This easy recipe for salsa verde uses green tomatoes in place of tomatillos and is a great way to use up those stubbornly unripe end-of-season tomatoes.
Ingredients
about 1.2 kg (7 cups) chopped, cored and peeled green tomatoes (Nick added 3 or 4 slightly ripe tomatoes too)
4 chillies of your choice (hot or mild) deseeded and finely chopped
2 large onions, chopped finely
4 cloves garlic, chopped finely
125ml cup lime juice
about 250ml finely chopped coriander/cilantro leaves
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp finely ground black pepper
preserving jars (we used a couple of 250ml Kilner jars and 4 recycled jars of about 200ml each)
Instructions
To skin the tomatoes, immerse them in boiling water for about 20 seconds or until you see the skin split, then remove from the water and peel the skin off before chopping.
Place the tomatoes, chilli peppers, onion, garlic and lime juice in a large pot ad bring to the boil. Once it is boiling, stir in the chopped coriander leaf, spices, salt and pepper. Lower the heat and simmer for about 5 minutes. Nick also used a potato masher to break up any remaining larger chunks.
In the meantime, sterilise your jars. Wash the jars and lids in hot soapy water, then place the jars in a cold oven and set the temperature to 160C. Once the oven reaches 160, the jars are ready to use. Boil the lids for 5 minutes in a saucepan of water on the stove (NOTE: Kilner lids do not want to be boiled - just place them in a bowl of very hot (80 Celsius) water till you are ready to use them.)
Using an oven mitt, carefully remove a glass jar from the oven and ladle the hot salsa into it, leaving about 1cm between the surface of the salsa and the rim of the jar. Make sure to remove any air bubbles, then wipe the rim clean of any sauce and then put the lid on the jar and tighten.
While you are filling the jars, set a very large stock pot (or a canner) of water to boil and place a small metal trivet in the bottom of the pot. When all the jars are filled and closed, carefully lower them upright into the boiling water (I used braai/barbecue tongs as the bottles were still very hot). Once all the jars are in, there should be at least 2.5cm of water over the top of the lids.
Boil for 20 minutes then carefully remove the jars and allow to cool. After 24 hours, check the seals - if the centre of the lid can "pop" up and down when pressed, the the jars have NOT sealed properly and should be re-boiled.
Store in a cool, dark place for up to a year.
Recipe by Cooksister | Food, Travel, Photography at https://www.cooksister.com/2013/10/salsa-verde-green-tomatoes.html