Transcription
Thanks so much for joining me in my kitchen today. I'm going to make for you what probably is my favorite salsa in the entire world. I call it one of my desert island salsas because this is something that I would take with me to the ends of the earth.
It is made with tomatillos. I know a lot of people when they don't talk about salsa immediately in the United States, they think that it's going to be made from tomatoes. But I will say that there's a lot more salsa in Mexico made from tomatillos than with the tomatoes.
So you buy your tomatillos and you peel off that papery husk from them. There, let me just get rid of those guys over here. And you put them onto a baking dish. I'm going to suggest that you roast them rather than boil them. I know probably a lot of you have moms, grandmas, aunts that make this salsa by boiling tomatillos. If you love that flavor, do it. Okay? I love the flavor of roasted tomatillos much more, like they do down in Oaxaca.
So I'm going to roast them, not on a griddle like is most typical in Mexico, but under a broiler, just because I find it easier in my kitchen. I've got four cloves of garlic here. They are unpeeled because I'm going to roast those right along with the with the tomatillos.
Now let's think about flavor in tomatillos. The tomatillo is much tangier than a tomato. And even though tomatillo really means a little tomato, they're not real closely related. They're in that same big solanaceae family, but you know, so is eggplant, so is tobacco in that same family. So they're distantly related and the flavors do not reminisce, are not reminiscent of one another. Because this is going to give you a citrusy quality, which you basically never find in a tomato.
Now when you make a classic tomatillo salsa, and I make classic ones, talk to you a little bit about some variations, but I'm really a traditionalist when it comes to roasted tomatillo salsa. You've got to have some some chili in there. And then we'll talk about onions and cilantro in a minute. You could use a jalapeno, like the one that I've got here, or you could use serranos. Usually one of these to two serranos would be about right.
I'm just going to pull the stem off of this thing. And because it's kind of big and fat and I want it to roast along with everything else, I'm just going to lay it on the the sheet, cut side down, like that. And then I've got my broiler heated. I've got the shelf in the oven at the highest level, so that this this um sheet pan is going to be just four inches or so below the level of the broiler elements themselves. About six minutes on one side, six minutes on the other is very typical. Your your broiler may be different than that, but I'll show you what it's supposed to look like once they're done.
So these have cooled down now, because you want to blend this also once they've cooled. But what I have here is the roasted tomatillos with their juice all around them. Don't get rid of that juice at all. You see how dark they are? That really is what you're looking for. That creates a sweet balance. Think about roasting things, that always get sweeter. There's a sweet balance to their natural tartness.
And then I've got the garlic here that I'm just going to pop the skins off of. It should be soft to the touch. And you'll see that those that the pieces just kind of come away from that skin. It's a little, there's a little stickiness there, but not too much. And then I've got my last little one over here. And we are ready to put everything into the blender jar. Okay, I think that one's good. Got a little little dark on that side of it, but I think for it's going to be all really good. I'll get rid of these guys here.
Take the top off of the blender and then scrape everything in there, including all of the juice from the tomatillos here. And my friends in Oaxaca, when they do this kind of salsa, they say the more roasted the better. And I have to say that I kind of agree with them. I really like what the roasting does for us.
Now to put the top on there and blend everything together. Won't take very long at all, because I don't want it to be a smooth puree, just a little bit more than what we've got there. Okay, I think this is going to be about right. But let's just check it here. Put a spoon into it and let's see what that looks like. See, it's got a little texture to it, but it's not, but it's, it's not completely smooth, but it's nice. It's a bit easily spoonable onto a really delicious taco.
So the next thing that I'm going to do is just pour it into a salsa dish here. This is one that I bought actually in the market in Oaxaca. And then we'll talk about the last three things that go in here. First of all, we have to have salt in it. So let's season it with some salt. Well, first, let's get the consistency of it right, because that will affect the salt. So it's a little thick for me. In Mexico, the salsas are typically a little bit thinner because they're used more as a condiment than a chip dip. So you choose the salsa consistency that you want. But this is fairly common in Mexico.
And then I'm going to add the seasoning to it. There's no salt in anything here so far. So I'm going to give this a little taste and see if I got the right amount of salt in it. Nice and spicy with those really sweet, smoky overtones of the roasting. I think that's good.
Now let's talk about onion first, and then cilantro, because these are two ingredients that go in here that are very common. White onion, not yellow onion. That will give you that crisp, clean flavor that balances perfectly with the smoky roastedness of the the tomatillos. You can put as much or as little as you want in in this. I like small little pieces of the onion in here. So I'm cutting it a little less than a quarter of an inch dice, cutting just crosswise. So I'm using the structure of the rings of the onion to help me in all of this.
Now, how much do I want to put in? That looks like quite a lot to me, if you want to know the truth. But in any case, I'm going to rinse it off first. This is a standard procedure for me to do because, and it's common in Mexico as well, because what we're going to do is to take away that strong onioniness out of the onion. And it won't make the salsa taste strongly oniony really fast. So I'm going to step over to the sink and rinse under very cold water. This will also make the onion have a crisper texture to it. As I cut that onion, I created a sulfurous compound. I just need to get rid of it.
So I'm going to shake off all of the excess water here and then put as much of it in here as I think is necessary. I think I've got just a little too much onion here. So I'm going to put about that much. I think will be a good amount.
And then let's talk about cilantro. Cilantro, of course, is one of the classic flavors here for for a salsa verde. And I have sau cilantro that has been has been washed and dried. Dried is critical in this style of chopping cilantro. Just turn the leaves into a tight bundle like that and then start slicing crosswise. You'll notice I never pick up the end of my knife. I know exactly where it is all the time. And being right-handed, I have my left fingers curved under. And that's about the right amount of chopped cilantro for me for this. See how light and fluffy it is? I didn't do anything with the stems except chop them right with everything else.
So we lay that right across there and then stir it all together. And you have one of the most delicious salsas in the world. If you haven't worked with tomatillos very much, you're really missing out. Try it. This is great on steak tacos, chorizo and potato tacos. I could just go on.