Yum! September 2005

Sept 6 Foodie diary: Everybody salsa!
At this time of year, readers often ask us how to preserve their garden's bounty. Sadly, freezing isn't always the best solution: vegetables with high water content (such as onions, peppers and tomatoes) become waterlogged, losing texture and flavour after thawing. Canning is the best way to enjoy these vegetables throughout the winter, especially when cooked into a ready-to-use sauce such as Peppy Salsa. This Test Kitchen favourite is flavourful, adaptable to mild or spicy palates and easily doubled for sharing (though Test Kitchen manager Heather Howe makes a batch every year with the best intentions of giving the jars away but finds her family cannot part with a single one).

Tips for great salsa:
Peppy Salsa is indeed peppy because the recipe calls for three kinds of hot peppers, each with a varying degree of heat. If you prefer a mild salsa, just reduce the amount of hot peppers or use milder ones (see below). However, if you like it hot then by all means, kick it up a notch.

Jalapeño peppers add green, sweet pepperlike flavour with mild to medium heat. Taste a bit of one to determine its heat and use more or less accordingly. Six to eight jalapeños make about 1 cup (250 mL) seeded and chopped peppers.

Cubanelle peppers are hot! If you prefer mild salsa, reduce the amount of peppers by half or use banana peppers instead. One cubanelle pepper makes about 1 cup (250 mL) seeded and chopped peppers.

Banana peppers have a sweet-spicy flavour and add a pretty yellow colour. Two banana peppers make about 1 cup (250 mL) seeded and chopped peppers.

To replace the garden freshness of Peppy Salsa with a smoky richness, add 1 can (200 g) chopped Chipotle peppers. These smoked chilies add spice as well as depth of flavour, so for a mild salsa, scrape out their seeds and reduce the jalapeño, cubanelle and banana peppers by at least one-half; for spicy salsa, use the full amount but try a combination of all three.

Test Kitchen tip of the week:
The spiciness of hot peppers comes from the seeds, and recipes such as Peppy Salsa often call for removing seeds so the final flavour is not overpowered by heat. However, scraping out the seeds releases oils onto your fingers that will really burn about an hour or so later. When working with hot peppers, it is important to protect your hands with plastic or latex gloves and not touch your eyes.

When I make this salsa at home, I chop the hot peppers after everything else is ready. Then I thoroughly wash my cutting board, knife, counter and hands to remove all the oils so that I don't accidentally get the oils on myself or on other food.

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