Fermented Salsa

Quantity: 1 quart

Ingredients

• 2 large jalapenos, diced (remove seeds and membrane) (can also replace with 1 green bell pepper if you don't want the salsa to be spicy)
• 3 cups diced tomatoes (make the pieces chunky)
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 ear of uncooked sweet corn, shucked
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup cilantro leaves (if you like cilantro, otherwise you can leave this ingredient out)
• 1 lime, cut in half
• 1 tbsp non-iodized salt

Instructions

• Add jalapenos, tomatoes, onion, corn, garlic, and cilantro leaves to a large bowl (everything but the salt and lime)
• Squeeze the lime over the ingredients in the bowl to add lime juice
• Gently squish the ingredients in the bowl to release water, but DO NOT squish hard enough to make the ingredients mushy, especially the tomatoes
• Put the ingredients from the bowl into your container (for instance, a quart sized mason jar), being sure to press down the ingredients into the container to get rid of air pockets.
• Add water if need be in order to make sure all of the solid ingredients are submerged under water. Your goal is to make sure the ingredients stay in an anaerobic (meaning "absense of oxygen") enviornment.
• Add the salt to the top of the salsa
• Weigh down the solid ingredient matter in the container. You can use glass weights, a small sandwich bag filled with 2-3% salt by weight brine, the end of a bell pepper, a cabbage leaf, a non-pourous rock (if you use a rock from outside, be sure it's cleaned by scrubbing it with soapy water and boiling it for 20 minutes, you only need to scrub and boil the rock the 1 time), or whatever other sanitary thing that can weigh the solid ingredient matter down.
• Set container in an area away from sunlight and about 55-75F (13-24C) for 24-48 hours. You may need to "burp" the container from time to time to prevent carbon dioxide buildup in the container. Burping is done by opening the lid of the container to let the carbon dioxide gas escape and closing the lid again.