Recipe Source: Bayless, Rick. Mexican Everyday. W. W. Norton & Company, New York, 2005 pp. 154 - 5
New England can be a funny place to be a gardener. I'll assume that proper farmers have been doing it for generations, or at least decades, and often have degrees in the subject, but for those of us whose experience is limited to the backyard it's sometimes a very confusing place to be. Last year we got no produce at all, except for two tomatoes and one hot pepper. On the same plot of land this year we had bumper crops of everything except cucumbers. We had a sudden frost that necessitated quick harvesting of everything outside, and then the weather got warm. Suddenly, we found ourselves with a bumper crop of tomatillos.
Now, this sudden crop of tomatillos was surprising for two reasons. First, it showed up in mid to late November. We don't expect to get anythingin November except goose droppings. Second, it's not like tomatillos are a native New England crop. We planted them more as an experiment - hey, we like these, let's give it a shot and see what we get. I guess that there are other things that we ourselves grow, like tomatoes and hot chile peppers, that are native to more hospitable climates, but those have been bred for generations to tolerate our weather here. Tomatillos only got to be trendy relatively recently, at least around here. Why are we suddenly overrun with them?
Not that I'm complaining. I love tomatillos and I love having fresh produce that I don't have to fight my way through crowds of self-entitled suburban housewives to get to. And it's especially satisfying to have such a thing when you didn't expect to get anything at all - kind of like Christmas a month early, really. To use them, I decided to make a Rick Bayless dish that called for a roasted tomatillo salsa. Now, I could have bought a salsa verde in a jar, and I'm quite fond of the Frontera brand for that sort of thing. But salsa from a jar cost something like $4.39 or something like that the last time I bought it. You'll note that, since the tomatillos were for free, the cost per ounce was much lower! I doubled the quantity so that I could use up more of the tomatillos, freezing what was left over.
Roasted Tomatillo Salsa (makes about 24 ounces; approx. $0.12/ounce)
16 ounces tomatillos, husked, rinsed and halved (this is about 8 tomatillos)
6 garlic cloves, peeled
4 chili peppers (I had chiles we grew ourselves, but they were unlabeled. I think there were two serrano and one cayenne.)
2/3 cup roughly chopped cilantro
1 white onion, finely chopped
Kosher salt to taste
Equipment:
- Blender
- Saute pan
- Put the tomatillos and the garlic into your saute pan, cut side down.
- Brown over medium-high heat until the tomatillos are well browned, then turn over and brown the other side. The tomatillos should be quite soft, and you'll be surprised at how much they shrink. At least, I was surprised by how much they shrank.
- Pour the tomatillos, garlic and accumulated juices into the blender. Add the chiles, cilantro and 1/4 cup water.
- Process to a puree.
- Add the onions to the salsa, pour into a serving bowl and serve.
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