Salsa Verde

This is a wonderful recipe that uses green tomatillos. Tomatillos are Mexican tomatoes that have a papery husk around them. They have a very distinctive lime flavor that is thirst quenching on a hot day. Try this with iced tea and good quality corn chips.

Ingredients:

8-10 large, fresh green tomatillos, washed, husked, cored and fine chopped. 2 jalapeño peppers, stemmed and fine chopped with seeds. 2 large garlic cloves, mashed 1/2 cup spanish onion, fine chopped 1 cup cilantro leaves, washed and fine chopped 2 tsp. salt Drizzle of fresh-squeezed lime juice

Preparation: Place the chopped tomatillos in a bowl and add the chopped peppers and spices. Go easy on the salt, and taste often, keeping in mind that the ingredients will blend together over time – so do not overcompensate. Generally, the mix will become hotter if left to stand a bit.

Stir ingredients well and let sit at room temperature for 1/2 hour. If the water content of the tomatoes separates out in the bowl after a while, drain the salsa by placing it in a fine screen basket or colander and then place back into bowl.

Use a good-quality food processor when preparing salsa. You’ll save yourself a lot of time and produce more consistent results. Choose one with a large-capacity work bowl, strong motor and a pulse switch. Shown is a premium Breville® Sous Chef 12-cup food processor. The pulse feature allows you to quickly process ingredients with just a few pushes of the button. Note the consistency of the cut. The unit costs a lot more than your average processor, but you get what you pay for.