For the Love of Food

Way back in January I planted all my tomatoes, chilies, and tomatillos indoors so that they would be ready in May for planting.

Not many believed that I would succeed, but after seeing what I have harvested this year…there are no more disbelievers. It’s been a good year as a gardener and harvester of my small garden plot.

I decided to go with a sort-of square-foot gardening technique. I got a lot of questions and raised eyebrows. But, in the end, I was the only one with over 30 successful tomato plants and over 15 chili plants.

All of a sudden one day, everything needed to be harvested – it was all ripe – and we were all going on a trip to the US. We weren’t about to leave 4 lbs of tomatoes, 8 lbs of tomatillos (from 2 plants!!!), and 30 jalapeños to go to waste. Not when we could can them!

So, we got canning.

I had never made tomatillos salsa until this day. But, I found a recipe I was comfortable with (I was trying to find something that seemed like it would taste most like Freebird’s World Burrito’s Tomatillo Sauce) and I did!

Something else I learned from my first tomatillo plants: tomatillos can grown to be as large as a medium-sized tomato and are nice and citrusy, sweet, and tangy. Who would have known that my tomatillos would be so much better and oh so different than those I bought in a grocery store in Texas and harvested the seeds from.

This sauce is oh so very easy to make and tastes great weather you eat it all right away or can it and eat it later. The canning does take away most of the taste of the lime juice – so adding a squeeze of fresh lime juice before serving as a salsa would do it some good.

Also, since we grew our own jalapeños in Germany (which doesn’t have as many intensely hot and sunny days as Texas – heat makes chilies hotter!), when we seeded them for the salsa, we had a completely mild sauce – no spiciness what so ever. So, if your jalapeños come from a more mild climate and you want it a bit spicier, I highly suggest just leaving the seeds in.

without further adieu:

Ingredients:
3 lbs Tomatillos
1 Cup chopped White Onion
1 Cup packed diced Cilantro leaves
2 Tablespoons fresh Lime Juice
1/2 teaspoon Fructose (or sugar)
2 Jalapeños, stemmed, seeded(leave seeds in for spicier flavor) and chopped
1 Tablespoon Salt

Directions:
Preheat broiler.

Remove the outer husks from the tomatillos and wash.

Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Cut each tomatillo in half and place them cut-side-down in a single layer on the aluminum foil. Broil in the over for 5-7 minutes, or until the outer skin has just started to blacken.

Place the tomatillos and all other ingredients in a food processor and purée until smooth.

Let cool before eating.  Goes great in breakfast tacos, burritos, and with tortilla chips.

Makes 6 cups.

To can:

Place the jars in a pot with an insert for canning in it (so the jars don’t sit directly on the bottom of the pot) and bring the water to a boil.

Ladle the sauce into pre-cleaned jars to canning, leaving 1/2 an inch of air at the top.

Wipe down the edges of the jars thoroughly and then seal with a lid.

Carefully place the jars in the boiling water (use a protective glove that can stand the heat or use canning tongs) and make the the cans are completely covered with water over the lids. Boil for 15 minutes.

Remove jars from boiling water, wipe down, and set someplace room temperature where they will not need to be moved for 24 hours. Once 24 hours have elapsed, you can move them to where ever you’d like to storage them.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS