Nicole Is Cooking

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(For earlier articles in the series, click on the following links: Part 1, Beets a la Fantôme Chocolat, Part 2, Peppers)

Fantôme Chocolat and I figured we would make a small batch of Salsa Verde and pickled tomatillos and a lot of a tomatillo/ tomato salsa mix with our tomatillo haul from vacation. That plan changed when Fantôme Chocolat got a taste of the first small batch of Salsa Verde we made. After that, plans to do a tomato/ tomatillo salsa were out the window faster than chips with very fresh and still warm Salsa Verde were going into our mouths.

First, of course, all the tomatillo husks had to be removed so here is a tomatillo food porn shot for you. I can’t resist because they just look so good. (If I had not come across the awesome little cucumbers in my banner photo that I will tell you about in another post, this would probably be my banner photo.)

Gratuitous tomatillo shot.

Then we did a small batch of Salsa Verde from The Joy of Pickling. It is composed of tomatillo, roasted peppers, onion, garlic, fresh lime juice, and pickling salt. The recipe calls for Anaheim peppers however, we used a selection of whatever we had on hand that was spicy. You can read about the roasting of the peppers in part 2 of the series which is linked above. Cilantro is typically included, but as suggested in the recipe I prefer to add the cilantro fresh when I serve it rather than add it to the recipe prior to cooking and canning. Roughly chop everything, throw it in a pot, bring it to a boil and then reduce it to a simmer for 15 minutes.

The ingredients ready to go.

Cooking away.

After simmering, the mixture is run through the food processor, packed in jars, and processed in a hot water bath.

After the food processor.

I dubbed our second batch “Salsa Sorta Verde” since it had more red and orange peppers in it.

Salsa Sorta Verde

In total, we had 11 4 ounce jars and 3 half pints.

4 ounce jars of Salsa Verde.

When we husked the tomatillos, we had picked the smallest ones to make “Pickled Tomatillos”. Fantôme Chocolat decided to core them instead of halving or quartering them. The tomatillos filled 3 pint jars and some sweet and hot peppers, garlic, and fresh oregano were added to the pickling jars.

The pickling liquid consisted of white wine vinegar, water, pickling salt and cumin seed. These are not hot water processed and are actually put in the refrigerator once they cool. They are also ready a lot earlier than the other items- only one week to wait which I completely forgot about until now… hold on while I go try them….

Back! Those are wonderful! They are crisp, slightly spicy, slightly tart and have a hint of the citrus flavor I like about tomatillos. I think they would be fabulous chopped up on a black bean taco or with just about anything you would use a cucumber pickle with. They stay up to at least 2 months according to the recipe. I suspect I will eat them before then since I only have 1 of the 3 pints we made.

The Tomatillo Totals (in pints):
Salsa Verde: 8.5 pints
Pickled Tomatillo: 3 pints
Total: 11.5 pints