Tomatillos: The taste of summertime

If there is one thing that tastes like summer, it is salsa verde.  It’s the perfect hot weather food, it’s super easy to make, and it just tastes fresh and green! Its pretty much my go to food in the summer. I make it for snacks and gatherings, and I put it on everything. Chips, eggs, meat, cous-cous,  you name it!  Currently that I have five thriving tomatillo plants in my garden. I planted a few last year, and they did moderately well, but not spectacularly… but  with a new year, more gardening experience, good intentions, and visions of salsa verde, I made another attempt this year.

The two plants I purchased did really well… and then as I was getting ready to move from my apartment to my house, I noticed that I had about 15 volunteer tomatillos sprouting up, so I dug up a few, and brought them with me when I moved as an experiment. Why not? I was half expecting them to bite the dust,  but if they didn’t survive I wouldn’t be heartbroken.  Turns out they are now thriving, and now I have more tomatillos growing in my garden than anything else.  

Since I have tomatillos in abundance, I started to research other things I could make with them. As I mentioned, salsa verde is the perfect summer snack, but really, there is only SO much salsa verde you can make, so I’ve been trying to expand my tomatillo horizons.  They have this great astringent quality to them, and I really like the flavor… almost like green apple. And their texture is fantastic! Most recipes that I found wanted to use the tomatillos  to pair with Spanish/Mexican food. Delicious, but predictable... so I've been trying to do some different things with them. Lately I’ve been making fried tomatillos, sort of as a riff off fried green tomatoes… but I actually like them better, because the tomatillos are more firm, and easier to fry.

I love the different shades and shapes

You have to soak/ rinse them off before using them, cause they tend to be sticky/ slimy

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Sunset Magazine recently featured a recipe for pickled tomatillos, which have been dying to try, and they also suggested putting them in a grilled cheese sandwich with bacon (which I did, and it was delicious).  I’ve always been a bit fearful of pickling, but it seemed fairly straightforward, and they are just refrigerator pickles, so they were easy enough. I have yet to try them, but they look beautiful in the jar, and apparently they are a great accompaniment to bloody marys. I made mine on Wednesday, so they’ve been in the fridge developing some flavor… I have high hopes for them. 

Earlier in the week I was wanting a really quick meal, so I ended up roasting some tomatillos under the broiler, and blending them into a sauce. Probably the easiest sauce I’ve ever made, and the flavor was fantastic. I added in some grilled onions and a bit of salt, blended everything in the blender and voila. I just served it over rice, but the sauce had a nice richness to it, and I think it would actually make a great addition to any tomato sauce. 

Roasted Tomatillos

I still have tomatillos coming out my ears, and I think salsa verde will still be a staple in my house for the next several weeks,  so here is the recipe.

•  
• 2 cloves garlic, pealed
• Tomatillos (to taste…. 6-7?) peeled, washed and quartered.
• Bundle of cilantro
• 1 Serrano pepper, roasted
• Onion (again to taste… I never measure)
• Salt
• Agave nectar to taste.
• Avocado
• ½ lime

Put everything in a food processor except the avocado and lime.  Blend until desired consistency, add in avocado and fresh squeezed lime juice.Serve on anything and everything.

cooking for one isn't always fun

There are days when I find the most un-rewarding part of being single is the fact that I have to cook alone. Mostly it’s not a big deal, but on some occasions I find it rather annoying. You use just as many dishes, it takes just as long, and in the end, you eat alone, and then have to tackle the mess yourself. It’s a little anti-climactic. At least for me. I tend to forget about the mess, enjoy the meal, and then lose all motivation whatsoever. I go from delicious to disgruntled in a matter of seconds when hours later I wander back into the kitchen to find my dinner mess still there. (you know in Arrested Development when George Michal is sad, and he slumps home to the snoopy music? That is me, every single time.)  Its fine,  I’ll do the dishes… but sometimes it’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of work to plan a menu, to cook, to do the dishes… and sure, I enjoy it… but there are days when I’d much rather just eat avocado on toast for every meal, and call it good.  Cooking can be a hassle, and there are days when I feel like “If I’m going to go through all the dishes, and all the time, and all the cleanup, I might as well be sharing it with someone.” . I love playing hostess and I think that good meals are meant to be shared. But I also think that I was meant to have a sous chef… or at least someone to help with the dishes

We are still in the midst of the Oregon summer heat wave, so the thought of coming home and turning on the stove or the oven isn’t exactly appealing. But tonight I suddenly found myself with a little extra free time, I was hungry, and in the mood for something wonderful. I had eaten a snack of roasted green beans with a side of ice cream (its true kids, when you grow up you can eat ice cream for dinner… and you probably will) but I was in the mood for something a little more substantial. I ate out for lunch, so grabbing take-out wasn’t really an option. I could have just made some popcorn, or perhaps succumbed to the package of Top Raman sitting on the bottom shelf (it’s for emergencies… like lack of cooking inspiration Tuesdays or something) but considering that it’s Julia Child’s 100^th birthday, it seemed sacrilegious to dine on popcorn or Raman.

Instead I opted for quesadillas. Not exactly inspired by French cuisine, but at least I did turn on both the stove and the oven.

My first hurdle was that I was out of  cheese. Well not really, I have a block of cheddar cheese sitting in the staff fridge at work. So. Not. Helpful. I scrounged around and found some sliced Swiss cheese, and decided to continue on with my cooking endeavor. I put  some refried beans on the stove, and went out to the garden to harvest some tomatillos. I’ve pretty much been living on salsa verde for the past few weeks. Super easy, super delicious, no real cooking required. (AKA perfect in this heat wave) I was still feeling a little lazy though, and not wanting to soil the freshly cleaned food processor, I opted to make a salad rather than a salsa.

• 5 tomatillos
• 4 slices of jicima
• ½ avocado
• Handful of cilantro
• 1 ear roasted corn
• A few table spoons of chopped onion
• Freshly squeezed lime
• salt.

It wasn’t exactly a mind blowing meal, but it was satisfying, and at least the clean up was easy. 

Ice Cream and Air conditioning

It’s finally summer time in Oregon. You know, the two weeks of incredibly hot weather, that inspire everyone to run out and buy a kiddie pool and an air conditioner (check, and check, but I’ve had mine for a while… and I qualify them as bulldog necessities). I could probably survive without either of them, but my little wrinkly friend is having a rough time in the heat.

Its usually  about this time of year that I break out the ice cream maker. Over the weekend I had my first taste of Fifty Licks ice cream. Coconut Lemon Saffron, on a cone. It. was. perfection.  And so on this incredibly hot day, I got the ice cream maker out of storage and went to work.  I’ve actually been using  said ice cream maker quite a bit this year, but had yet to make ice cream (thank you Jay, for inspiring it to be a staple of summer time adult beverages. Frozen lemonade and vodka? Frozen rum & coke?). I didn’t do anything quite as innovative as Fifty Licks, no unusual herbs, spices, or ingredients,  but I did have an abundant Marion berry harvest, so I decided to stick with a tried and true recipe.

The Easiest and possibly most delicious ice cream you will ever make.  

(sorry all you vegans)

• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• ½ pint heavy cream
• ¼ quart half and half
• 2-3 cups of berries (I used Marion Berries, but I think blueberries would also be delicious)
• ¼ cup of sugar (mixed over the berries)

Mix ingredients together, Put in ice cream maker, and watch the magic happen.

 

It is so delicious, you might be like me, and not quite able to wait until it is completely frozen (I may or may not have eaten several spoonfuls while the machine was still running).  And the best part, is that I don’t have to leave the comfort of my air conditioned home, or wait in  line!