Roasted Tomatillo Salsa (Salsa Verde)

Adam and I commute to work each day, fortunately we do not have to do it alone since we actually work at the same place.  Our commute lasts about 45 minutes and sometimes gets a bit mundane.  So, we will occasionally stop by Rosa Mexicano on the way home, grab a seat on their deck  and relax with some guacamole, salsa and chips.  I love the guacamole, but my favorite thing there is the salsa verde, it is spicy, but not too much and is packed with flavor.  Every time we go, I tell Adam how much I want to make it at home and finally, I took the mission to heart and came up with this salsa verde recipe.  Not knowing too much about salsas, I did a little research and found some recipes that look fantastic (see below).

I learned that salsa verde uses tomatillos, which look like green tomatoes with husks (a little funny looking if you ask me).  Some recipes boiled the tomatillos and others roasted them, I decided to roast since I find roasting develops more flavor.  Other commonalities between the recipes I viewed were the use of peppers, especially serrano and jalapeno, lime juice and cilantro.  Armed with my research, I made an attempt at salsa verde.  I mentioned before that I decided to roast the tomatillos, but in addition I chose to roast a serrano and jalapeno pepper and some garlic cloves.

To roast, I turned by broiler to high, then placed my tomatillos, peppers and unpeeled garlic under the hot broiler until the peppers are slightly charred on the outside and perfectly steamed on the inside, the garlic become soft and sweet and the tomatillos become soft and slightly charred on the outside.  After roasting, I removed any charred skin from the peppers and the tomatillos and peeled the garlic, while the baking pan was still hot, I poured in some chicken stock to deglaze, this picks up all the flavor from the roasting. I added everything including some of the now flavored chicken stock to a food processor with some raw white onion, cilantro, lime juice and salt.  The final result was fantastic, so much so that I think it rivals the one from Rosa Mexicano.  Roasting the tomatillos and peppers gives the salsa so much flavor and depth, the sweet roasted garlic cuts through the spicyness of the peppers and the raw onion, lime juice and cilantro brightens everything leaving your palate light and refreshed.

A Post Revisited

After posting this, Adam and I received an awesome comment from Ben at Whats Cooking? telling us about his Homemade Salsa Challenge to celebrate Mexico’s Independence.  He also told us about Heidileon from aromasysabores and her Mexican Fiesta 2009, where she also hopes to celebrate Mexico’s National Month.  In her post, she explains that September is a time when Mexicans celebrate their Independence Day and other heroic moments of Mexico’s past and how during Septemeber, Mexicans celebrate their identity and culture and what makes Mexico and it’s people so unique and fascinating.  We have decided to submitt our Roasted Tomatillo Salsa recipe to both events.  Make sure you browse both Ben and Heidileon’s blogs, they both have amazing photography and are truly fantastic blogs.

What’s Cooking?

aromasysabores

TIP: For easier removal of the pepper skins: as soon as you take them out from under the broiler, place them into a resealable plastic bag and leave them alone for 10 minutes, after ten minutes the steam generated from the peppers will make it really easy to remove the skins.

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa (Salsa Verde)

1 pound tomatillos (4-5 tomatillos)

1 jalapeno pepper

1 serrano pepper

2 unpeeled garlic cloves

1/2 cup chicken stock

4 tablespoons diced white onion

1/3 cup cilantro

1 tablespoon lime juice

1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat broiler to high.  Remove husks and wash the tomatillos.  Place the tomatillos, peppers and unpeeled garlic cloves in a baking dish with sides and put under the preheated broiler until the tomatillos are roasted and the peppers are slightly charred on all sides, about 10-15 minutes.  Rotate the ingredients during cooking to make sure all sides are charred

Remove the baking dish from under the broiler.  Add the chicken stock to the hot baking dish and use a wooden spoon to scrap the bottom to the dish.  Once slightly cooled, peel the peppers and garlic (you may have to squeeze the soft garlic out of the skin) and remove any extremely charred skin from the tomatillo, some is okay.

Depending on how spicy you want the salsa to be, you can add all the peppers with seeds or you can remove half of the seeds.  I used the whole serrano pepper, but removed the seeds from the jalapeno and the resulting salsa was spicy, but not too hot.

Add the tomatillos, garlic and peppers to a food processor as well as the onions, cilantro, lime juice and salt.  Add about 1/2 of the chicken stock from the baking dish and pulse the food processor 3-4 times or until the salsa has come together.  You can add more / less chicken stock based on your own preferences.

Some other Salsa Verde Recipes:

Simply Recipes

Epicurious

Tagged as: roasted, salsa, tomatillo