oh tomatillo

Tomatillos...the nearly perfect fruit (vegetable?).

It's amazing how easy it is to grow tomatillos in Portland. You'd think this climate would be all wrong for it, after all, tomatoes barely do anything here without heroic interventions, but no. I've grown tomatillos the whole time I've lived here and it is fabulously easy and effort-free. All you really gotta do is stick them in the ground, and get out of their way. Heck, they'll even do you the favor of dropping a few extras and re-seeding themselves for the following year. Totally amazing!

So starting around the middle of September they start coming filling out their husks. First just one at a time. Then finally they get going with a vengeance and you can pick them every day. If you have 2 or 3 plants, you have enough to make salsa verde, one of my favorite things in the world.

Here's how:

As many tomatillos as you can get your hands on (at least a pound)
1/2 of a medium onion, chopped. I like to use sweet onions
fresh cilantro leaves to taste
1 Tbsp fresh lime juice (1 lime)
1/2 teaspoon sugar
salt to taste
Jalapeño peppers OR cayenne peppers to taste.
Salt to taste

1 Remove papery husks from tomatillos (I squeeze them and they pop right out) and rinse well.

2 Roast in your oven (in a skillet or pyrex pan) until they get all juicy. If you don't have an oven, you can cook them on the stove. Place in a saucepan with just enough water to cover, and bring to a boil. Turn off heat and let them stand. Drain off the excess water. Another possibility if you don't want to heat up the house is to cook them in a slow cooker.

3. Combine tomatillos, lime juice, onions, cilantro, chili peppers, sugar, etc in a food processor (or blender, or grind wiht a mortar/pestle) until all ingredients are finely chopped and mixed. Season to taste with salt.

I made a HUGE batch of this in 2006 and canned it (the day before a major freeze when I had to harvest the whole garden and bring it indoors!) and it lasted for well over a year. It was so nice not to have to buy that bland watery stuff they sell at the store. Homemade salsa verde, like most salsa, is so much better!