Tomatillos, a Baja Safari secret ingredient!
Hints of lemon, apple and flowers, this native Mexican fruit enlivens summer dishes.
Making tomatillo salsa is a breeze. But for those short on time, we suggest our Baja Safari Salsa. It can sauce up fried eggs, baked potatoes, grilled steaks, roasted chicken and grilled cheese sandwiches. Take note of our authentic Baja Safari Mexico Club Favorites! • Recipes for Tomatillo-Avocado Salad, Mole Verde With Roasted Pork and Enchiladas!
The air blooms with a crisp green scent, as faint as an elegant perfume. Granny Smith apples and lemons come to mind, underlined by floral notes and a bright, acidic character. Our Master Chef slices a tomatillo in his airy “Office” kitchen. Others are stacked on the counter, ready to be boiled and chopped. The beautiful golf-ball-size orbs glow green, the color of fresh, young grass slick with rain. Tomatillos were a staple in his Mexico City boyhood. Today he depends on the fruit, indigenous to Mexico, to make lively salsas and his signature mole verde.
We tasted a green mole about three years ago and remember how the lovely pumpkin-tomatillo sauce draped over roasted duck, like a cape woven by Mother Nature. The nuttiness from the pumpkin and sesame, tempered by the tart tomatillo, was compelling. The sauce lingered in my memory with a dusky vividness. Recently a plate of enchiladas breathed life back into the memory of the mole.
Driven by the desire to duplicate it, I called our chef-owner, for a lesson in the basics. I’ve eaten tomatillo salsas countless times in restaurants but never learned how to use this member of the nightshade family in my own kitchen. The tomatillo is a cousin of the tomato. There are several varieties. In Houston, one generally finds large ones, slightly smaller than a baseball. “But these two tiny tomatillos have loads more flavor than a large one,” says the chef, holding out pinball-size specimens. In terms of tartness, aroma and intensity, the little guys come out ahead. Small tomatillos are from Mexico, while larger ones are usually from South Texas or California.
Only the large ones are available year-round. April through August, Ortega buys thumb-size tomatillo milba. In Mexico, this variety grows wild in cornfields, but those at the grocery are likely to be cultivated. Impossible to find in U.S. supermarkets is the cutomate, which grows during the rainy season and turns bright orange when ripe. It’s sweet but also intensely tart, Ortega says. With a slimy viscosity similar to that of nopales, cactus-ears, cutomates are used to make a salsa for tamales de elote, with masa and baby sweet corn. The smaller the tomatillos, the more expensive, says a vendor at the Tecate Farmers Market. The small ones run around $1.25 per pound, while tiny specimens the size of your pinkie nail cost about $2. These are usually available in October and November. The chef makes numerous sauces with tomatillos, including salsa verde, which also contains cilantro, garlic, serrano chiles, onions and avocado. The cilantro gives the sauce an incredible, glow-in-the-dark green hue.
To make it thick, he chops the tomatillos and cilantro in a food processor, transfers the mixture to a colander and allows the juices to drain. He then returns the mixture to the blender and purées it with the rest of the ingredients. How about quantities? Like many chefs, he guesstimates — a handful of tomatillos, a bunch of cilantro, one or two serranos, an avocado and salt to taste. We follow the instructions and now have a jar of salsa on hand to eat with fried eggs or drizzle onto leftover roast chicken. Throw in a few store-bought corn tortillas and I’ll have a quick, simple dinner. After the salsa-verde lesson, we made the mole verde, chicken enchiladas and tomatillo salad, a family recipe we are willing to share only if we credited its creator.
Tossed with lime and olive oil, the salad turned out to be simple yet layered with flavors similar to the crunch of Granny Smith apple mingled with sharp white onions, cilantro, red bell pepper and serranos. The most time-consuming part of this preparation is removing the papery husk from the tomatillo. But that’s the beauty of cooking with tomatillos. Aside from peeling off the husk, it takes little to showcase this beautiful fruit. Let’s begin.
