My Favorite Recipes

I haven’t made tomatillo salsa in a while, but I made some the other night and forgot how bright and tangy it tastes. It also is a base for many other great recipes including guacamole, green enchilada sauce and a new favorite of mine, avocado vinaigrette. Rick Bayless loves to roast his tomatillos along with serrano peppers, onion and garlic. This version is simpler, just boil the tomatillos and blend with onion and peppers, add salt and you have a wonderful base that will brighten up any dish.

Ingredients

• 6 Tomatillos, husks removed
• 1/2 onion roughly chopped
• 1 or 2 serrano peppers
• 2 Tbl chopped cilantro
• salt to taste
• water

Preparation

Place the tomatillos in a large sauce pan and add water to cover.  Bring the pot to a boil over high heat.  Boil tomatillos until soft and start to rupture.  Drain and move tomatillos to a blender.  Add the pepper (or peppers depending on how hot you like it, I would start with one and add more to taste), onion, cilantro and blend to a smooth consistency.  Add salt to taste, about 1 tsp and blend to combine and you are done with the base.  The salsa will still be runny while its warm, but will congeal as it cools, so you will have to add water to make your desired consistency, at thats it, you have great tomatillo salsa.  If you decide to roast (I broil) the tomatillos, peppers and onion, you will have a smokier but sweeter and less acidic salsa, just as good, but a different flavor.  Now after you have your salsa with chips or even better drizzled on fried eggs, here are other things you can do with your salsa:

Guacamole

Add about 3/4 of salsa to 3 mashed avocados and mix.  The acid in the salsa will help keep the guacamole green.

Enchilada Sauce

Heat 1 Tbl of olive oil in a sauce pan.  Blend the salsa in a blender to get is as smooth as possible. Pour salsa through a mesh strainer into the hot oil and cook until it is the consistency of tomato paste, about 10-15 minutes.  Add  water, stock or clam juice (the same amount as your original amount of salsa, if you started with 1 cup of salsa add one cup of liquid) to the pan and mix with the salsa paste.  Simmer for a few minutes to blend flavors and to slightly thicken.  Add 1/4 of cream and salt to taste.  This sauce can be used for Enchiladas, on eggs, really on anything.

Avocado Vinaigrette

In a blender, add 1 avocado, juice from two limes, 1/2 cup of salsa, 1/2 tsp salt, a few grinds of pepper, and blend.  While the blender is on, stream through the top olive oil until the vinaigrette is too the consistency you like, should look like the old green goddess dressing.  Use on any salad but great with grilled tuna with a black bean mango salsa.