Smoked Tomato Salsa

This recipe uses the Cameron Stovetop Smoker. I have no idea how it will turn out using another device. Proportions are approximate. Please adapt them to your love of chiles and fondness of garlic and cilantro. This would work well with any fresh pepper or chile.

• Ready In: 1 hr
• Yields: 3 cups

Ingredients

• 3  cups roma tomatoes, halved
• 10  garlic cloves
• 2  jalapenos, halved
• 1⁄2 onion, chopped
• 4  tablespoons  wood chips
• 2  tablespoons fresh cilantro (optional)
• 1  lime, juice of (optional)
• 1⁄2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1  jalapeno, chopped (optional)
• 2  tablespoons  chopped green onions (optional)

Directions

1. Make an aluminum foil "basket" to hold the food and fit in your smoker. You should have clearance on all four sides and the top.
2. Place the tomatoes, garlic, jalepenos, and onion into the foil basket. If you like hotter salsa, leave the seeds in the jalepenos. Otherwise, take them out.
3. Load your smoker with 2 to 4 tablespoons of wood chips. I use apple, but that's me.
4. Assemble your smoker according to factory directions. The foil basket goes on top of the wire rack.
5. Start the smoker on high, close up and turn to medium low. Same as always for the Cameron smoker.
6. Cook for about 45 minutes. The tomatoes should soften, but not be mushy. It takes somewhere between 30 and 45 minutes to do this.
7. Turn the smoker off and leave it closed. Allow to cool for at least 15 minutes.
8. Pour the liquid that accumulated in the foil basket into a small work bowl. Reserve for later. (Don't throw it out, the flavor is too good to toss.).
9. Remove the garlic. If you didn't peel it, squeeze the garlic paste out of the peel. Mash.
10. Reserve 1 tomato, all the chiles, and 1/4 cup onion. The chile flavor has infused into the tomatoes, so proceed with caution.
11. Process the garlic, most of tomatoes and SOME of the onion until it reaches the desired texture (use food processor, batches in the blender, or immersion blender depending on what you have). If the mixture seems stiff, use some of the reserved cooking liquid to thin it down.
12. TASTE. Add the smoked chiles in small batches to reach the desired heat level.
13. TASTE. Add cilantro, lime juice and salt to taste. This is personal, and it will vary from batch to batch depending on how ripe the veggies were.
14. Take the reserved vegetables and chop them finely. Add them to the processed salsa. This gives you 2 textures. If you want only one, then blend away.
15. Add additional fresh chopped jalepeno and chopped green onions to taste. Or, leave them out.
16. If the salsa turned out too hot, add about 1/2 tsp sugar. This will make it less hot tasting.
17. Serve hot or cold with crispy tortilla chips and a cooling beverage.