CABO CLUB TOMATILLO-AVOCADO SALAD
A great dish for the beach!
* Juice of 1 lime
* 1 to 2 teaspoons powdered chicken bouillon
* 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
* Salt to taste
* 1 pound tomatillos, husks removed, quartered
* 1/2 medium onion, diced
* 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
* 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
* 1 to 2 serrano peppers, chopped or sliced thin
* 1 avocado, sliced thin To make the dressing, whisk together the lime juice and chicken bouillon.
Add the olive oil, and season with salt to taste. Place the tomatillos, onion, bell pepper, cilantro and serrano in a bowl with half the dressing. Gently fold in the avocado and the remaining dressing. Serve immediately. Makes 6 servings.
BAJA SAFARI DESERT ADVENTURE MOLE VERDE WITH ROASTED PORK
A terrific dish made out in camp, under the Baja Moon.
* 3 pounds pork loin
* 2 to 3 bacon slices
* Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
* 1 tablespoon dried rosemary
* ½ teaspoon garlic powder
* 1 pound tomatillos, husks removed
* 1 cup pumpkinseeds, toasted
* ¼ cup sesame seeds, toasted
* 4 cups (1 quart) chicken broth, divided
* 1 to 2 serrano peppers (or more to taste)
* 6 romaine lettuce leaves
* Leaves from 1 bunch radishes
* 3 garlic cloves, chopped
* ½ medium onion, chopped
* 7 cilantro sprigs
* 2 cloves, ground fine
* 1 pinch cumin
* 2 tablespoons lard or vegetable oil
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Using a knife, make 3 long incisions into the pork loin. Insert the bacon into the incisions; in cooking parlance, this technique is called larding. Season with salt, black pepper, rosemary and garlic powder. Place the loin in a roasting pan and cook until done, about 1 hour or 170 degrees. Remove and set aside. Boil the tomatillos until tender. They will lose their bright-green color and turn yellowish-green. While they cook, grind the pumpkin and sesame seeds into a fine powder in a spice grinder or food processor. Mix with 1 cup broth; set aside. Put the tomatillos, serrano peppers, romaine lettuce, radish leaves, garlic, onion, cilantro, ground cloves and cumin into the blender and blend until smooth; set aside in blender container. Warm the lard or oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the pumpkin-sesame mixture, and stir until it darkens and thickens. Add the remaining 3 cups chicken broth and cook over low heat for about 30 minutes, stirring frequently until it thickens. Allow the broth to cool slightly, then add it to the blender. Blend until the sauce is smooth. Season with salt and black pepper to taste. If the sauce is too thick, thin it with a little more broth. It should coat a spoon like heavy cream. Transfer the sauce to a large pot. Slice the pork loin, and add to the sauce. Cook over medium-low heat, just to heat through. Serve with plain rice or tortillas. Makes 6 servings.
SAN DIEGO SAFARI ENCHILADAS
* 1 pound tomatillos, boiled
* 1 bunch cilantro, leaves only
* 1 to 2 serrano chiles, to taste
* 1½ tablespoons chopped onion
* ½ garlic clove
* Salt
* 1 cup crème fraîche
* 1 dozen corn tortillas
* 3 chicken breasts, poached, cooled, then shredded
* Vegetable oil
*½ cup cochita cheese or Bulgarian feta, crumbled
* ½ red onion, finely sliced
Put the tomatillos, cilantro, serrano pepper, onion, garlic and salt to taste in a blender. Blend until roughly puréed. Add the crème fraîche and blend until smooth. Adjust seasonings if necessary. Transfer to a pot and simmer over medium-low heat. Keep sauce heated until ready to serve. Over medium heat, fry the tortillas, one at a time, in hot oil, about a second on each side just to soften; set aside. Fill each tortilla with chicken, and arrange on a serving plate. Ladle the sauce over the enchiladas. Top with cheese and red onion. Makes 6 servings.
Baja Safari NOW! Editor
