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Thursday, August 7, 2014

Too Many Tomatillos!



Gardening can be fun.  When we started our first Texas garden, we went the safe route with tomatoes and peppers.  As we got more comfortable, we tried zucchini and onions and garlic.  Then we expanded to peas and butternut squash and tomatillos .

The tomatillo plant is  can be found in a lot of Texas gardens and is native to Mexico. Maybe you've heard of the husk tomato or a jamberry or the Mexican green tomato? Those are other names for the tomatillo. 

The tomatillo pictured above has not fully ripened yet. The fruit itself grows within a paper-like husk and as the fruit grows to about the size of a really large cherry tomato, the papery husk will get dry and turn brownish. Most of the time you will know the fruit is ripe when it starts to break its husk, but not always.

The tomatillo itself is a bit meatier than a tomato and will be white inside. It can be utilized in many ways.  It is commonly fried, steamed, or boiled. In Mexico, people will add it to guacamole sometimes or use them in making "green sauce" because there is a slight citrus-type of aftertaste.

This year our tomatillo plants have really been productive.  So we've been on a path of trying to find new recipes to use them in. 

The best way we've found so far is in making our own salsa.  We started with chopped tomatoes and onions which we've grown ourselves. Then we raided the pepper garden. We used a mix of serrano peppers and habanero. We chopped these finely and added them to the mix. Then we harvested a few cilantro stems (again fresh from our garden) and finely chopped these as well to add to the mix.

Lastly, we add chopped-up tomatillos to our salsa mix, it added texture and flavor. It is ready to eat, but if you can wait a couple of hours, refrigerate to let the flavors marinate together.  

Yummy!  It was perfect with our favorite brand of tortilla chips!

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