Zucchini Salsa

It wasn't a very good summer for our garden. Because of rains last spring, we planted two weeks later than usual. We got early spinach, lettuce and radishes, which was nice for salads, but when we should have been picking ripe tomatoes, we were sitting on the deck wishing for warmer weather and a longer season. We got plenty of zucchini, but not the quantities that we've had in years past, and maybe that's a good thing! It would be nice to have ripe tomatoes to eat all summer long, but it was a ripe one here and an almost ripe one there that my gardener would bring into the house. It didn't take long to eat them up. Our temperatures dipped the second week of this month and we covered the garden at night for a few days, then harvested everything that was left and tilled the garden.

We've been busy making sausage, too. We made 12# of Jalapeno Summer sausage and 15# Cracked Pepper & Garlic Summer Sausage. We use ground venison along with some ground pork and use a kit like this that includes the seasonings and the casings. After the casings are stuffed, into the smoker they go (each log is 3#). These are delicious sliced up and served on crackers with cheese and a glass of wine! 

My kitchen is lined with bowls and bowls of green and pink tomatoes, a few zucchini on the counter and a few small jalapenos and bell peppers. I already made several jars of piccalilli using green tomatoes and went looking for something different. I found Zucchini Salsa at allrecipes.com. Despite thinking "Eww... zucchini in salsa??", it got such rave reviews and I decided to give it a try. It turned out absolutely delicious and you'd never know there was zucchini in it! I'm going to make a few more batches using green tomatoes. We opened a jar at breakfast the other day and by the time we'd finished, half the jar was gone!

We went antelope hunting earlier this month and I got to take some pictures of this beautiful country, which I'd like to share with you. Oh, yes, we got an antelope and I saved the heart and liver, so I'm going to have a couple special posts for those soon. And yes, I've got the Zucchini Salsa recipe for you, but first, a few pictures...

October Sunrise in Montana

Another view of the sunrise

A few cattle.

A few more... my friend, Rhonda told me that there are 3 cows to every person in Montana!

A couple of trees out in the middle of nothing but rolling hills.

It takes a lot of hay to feed all those cattle in the winter!

Old fence posts.

Mountains

Ok, on to the salsa... this recipe got a 5-star review from 85 people and in reading the reviews, it was no surprise to see that everybody made theirs just a little different, adding this and leaving out that according to their tastes, which is exactly what I did with the original recipe. 

We both loved this salsa, so another couple batches will be made next week. I'll still make a few changes to the recipe below by adding a few more jalapenos and leaving out the tomato paste, which I thought gave the finished salsa too much of a canned tomato taste. I think by leaving it out, we'll end up with a fresher taste.


I plan to do a blog post on canning soon, but there is lots of information to get you started here.


Edit 10/23/11: I made another batch of salsa with the following changes: Omitted green peppers and tomato paste. Used a total of 10 jalapenos with seeds. This made a hot salsa, which we prefer. If you prefer spicy, find that recipe here.

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Zucchini Salsa - adapted from Food.com

10 cups peeled and grated zucchini
4 large onions, chopped
4 green peppers, seeded and chopped
¼ cup plus 1 T Kosher salt, divided use
5 large jalapenos, seeded and pureed in food processor
2 T dry mustard
1 T granulated garlic
1 T cumin
2 T red pepper flakes
1 T black pepper
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup lemon juice
5 cups chopped red or green tomatoes
12 ounces tomato paste

Day one: In a large pan combine zucchini, onions, green pepper and ¼ cup salt. Mix well, cover and let stand overnight. Do not refrigerate.

Day two: Transfer vegetables to a colander and let drain for one to two hours. Return mixture to the pan and add pureed jalapenos, mustard, garlic, cumin, red pepper flakes, black pepper, vinegar, lemon juice, 1T salt, tomatoes and tomato paste. Mix all ingredients well.

Cover pan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and immediately ladle into sterilized jars and seal. Process in a water bath for 20 minutes (for altitudes between 1000 and 6000 feet).