Salsa Verde

Finally! Absolutely awesome salsa verde - tomatillo based salsa - beautifully green, perfectly balanced bouquet of sweet, sour, and salty.

Blog's Category: My Own Fast and Easy, International, Snacks

Intro

It was not my first take on salsa verde and I was ready to give up on it thinking.. well, may be there is no such thing as delicious salsa verde.. may be salsa verde is just not "my thing".. 
Having that in mind, it was total provocation when this Sunday, checking on a new farmer's market nearby, I come across the most beautiful tomatillo I ever seen. Unbelievably bright green and shiny, their skin winkled on me through tomatillo's papery outer shell. So, I admit, I bought it with annoying thought in a back of my mind "it's going to be another salsa-verde failure". 
Long story short - nope! On a fly, I've got the most delicious salsa verde I ever tried. Here is an accurately documented recipe of it.


What is it?

Tomatilloes has got to be roasted, and onion, and garlic got to be roasted also or pan fried. Then just add a handful fresh aromatic herbs, olive oil and blend it to the perfect creamy-chunky consistency.

Taste Description

Each ingredient plays here important role - awesome creaminess of tomatilloes, with a smoky-caramel undertones from poasting, delicate garlic bite from a small amount of raw garlic, freshness and aroma of cilantro - all these are married nicely with a right balance of sweetness, acidity and saltiness. Texture is smooth, not watery at all. After a night in a fridge, it's almost gelatinous.

How to Serve/Store

My favorite way to eat salsa is, of course, with chips. As a late night movie snack we all like this self-serve treat - take cracker, drop salsa on it and top with a tiny piece of Parmesan - yummmmm.
Keep salsa in a fridge for several days. The salsa verde I made this time didn't survived in my fridge even two days - was gulped in no time. 

Salsa Verde



• 2 lb tomatillo, peeled and cut in half
• 2 onion, chopped
• 7+1 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 cup olive oil, flavorless (or extra-virgin if you wish so)
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• small bunch of cilantro, roughly chopped
• 1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
• 1/2 lime, juice only
• 1 tsp sugar

- Place tomatillo halves on a roasting pan, pour a little bit olive oil on top and roast in a preheated to 400F oven until golden-brown and completely soft. Remove from oven and let it cool down a bit.

- In a frying pan, pour about 2 tablespoons of olive oil and cook onion until golden-brown, add 7 garlic cloves, minced. Cook 1 minute and take off the heat.

- Place all ingredients , except olive oil: roasted tomatilloes, fried onion and garlic, 1 minced raw garlic clove, cilantro, lime juice, salt, sugar and pepper into kitchen processor. Process for about 1 minute. Then process for another minute adding olive oil in a steady stream. Do not over process. Taste, adjust salt, sugar, pepper or lime juice to your liking and enjoy!

Variations 

- Add jalapeno pepper if you wish instead of black pepper.



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IN PICTURES

Can you see now why I just couldn't pass by these cuties? Do you know how sticky this pretty and shiny green skin is under the paper-like shell cover?

Sorry, I lost that "artificial light" setting for white balance on my camera - that is why pictures are yellowish.. Too bad I couldn't show you how nice looking these guys were when I pulled them out of oven.

I like to use lime juice more than lemon juice not just because of flavor... lime has no seeds! which means you can juice it out right into the dish with other ingredients!

cilantro on top... no reservation - be generous on it...

generosity helps hen you will be measuring out olive oil too! It will add up to the creaminess and overall taste.

blue corn chip, bright green salsa verde - what an artistic color combination, ha?

chips and salsa help to go through a routing work day.. try :)