Green Tomato Salsa - Reserve Champion 2010 Carver County Fair

This recipe one the Blue Ribbon for the "Any other Sauce" lot of the Relish/Sauce class at the 2010 Carver County Fair.  It also won Reserve Champion in the overall Relish/Sauce class.

It is a great way to use up any of your green tomatoes when you are cleaning up your garden in the fall.

Ingredients:
4 Cups Chopped Green Tomatoes
2 Cups Chopped and Seeded Sweet Peppers (Anaheim, Banana, Red Bell, Yellow Bell)
1 Cup Chopped and Seeded Jalapeños (approx 1/2lb = 1 Cup Chopped)
1 Cup Chopped Onion (I usually use sweet)
2 teaspoons Kosher Salt
1 1/2 Cup Cider Vinegar
3 Cloves Chopped Garlic
Cilantro to taste
Sugar to taste

Chop and place all ingredients in saucepan.  Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.  Pour salsa into hot prepared jars.  Adjust 2 piece lid and rings.  Process in hot water bath for 30 minutes.  Makes about 5 pints.

Tomato Basil Dipping Sauce

This is a great sauce to use on pasta.  You can also use it as a dipping sauce for bread.  The basil compliments the tomatoes perfectly.

1/2 bushel roma tomatoes (about 23-25 pounds)

1/2 Cup + 2 teaspoons Brown Sugar

1/4 Cup Kosher Salt

1/4 Cup (plus a dash more) Balsamic Vinegar

1 1/2 teaspoon pepper

2 large bunches of fresh basil - Chopped

1 bunch of fresh thyme - Chopped

1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice per jar

Peel Tomatoes:  Score the tomatoes by making an 'x' in the blossom end of the tomato with a knife.  Blanch the tomatoes in boiling water for 2 minutes.  Immediately put in icy, icy water.  Cool and peel the tomatoes.  Core the stem end with a sharp knife.  I put the peeled tomatoes in a clean bowl.  I do in batches of 8 tomatoes and repeat the process until complete.  

Chop the tomatoes in a food processor.  Again, I do in batches of 8 tomatoes.  Do not chop too finely.  I put the tomatoes in a very large stock pot. I only use stainless steel stock pots.  The aluminum ones seem to burn the tomatoes.  I repeat until I am done with all of the tomatoes.

Put the brown sugar, salt, vinegar and pepper into tomatoes.  Stir well.  I bring to a boil and reduce heat to medium.  I cook for about 3 hours, stirring about every 15 minutes or so.  Once the mixture is at the consistency that you want, remove from heat.  Separate out 11 cups tomato mixture.  Stir in 1/2 the herbs in that mixture.  Put remaining mixture on low on stove.  Pour into pint jars that have 1 Tablespoon of Lemon Juice added to them.  Put on lids and rings.  Process 45 minutes in hot water canning for pints (1 hour for quarts).  Remove from canner and let cool.  Repeat with remaining tomato mixture.