September Daring Cooks Challenge

I have been canning food for a number of years.  Actually, I have been canning and freezing food since I was a teenager or younger.  You see, I grew up on a farm.  That is what we did.



We had a garden and froze all the vegetables.  And we would always buy B.C. fruit by the case and would can peaches, pears, apricots and cherries every year.  Then we would go out and pick saskatoon berries and chokecherries to make more preserves.  If we could get our hands on any, we would also try to make crabapple jelly.  Actually in the really old days, before I got involved, my mother would can vegetables and chicken.  And that was before the days of pressure canners!  Scary, eh?



The September 2010 Daring Cooks’ challenge was hosted by John of Eat4Fun. John chose to challenge The Daring Cooks to learn about food preservation, mainly in the form of canning and freezing. He challenged everyone to make a recipe and preserve it. John’s source for food preservation information was from The National Center for Home Food Preservation.

I want to show you what I have done this season - Spiced Pear Butter and Blackberry Jam.



I posted my recipe for Strawberry Balsamic Black  Pepper Strawberry Preserves awhile back.



And my Concord Grape Jam. 

With my pressure canner, I have put away duck and chicken stock.

Tomato Salsa!



If you go back a couple of days, I have posted my Mustard Beans.

















This is the recipe I am sharing today ... Fire Roasted Tomato Sauce.

Fire Roasted Tomato Sauce

25 lbs of roma tomatoes

3 large or 5 medium onions

1 head of garlic

4 bay leaves

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon black pepper

2 teaspoons of Kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon dried, crushed hot chilis



Build a hot fire on your charcoal grill or use your gas barbecue.  Grill all of the tomatoes until blackened on all sides.  Drop into cold water to chill.  Slip the blackened skins off the tomatoes.  Chop coarsely.



Roast the whole onions on the grill.  When blackened on all sides, remove to cool.  Remove the blackened layers and coarsely chop the onion.  Pulse in a food processor to finely chop the onion.



Grill the head of garlic over the hot coals.  Let cool and squeeze out the roasted garlic.



Add tomatoes, onions, garlic and other seasonings to a large stock pot.  Simmer for 1 - 2 hours or until rich.



Process in a water bath.  Bernardin has great instructions for processing with the water bath method.