatch Chiles (I saved mine from a few different baskets, so I had a few different heat varieties)
- 20-30 Tomatoes (I used Roma)
- 4 Bell Peppers
- 1 Large Yellow Onion
- 2 Large Jalapenos
- 1/4 Cup Sugar
- 1/8 Cup Minced Garlic
- 1/4 Cup Cilantro
- 1Tbsp. Cayenne Pepper
- 4 Tbsp. Cumin
- 2 Tsp. Salt
- Juice of a Lime
Instructions
- Place Chiles on grill on medium-low heat.
- You want Chiles 70% charred, continue rotating them until the skins are dark and blistered, (they will turn black in spots).
- Remove from Grill and put in a plastic bag. Fold the bag over. The steam will continue to cook the Chiles and loosen up the skin. (you can use a paper bag instead if you like).
- When the bag is cooled off, you can remove them and start discarding the skins. To do this use your fingers to peel off the skins (the inside is a nice big green Chile).
- Remove stem and deseed if you like (I left a majority of the seeds in them).
- Start by adding water to a stockpot about a quarter of the way full and turn stove on high to start boiling the water.
- Cut an X across the bottom of all the tomatoes and place them in the boiling water allow to cook for 10 minutes to soften up the tomatoes.
- While they are boiling take a large bowl and add ice cubes and cold water.
- Start placing the tomatoes in the cold water, pull them out one by one and pull the skins off with your fingers.
- Empty stockpot and turn stove to low, return tomatoes back to stockpot.
- Using a potato smasher (go ahead start laughing, like I said this was an experiment), smash some of the tomatoes to give yourself some juice. Smash them about 1/2 ways, (So that your not burning the bottom).
- Add garlic, cumin, salt, cayenne, lime juice and sugar, make sure to stir well and allow to simmer.
- Using your electric food chopper, chop up Bell Peppers, Onion, Jalapeno, Cilantro and Hatch Chiles.
- Add to the stockpot.
- Take your largest chunks of tomatoes and put in blender (pulse until you get desired consistency you want in your salsa).
- Add back to stockpot and simmer on low for 30 minutes.
- Ladle into hot jars, wipe rims, place lids and rings.
- Process at pressure appropriate for your altitude - pints and quarts 15 minutes.
I love this salsa! Jamie brought me some fresh to try and its great!
Helpful Hint: you might want to put on some plastic gloves before peeling & chopping the chiles — if they are a hot variety, you may end up with some discomfort if you do it with your bare hands.
I’m wondering if this is a USDA approved recipe for water bath canning. I see that there is no lemon juice or vinegar for acidity added. This is usually required when you can low acid tomatoes. The recipe sounds delicious and I would love to can some of this salsa.
This recipe must be pressure canned.