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.