When I wasn't spooning chocolate sauce from the jar this weekend, I was cooking tomatillos.
Last year I tossed them in a pot with jalapenos, turned the heat on and spooned the resulting sauce into ziplocs for the freezer. I didn't know what I was doing but the bags were in the drawer for reuse by November 3 with a note to put up a lot more this year.
The first tomatillos of any merit I've seen this year showed up at Happy Boy Farm last week. The price was good at a dollar a basket so I smuggled four baskets back to the office in my purse.
Melinda must have read my mind because the next day she posted a roasted tomatillo salsa recipe. The recipe promoted my quick pot of tomatillos and jalapenos to salsa verde muy bien. And muy bien without it being a terrible chore.
I roasted the tomatillos slower than Melinda's recipe but only because the flames from the broiler freak me out. And I put the jalapenos in the oven to roast with the tomatillo believing myself clever until I found pepper skins like corn silk in the finished salsa. The skins didn't effect the taste but they did remind me that occassionally it would be wise to follow directions.
The salsa was so good though I bought more tomatillos on Sunday to repeat the recipe. The biggest problem with eating seasonally however is it tends to not stick to a strict script. The tomatillos were called for instead in a soup of pinto beans along with a mariachi band of jalapenos. We ate them without a thought of the winter ahead, as if summer would be our personal fiesta filling my purse and canvas bags forever.
Hopefully tomatillo harvest will continue a bit longer because I'm only getting started with this juicy green fruit. Or is it a vegetable?
Either way, it's delicious.
2 days ago
8 comments:
I love tomatillos, and they make fantastic salsa. Sadly, nobody at the farmer's market seems to sell them even though they could easily be grown here.
I started some tomatillo seeds to attempt in our indoor winter garden, but I don't hold out much hope there. But you can bet your buns that I will be planting some in the community garden next year.
How did you know? I just picked the first of the tomatillos and was wondering what I might do with them. We had two plants in our (cooler climate) community garden this year and they grew amazingly well. I was hacking back the branches all summer.
Do you know, I've never eaten one?
Last year I ordered some seeds online and received a package of tomatillo's instead of something else - presumably tomatoes of some kind - but I did not plant them.
A quick rustle around reveals the package is still here and the seeds very much alive and well.
That you'd run out of last year's supply as early as November has me intrigued...
jennifer of the veg*n goodies - As much as you love peppers you'll love tomatillos because they are the perfect pairing. Hopefully you'll have better luck growing them then I did though.
audrey - Hacking away the branches is not a term I've had the good fortune of using for the pots on my deck. Good for you.
lucy - Which makes me wonder if there are Mexican resaturants in Australia. That's where I first had salsa verde with tomatillos.
I'll be interested to know if your plants produce fruit. There's something unusual about the plants in that they don't self pollinate but need multiple plants to cross with. Something like that. Melinda at Green Generation and Kendra at A Sonoma Garden, both in my sidebar, wrote more specifically about growing them. The plants I have are blooming like crazy but not a single fruit to be found. But I love a good flower.
Yay! I'm glad the recipe worked for you (despite your deviations - LOL!). Our tomatillos produced until November in Northern CA, so I would guess that you'll see them in the farmer's markets for awhile yet.
And yeah, I am thinking based on what I read, that you need at least 2 tomatillo plants for pollination.
Ay me encantan los tomatillos. Hay que buscar una receta para el pozole verde. Visite su otro blog, Katrina. Hay una nueva lección. Buena suerte.
Oooh! Thanks for the tip on roasting them! Our farmer's market had some show up, and I can't wait to try this! Love your blog, I'll be back to visit!
Melinda - Perhaps I'll get tomatillos yet then. You've given me hope. I do have two plants. Maybe they're the same sex. I'll check out the link. Thanks.
The Bean - Pozole verde? If I learn the alphabet will you make it again? Por favor.
mama - I can't take the credit for the roasted tomatillos. Credit goes to Melinda above. But glad you like the blog. I like your name.
Post a Comment