Smiling Coyote Salsa

This salsa freezes well and adjusts easily to your heat preference. It's better with Smiling Coyote Farms vine ripened tomatoes and chilies but excellent using canned tomatoes as well. When tomatoes are in season, substitute an equal amount of chopped paste tomatoes for canned. Either way, it's better than any off-the-shelf salsa... Even the one from New York City.

Ingredients

• 1 - 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
• 20 - 28 oz. by volume water depending on thickness desired
• 1/4 cup rice (or other) vinegar
• 1 onion finely diced
• 4 large or 6 small jalapenos, finely diced  (see "Adjusting Heat" below)
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• 2 teaspoons salt (or to taste)
• 1 teaspoon Mexican oregano
• 1 bunch fresh cilantro, large stems removed, chopped

Adjusting Heat

For a very mild salsa, remove seeds from all jalapenos. For a little spice, leave seeds in one or two. For some real heat, use all the seeds. To maximize the firepower even more, substitute serrano chilies for the jalapenos and use all seeds. 

Method

Some may prefer to use a food processor for dicing the onion and jalapeno as well as mincing the garlic. We always dice and mince by hand because the resulting texture is better but use whichever method you prefer.

After emptying the can of crushed tomatoes, we measure the water using the same can.

• In a 3 quart saucepan over medium-high heat, add all ingredients except cilantro.
• Bring to boil, reduce to simmer
• Simmer over low heat, uncovered, 30 minutes
• Remove from heat, stir in cilantro
• Allow to cool

Storage

Refrigerate, covered, up to one week. Freezes well--allow to defrost slowly.

Scrambled eggs with fresh chives, salsa, and tomato.