Tomatillo Salsa Verde

When I get home, I lay my food out across my plate and get ready to dig in, but then I realize that I have 2 choices before me. This is not the choice between darkness and light (thanks Geddy Lee), but between red and green.

Being an ignorant white boy, I really have no idea what is in these little plastic jars of sauce, but I know that both have their perfect setting. The question now before me is which setting is the perfect one for each jar and for my head size burrito sitting before me.

I wish I had the perfect answer, but I don't. I usually end up putting both on my food. As I work my way through the burrito, the red salsa is what I think it should be, a nice addition to the food, but soon I get to the green side and I find that there is a richness to the green salsa that I cannot place, but that makes the food before me wake up with a new flavor, richness and taste that was not on the other side of the burrito.

I am not sure why I have never pursued learning how to make this, but I really never knew what it was except the green salsa at the Mexican restaurant.

My blind ignorance has finally been enlightened. We decided to have a Mexican feast for a birthday party. As we started telling our Mexican friend about what we were thinking of serving, we were laughed at and told that we don't know what we were doing (which was a very correct assessment). Our friend said that she was going to come over and teach us how to make real Mexican food and the first thing we need to get going is the salsa. This is not just any salsa, but this is what every Mexican grandmother gives her babies growing up. This is pure goodness that can be added to almost any dish to enhance the taste and make the flavor explode.

I wish that I could have been feed this as a baby, but since I wasn't I am at least glad that I have learned the secret and can pass it on to you.

Ingredients:

• 7 - Jalapeno peppers (large w/stems snapped off)
• 7 - Tomatillos (pealed)
• 5 - Cayenne peppers (dried/dehydrated)
• 1 tbsp - Salt
• 1 tbsp - Cumin
• 1/4 - Large Onion (chopped)
• 15 - Cilantro stalks (roughly chop the leaves & stems)

Directions:

Add the jalapeno's (with their stems snapped off), to a pot of cold water and bring it to a boil. The jalapeno's will have a bright green color and we are going to boil them till the color turns to a pale green:

Once the water is boiling, add the pealed tomatillo's. These will stay in the boiling water until they turn a yellowish, pale white:

Take out the tomatillo's when they turn this color and place in a blender to wait for the rest of the ingredients.

When the jalapeno's are turning to a faded green, a few minutes later, add the cayenne peppers and let them both boil for about 5 minutes more.

Remove the jalapeno and cayenne peppers from the water and add them to the blender with the tomatillo's.

Add the salt and cumin to the blender as well then using the pulse button in short spurts, start blending the mixture. After 8 -10 pulses, add the onion and cilantro leaves. Give the blender a few more pulses till the mixture looks like it does not have any large chunks, but also is not liquid.

You can see the consistency we had at the end.

After you arrive at the desired consistency, put the mixture in the fridge to cool. It will thicken a little as it sits.

This salsa is amazing on anything Mexican. We have used it to simply dip chips in as well as a topping for tamales.

Let me know how you enjoy it!