It's tomato season!!! I received both regular eating tomatoes and paste tomatoes from my CSA share along with bell peppers and hot peppers. That combo was just SCREAMING to be made into salsa. But this is SassyAwesomesace...so those tomatoes are going in the smoker!!
Good salsa needs a few key ingredients, tomatoes, hot peppers and something acidic like lime juice or vinegar. I had about three pounds of tomatoes. I pulled out my canning supplies and yielded eight pints of salsa. The recipe is listed below if you want to skip to the end of this post. You could absolutely go for a more traditional salsa by skipping the smoker, but the extra flavor of the smoke makes this a uniquely delicious salsa!
First, I got my smoker set up. I used the propane smoker for this one since it has the largest capacity. I had so many tomatoes and peppers!
I like to soak my wood chips for just 15 minutes prior to smoking. There's 2 camps in the wood-chip-smoker world; to-soak or not-to-soak. I am firmly in the soaking camp. I've read a couple of articles on this and most point to the fact that the smoke flavor is equal soaked or unsoaked, however, I feel that the wet wood chips keep my smoker temp low and adds a little moisture in the smoker.
For the vegetables, I used pecan chips, but I would also recommend apple or cherry. Whatever, you do don't use mesquite! The flavor will overpower your vegetables. I wanted the smoker to heat up to 200° so I only used one burner and only loaded up one tray of wood chips. I also didn't use a water pan for this smoke.
Next I prepped the aluminum pans for the smoker by using a small knife to poke about 8-10 holes in the bottom of each pan. Tomatoes are mostly water and you need to have pan or you'll have an awful mess in your smoker, poking the holes in the pan allows the smoke to reach all of that tomato goodness. Just a little slit-like puncture in the pan seems to do the trick.
I sliced the tomatoes into thick 1/2" slices and laid them in a single layer filling up 6 pans. For the peppers I cut the bell peppers in half and removed the seeds. I cut off the tops of the hot peppers so I could remove the seeds and left them mostly whole. I loaded up the smoker so the peppers were on the bottom closest to the heat source since they have less water content.
While the veggies are smoking, I start prepping my canning pot. It a LARGE pot of water that takes at least 30 minutes to get to a boil. I clean up the jars and get them in the pot to start canning as soon as the veggies are ready.
The cook time in the smoker is going to be dependent on the types of tomatoes you have. A traditional "table" tomato, like a beefsteak tomato is going to take about an hour, however "paste" tomatoes are a little denser and may take an additional 30-45 minutes. You will know your veggies are ready to come out of the smoker when the skin starts to pucker and you can easily pull it off of the tomato. The peppers should also be just a little lighter in color but still pretty firm.
As the veggies are cooling off I start chopping my onions, garlic and cilantro and get them in a separate large pot. Once the tomatoes are cool enough to handle, pull off the skin and chop. (I like chunky salsa, so I do a pretty rough chop). Dice the bell peppers and mince the hot peppers and add them to the pot.
Add the vinegar, salt and, if you prefer, a little extra hot sauce and bring the pot to a boil. Once boiling, put the lid on and simmer for 10 minutes.
The salsa is now ready to can! Fill your hot jars with the salsa and place the lids on finger tight. Then process in a standard canning bath for 15 minutes.
Voila! Look at that beautiful salsa!!
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