Simple Salsa Verde

One thing I love about CSAs is the exposure you get to vegetables you maybe don’t think to buy.  Take tomatillos, for instance.  Do I love those fresh-tasting Mexican green sauces often found gracing enchilada plates?  Yes.  Do I suspect that tomatillos play a vital role in their deliciousness?  Yes.  Have I ever bought a tomatillo in my life?  No! 

Well, why the hell not?  That seems to be the question posed by my neighborhood farmers judging from the pint after pint after pint of tomatillos we’ve been offered this summer.  I can’t ever say no.  The result is I’ve gotten a little more comfortable with tomatillos.  Now I know to wait until the yellowish-green fruits fill up their husks and split the seams before picking them.  I know that you can make salsas out of either raw or cooked tomatillos, but that I prefer cooked.  That the resulting salsa is absolutely fantastic for both scooping up with tortilla chips and spooning over roasted fish (or, as we had last night, pan-fried dabs—a flatfish related to the flounder).  For a smoother sauce for those chicken enchiladas I mentioned, just run the salsa through the food processor or blender, thinning with some water if necessary.

Who knows, maybe one day I'll attain a similar comfort level with all of these millions of exotic hot peppers that keep ending up in my refrigerator!

 

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa

For the love of god, don’t touch your eyes (or any other sensitive part of yourself or anyone else) with your chile pepper fingers.  Scrub your hands WELL.  Trust me.

1-1½ lbs. tomatillos (about two pints)
1-2 chiles, like serranos or jalapeños
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1-2 Tbsp. cilantro, chopped
Lime juice, to taste
Salt, to taste

Preheat oven to 375°F.  Remove husks from tomatillos and rinse off the sticky resin in warm water.  Cut them in half and place cut-side down in baking dish along with whole chiles.  Roast until soft, 20-30 minutes.  Let cool slightly so you can handle them comfortably.

Coarsely chop the tomatillos and put into a small bowl.  Finely chop the roasted chiles and add as much as you think you can handle.  Chiles vary in how much heat they deliver, both between all the different varieties and within their own ranks.  For a very mild salsa, add only the flesh of the chile (slice the four sides from the pepper, scrape off and discard the seeds and inner ribs, and mince).  For more heat, add some seeds.  Not all the seeds!  The number of seeds you should add is directly proportional to how convincingly you can roll your r’s.  Here’s a good test—say this:

Un burro comía berros y el perro se los robó, el burro lanzó un rebuzno, y el perro al barro cayó.

If that doesn’t roll off the tongue, I’d lay off the seeds.

Add the onion, cilantro, lime juice, and salt (be generous with the salt, though).  Serve with tortilla chips or mounded over roasted fish.  For a less chunky, more uniform sauce for, say, those chicken enchiladas I mentioned, purée in food processor and thin with water to desired consistency.

 

Local Ingredients:

Tomatillos, onion, chiles: Waltham Fields Community Farms, Waltham, MA

Comments

[Kalynskitchen]

I love this sauce. I planted tomatillos once and learned that they are amazingly prolific. (You need two plants for them to pollinate each other, and that produces more tomatillos than a family of 20 could use!) So many good things to use them for though.

[Julia]

I'm the same way as you with tomatillos! Definitely need to cook with them more... I sometimes make a tomatillo mole for enchiladas.

By the way, if you wash your hands with baking soda, it helps to neutralize the sting from the peppers.

Oh, and another thing -- this month, the Elephant Walk in Waltham is donating 3% of sales to Waltham Fields.

[Moopheus]

I'm the same way. Kale? I like kale, have made good things with it, but hardly ever think to use it except when the CSA gives it to me. Also, quantity can be an issue, as in, jeez, what am I going to do with this ---load of X?

[melch]

Haha, that's a great rubric for spice! The salsa verde looks so good.

I'm going to a local food festival (solfoodfestival.com for those in the mid-California area) tomorrow and I am super excited! I mention this because they will be talking about eating local and an October eat local challenge and since Food on the Food really introduced me to both concepts, I cannot hear about it without thinking of you!

[cookiecrumb]

Kalyn: So that's what's wrong with my tomatillo plant? Aw, nuts. Rookie booboo. Thanks.

[Tammy]

CC: Aw, your tomatillo plant needs a friend! There's always next year.

melch: Oooo, I went to a local food festival last weekend as well. Hope you enjoyed it!

Moopheus: Quantity definitely is an issue. At least with tomatoes and tomato-like fruits, you can sauce them and freeze them away. Kale, not so much.

Julia: Thanks so much for the baking soda tip, which I didn't know, and the reminder about the Elephant Walk/Waltham Fields fundraiser, which I should probably tweet.

Kalyn: Good to know! I like the idea of just two plants producing more than you could possibly need. I'll file that away under "If I Ever Plant a Real Garden Someday!"

[andrea]

I planted a few tomatillo seeds about 6 years ago. Ever since then, I've had tomatillos throughout the garden. I usually keep a few, nurture them, move them to nice sunny places, and then curse the sheer volume of tomatillos I get. Every year! This year, I left two growing amongst my asparagus bed (snuck out of the compost, those wily tomatillos) and pulled all the others. Like Kalyn said, enough for a family of 20! If I knew exactly where you lived, there would be bags of them left on your doorstep. Hmm...there is a new Mexican restaurant in town. And they have a doorstep!

[adele]

I hear that a mixture of lime juice and salt will help take chile residue off skin.

There's also the trick one of my kitchen-gadget-loving friends uses for chiles: a box of disposable gloves.

[Tammy]

adele: I thought the lime juice and salt was for getting the tequila off your hands. Or getting it in your mouth. Either way.

andrea: I will gladly take your leftover tomatillos, especially after making this delicious concoction from Orangette's Spilled Milk podcast: http://www.spilledmilkpodcast.com/2010/09/23/pan-fried-peppers-pickled-peppers-and-folded-enchiladas-recipes-from-episode-22/

Holy crap, it was good!