Tomatillos

The other day at the Market Isela from Bautista Farms gave me some Purple Tomatillos. I have never cooked with the purple tomatillos before, I have only used the green. I am actually trying to grow some tomatillos, I have a purple plant and a green, but nothing is growing too well in my garden this year and the tomatillos are still not ready.

I think I got about a two pound bag of both types of tomatillos to try out. I was told by someone or possibly just assumed that the purple tomatillos were only purple on the outside and would be green inside and cook-up green. They are actually more special than that. They are a luminescent purple on the inside. When you blend them up raw they turn into a deep purple, as you cook them they transform into a dark forest green. I made some enchilada sauce with the purple and green tomatillos and when it was done cooking it looked just a little darker green than the normal tomatillo sauce. I poured it lightly over my hand rolled chicken enchiladas and baked until warm and melty with a little crispy edge on the tortilla. The coolest part was when I took out the cooked enchiladas and the watery part of the sauce that melted into the tortillas was purple. I had green and purple enchiladas, super cool! And the sauce had a nice rich tomatillo flavor. Here is the recipe that I use. It is really just something I kind of made up. I have tried other ways to make Tomatillo Sauce, like roasting all the ingredients in the oven first, or cooking the tomatillos down whole and then blending up. But I find that blending the raw ingredients first is just easier. Though roasted tomatillo sauce has a nice smokey flavor if you want to make the effort of roasting all the ingredients first.

Quick Tomatillo Sauce -

Tear off the husks and rinse well - Chop in Half - Pound and a half of Tomatillos (Purple or Green or Both)

Quarter an Onion

Peel four cloves of garlic

Wash Seed and dice - two mexican peppers or however many you want for spicyness

Wash and de-stem - two bunches of cilantro

Then throw everything into the blender in batches. I usually put the tomatillos, onions and peppers in the bottom of the blender so that it blends the watery items first then chops up the cilantro. I don't have a food processor, so this seems to work best. If I had a food processor I would just throw everything in at once.

Pour the sauce into a medium sized pan or small pressure cooker. Cook on medium heat for about 20 to 30 minutes. The sauce will change colors from a bright florescent green to an army greenish color when it is cooked. Add some salt and taste the sauce after it has changed colors. Cook to desired doneness. You can use this sauce for salsa with chips, enchilada sauce, chili verde or whatever you like to have green sauce on. If you are using it for chips and salsa, I would refridgerate to cool and then add some more fresh cilantro to perk it up a bit.