This is my first year to grow tomatillos and already I'm a fan! Both plants are HUGE and covered with little yellow flowers.
And since I've never grown tomatillos, I was surprised to find the fruit growing in little casings that remind me of paper lanterns! So cool!
I never in a million years thought that these things would produce at the level they do. I have tomatillos coming out of my ears! Now I have to admit, I don't know much about using tomatillos. I have one sauce that I make for fish tacos that calls for a few tomatillos, but that's it. So here I was, faced with a HUGE bowl of them wondering what the hell to do. Then it hit me, Salsa Verde! Duh.
First I had to remove the husks.
Then I washed them and put them on a cookie sheet (about a pound or so of them) with some olive oil, 1 onion, about 4 or 5 cloves of garlic, and a couple of de-seeded jalapeños (I wanted it mild enough for the kids) and popped them in the oven on about 400* to roast for 15 minutes, stirring them on occasion to make sure they didn't burn.
Afterwards, I dumped them into the food processor, oil, juices and all, added a couple of teaspoons of cumin and about a teaspoon or so of salt, a good handful of washed cilantro and the juice from 1/2 a lime.
After a good whir, I ended up with a wonderful, flavorful sauce that was perfect for dipping chips! I also took about half of it to add to my sour cream chicken enchilada recipe, YUM!
So hooray for tomatillos! You can bet I'm going to be enjoying A LOT of salsa verde this summer! :)
