In my last two posts here on Hungry Blogger, I talked about how to make homemade lime cilantro vinaigrette that will make even the most basic salad ingredients delicious! I also talked about how to make authentic Mexican tortilla soup. The process really isn’t that hard at all and the result is amazing! In this post, I’m going to talk about how we made homemade tomatillo salsa. These are all recipes from Rick Bayless’ cookbook: Everyday Mexican.
You will need about a pound of tomatillos (6-8). These should be husked and then rinsed before use. You’ll also need 1/3-1/2 an ounce of dried red chipotle chiles (also known as moritas), 1 small white onion, 4 garlic cloves and a pinch of salt to taste.
First, my dinner companion roasted the tomatillo s in a pan for 5 minutes until they were blackened and hot on both sides. Then he let them cool and scraped them into a blender jar. Then he took the dried red chipotle chiles and roasted them slightly on the burner until they started to retain their original shape. Then he chopped those up and added them to the blender as well.
I peeled the garlic cloves and he roasted them in the same pan he roasted the tomatillos in to retain flavor. I chopped the onion into ¼ inch diced pieces and he tossed them into the blender with the roasted chiles and tomatillos.
We added all the ingredients together in a blender along with about ¾ cup of water. The consistency of the salsa was a little too runny for my dinner companion’s liking. Thinking quickly, I flipped to the end of the recipe and Rick suggested adding fruit for a sweeter taste. I dug out a green apple from the fridge and sliced, then diced it into very fine thin little pieces and tossed it into our salsa.
I have never tasted salsa that had apple used as a constituent, but surprisingly the taste was just a subtle sweetness. The apple really complimented the flavors of the other ingredients. It also served to thicken up the salsa to a better consistency. My dinner companion and I were duly impressed.
Simple tortilla chips and this salsa was a nice appetizer. We munched on it in the kitchen as we prepared the authentic Mexican tortilla soup. For more information about how to prepare the soup, refer to my previous post: Adventures in Cooking with Rick Bayless: Part 2.
No feast for two is complete without a terrific wine to compliment the dinner and to bring out the flavors. The wine we chose to pair our Mexican feast was a French cabernet called Lazy Bones. On the bottle’s label, “I don’t care if you call me Lazy Bones. I love to lounge away the day alone. Why mix with others when being myself is so beautiful? When the day’s at my pace, I can relish small pleasures like ripe cherries, spiced blackberries and the aromas of sweet wood and fresh herbs. After all, there’s no shame in putting off today what can truly wait ‘till tomorrow.”
This meal was an exercise in acting gluttonous for pleasure, sure. Though, when it’s the weekend, does it really matter? I think not.
Pasar bien!