Salsa de Tomatillo Fresco

One thing that I've discovered is that tomatillos (Physalis) are amazingly easy to grow here in the Pacific Northwest, the only trouble being the eternally long wait for them to reach maturity. If anything, they seem to do much better than regular tomatoes, yield beautifully, and like any worthy plant, more or less take care of themselves.

Now we've reached the time of year where frosts are likely, and although we haven't had a serious frost, I've already seen some evidence in the garden of things that have been nipped a bit by the colder nights. This of course is motivation to get out there and pick anything that's ripe, and plan on doing something with it. The fact that work has been minimal lately makes this all the easier.

I tend to like my weird "purples"-I used to grow scarlet okra back in Tennessee (can't grow that here), purple potatoes, purple pole beans, and now Purple De Milpa Tomatillos. This year I grew Purple De Milpa Tomatillos that I ordered from Seeds of Change a couple of years ago.
Purple de milpa tomatillos (Physalis ixocarpa) have been a worthy addition to the club. Less needy than tomatoes, they get about knee-high with a nice purple tinge on the plant, and form lots of tomatillo husks that turn purple and fill out nicely with a tomatillo inside that starts out green, but becomes more and more purple as it ripens. Beyond starting them in my greenhouse, I don't do too much to them once they're in the ground except stand back and let them grow. If you want to grow them to make salsa, you would need at least three or four plants. They aren't determinate, they ripen one a time, yielding a few every day. Since I like to make salsa verde a gallon at a time, I just pick them as they ripen, and freeze them in bags until I have enough to bother with.

I always wondered how to make salsa verde, which I like very much, but have never found a commercial preparation that I'm especially fond of (too hot, or too salty, or too watery). Fortunately, making it from scratch is pretty easy, so long as you have tomatillos. I use Leticia Guerrero's recipe from Secrets of Salsa. You need a pound of tomatillos, cilantro, garlic, chiles, 1 avocado, and salt. I omit the avocado because those are very expensive here by the time tomatillos are ripe, but I bet it's good. I like to add a bit of lime juice. Her recipe calls for raw tomatillos, but I like to cook them first. My usual method is to put the tomatillos in my largest cast-iron skillet and let them slow cook in the oven until they get mushy. Then I drain off the excess juice, and toss them in the food processor with everything else and blend well. If I have enough, I put it in jars and can it. This year, I probably will just freeze a little.