Salsa Verde with Green Tomatoes

[Lorelai]

I'd like to use the green tomatoes I have for salsa verde before they get blight from all this rain we're getting, and I have a quick question about peeling them. I have a recipe in the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving that calls for peeled green tomatoes, and I understand that I can blanch them like I would ripe tomatoes. I did some Google searches, and some other recipes I've found don't specify whether or not the green tomatoes need to be peeled. Indeed, some people or websites say they don't need to be peeled.

So basically I'd like to know what you all do! What are the pros and cons of blanching green tomatoes? Will it drastically change the texture if I don't? It'd sure save a lot of time if I skipped that step. I'd appreciate hearing about your experiences and opinions on the matter.

Also, I have some green bell peppers left over from my red salsa making venture... can I add that to salsa verde easily enough? Seems like it'd be yummy, but I generally like to follow a recipe as best I can the way it's written the first time around, so I get nervous adding or subtracting liberally. But I really would like to use the bell peppers up.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

 

[dickiebird]

I have only made red salsa, lots of it!!!
For the last 2 years I have stopped peeling the tomatoes, and it hasn't changed the texture enough that you would notice.
I don't use bell peppers in any of my salsa but if you like them I would try them in this.

THANX RICH

 

[Wisher1000]

Don't be afraid to experiment! Why not make three batches? One with peeled green tomatoes, one without, one with bell peppers...keep track so that you can decide which you prefer on your next batch. If one or the other is not to your taste, you won't have as much to use up...or it could be that it is so good you wish you had more! Have fun, live dangerously, take chances, that's what all of us great chefs do!

 

[muffy]

I'm with Wisher!!! try differant things but never put all you eggs in one basket, or plant all your seeds at one time..keep track! Then you can tell us!

 

[Lorelai]

Well, so far I've made two batches, the first smaller than the second. Is it just me, or does it take a long time to process green tomatoes, even without blanching them? I shudder to think of how much time this would be taking if I blanched them all... yikes. The first batch has our homegrown chile peppers in it, a bunch of little guys, so it's a bit more on the mild side, I think. I most likely overcompensated from my experience with "The Ghost Pepper" last Friday, when I made red salsa with two innocent looking nickel sized Bhut Jolokia peppers. OMG!!! Three fingers on my left hand burned for three days after touching the chopped up pepper (nobody warned me!) if I had to immerse them in water for any reason, and sometimes no water necessary, and I had to resort to flushing my mouth with (ew) pasteurized milk (bought for baking purposes) after sampling the product of my hard work. Those are some scary peppers, and I made some hot salsa. My dear boyfriend didn't warn me quite enough regarding their potency. Needless to say, the first batch of salsa verde turned out mild. My second batch, a double batch, contains ten jalepenos (alas) bought from the store, and it's more of a medium salsa, which is where I personally like it. I've been finding other uses for my extra green bell peppers, like the tasty sloppy joes I made the other day. And I think I might have rescued enough of my "sort of starting to ripen" tomatoes to make another batch of red salsa, so my last one is spoken for.

 

[April Manier]

OMG!!!!

Thanks for the warning on the peppers!

I too do salsa with teh skins on at times. Personally, when canning I think they soften up so much it hardly matters. BUT I have never worked with green tomatoes. It is sounding harder than maybe I want to try!

 

[Lorelai]

It's probably not any more time consuming than processing ripe tomatoes, but yesterday it felt that way! Then again, my double batch turned into a double plus a few pints batch, so maybe that's why it seemed to take so long. It feels really nice to not have buckets full of green tomatoes go to waste, though, which is what usually happens around here. So to that end, I feel really productive and proud of myself.

 

[April Manier]

Can you post your recipe?

 

[Lorelai]

Sure, I just used the recipe from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving:

Salsa Verde

*Makes about six half pints or three pints

7 cups chopped cored peeled green tomatoes
5-10 jalepeno, habenero, or Scotch bonnet peppers, seeded and finely chopped
2 cups finely chopped red onions
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 cup lime juice
1/2 cup loosely packed finely chopped cilantro
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp salt
1 tsp finely ground black pepper

Combine tomatoes, pepepers, onions, garlic, and lime juice. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Stir in cilantro, cumin, oregano, salt, and black pepper. Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring frequently, for five minutes. Remove from heat.

***I played a bit fast and loose with this recipe, adding way more garlic, and since I didn't grow red onions, I used white onions from my garden. I also probably used extra cilantro, since I love fresh cilantro. I also didn't bother peeling the green tomatoes, though I did work pretty hard to get all the seeds out. Probably why it took so long, but I can be a perfectionist that way, which is why I'm good at weeding... sometimes I'm a little to thorough for my own good! Oh, and I simmered mine longer than five minutes, which just didn't seem long enough.

 

[RidgebackRanch]

That recipe looks like a winner to me. Going to have to write it down for next season. It will be an excellent use of the usual tomtoes that don't ripen fast enough.

Thanks for sharing!