Salsa de Tomatillo Asado con Chipotle: Roasted Tomatillo and Chipotle Salsa

On a recent trip, I grabbed a copy of Saveur to read on the flight. Most excited about a 2 page spread of different salsas, I immediately marked at least 3 that I wanted to make upon our return home. This roasted tomatillo and chipotle is the first of those.

I wasn't sure how I felt upon first tasting this salsa. The sour of the tomatillos seemed to clash initially with the smoky chipotle flavor for me (I've made this twice now, and realize I just didn't like too much tomatillo. 0.68 lb of tomatillo :-) and upping the garlic and dried chipotle it was perfect from the get go). Could also be that I was incredibly high off the Doña success and stuck on that flavor profile. That said, this new salsa quickly grew on me and Scott liked it from the get go. Super easy to make, and I gave half of the batch a quick addition of some agave nectar to serve over salmon...keeping the rest as is to eat with chips. Delicious both ways. It doesn't make a whole bunch, but you can easily double. OH and I almost forgot, I added in a minced chipotle in adobo for extra heat, since there really wasn't much to speak of from just the dried chiles.

Salsa de Tomatillo Asado con Chipotle:
(Adapted from Saveur Magazine)

8oz+ tomatillos, husked, rinsed and left whole (I think I used 6 medium to small)
7 cloves of garlic, left whole and you can leave them in their l'il skins til done roasting
4 dried chipotle chiles
1 chipotle pepper in adobo (my addition)
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
1/2 cup water
agave if desired...try splitting the batch and only adding to half

Preheat oven to 500.
On a foil-lined baking sheet, roast tomatillos for 10 minutes, flip over, then roast 10 minutes more.
While tomatillos roast, heat a dry cast iron skillet to medium-low on the stove top.
Toast dried chiles and garlic for about 10 minutes, or until there are some charred spots on the chiles and garlic, and the garlic has softened a bit.
Place tomatillos (and any accumulated juices), garlic, dried chiles, 1 chipotle in adobo and 1/2 tsp salt and water into a blender and blend until smooth.

Doctor the salsa with some agave if you'd like...it was very nice served over salmon with black beans and squash with this addition. Without agave it's great just scooped up with tortilla chips.
Great on eggs too.

Green Gold: Wannabe Doña Salsa

Green gold, crack sauce, call it what you will, I fell hard and fast for the Doña Salsa at our Taco Deli here in Austin from the first second it hit my tongue.

If it's too hot for you, you might want to consider moving back in with your mama. ;-)

This version will never keep us from making our weekly Saturday pilgrimage to the big TD, but it tides us over in the meantime. You can take out more seeds if it's gonna make you too painfully aware of how your innards are laid out...if you must. :-P

Oh and need I mention you'd be smart to wear gloves when dealing with the peppers? Specially if you wear contacts.

I'm submitting this to Ricki's Wellness Weekend Roundup on Dietdessertndogs...so make sure you check out the link for this week's collection of healthy, vegan recipes!

Wannabe Doña Salsa:
(Friend Debbie paved the way in knocking off this delicious concoction after we pinned down the ingredients list!)
yields ~3 cups

2 lbs jalapeños
2 large heads of garlic; broken up into cloves, but paper on cloves left intact
~1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 cup + 1-2 Tbs olive oil
1/4 cup + 1-2 Tbs canola, or grapeseed oil

After you've washed and dried your peppers and separated the cloves of garlic, preheat your oven's broiler to High with the rack in the uppermost position.

Line a heavy duty baking sheet with foil and arrange the peppers on it.
I sprayed the peppers and garlic with a light mist of canola spray, just use what you've got to oil them lightly.
Roast the peppers whole, turning as necessary, until they are sufficiently charred to peel.

You can roast the garlic right along with the peppers...I ran out of room until some of the finished peppers came off the sheet pan, so I started them in a cast iron skillet on the stove top.

Put the peppers in a bowl covered with plastic wrap to steam for about 10-15 minutes once charred.
Remove the garlic from heat once they've softened somewhat, peel and put in blender.

Once the peppers have steamed, peel them and at this point you can seed them. Really, leave a couple of them whole...you don't want a weenie Doña now do you?

Add oil (you can always add less or more oil, just keep tasting it as you go) and salt and blend the heck out it.
Done. Now quick...go find something to slather in it!

Tilapia with Mango Salsa

This is a nice fresh, no-brainer of a salsa that I posted ages ago (my 2nd post!) served with baked salmon . Would no doubt be wonderful on chicken as well. When it's so dagblam hot out (105!) nobody wants the oven on for long, so the broiler is my friend. Dirtying a grill pan just seemed like too much trouble, so I broiled the zukes too. And, we had a roasted sweet tater in the fridge that I turned into more of the insanely good chipotle mashed sweet potatoes.

Tilapia with Mango Salsa:
(Salsa from Cooking Light)

~10oz. or 3 small ripe mangoes, diced
1/4 cup diced red onion
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
~1+ Tbs lime juice
1 serrano pepper (I used a jalapeno this time) seeded, and minced
1 clove garlic, minced
~1 Tbs olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

~1 lb.Tilapia fillets
salt and pepper
olive oil
cumin, coriander, and garlic powder

Combine all ingredients for the salsa (mangoes thru s & p), taste, tweak, and set aside.

Heat broiler on high.
Lay fish on a foil-lined sheet pan.
Lightly oil each side of the fillets with olive oil.
Salt and pepper the fillets, then add a pinch of cumin, coriander and garlic powder over each as well (if you want).

Broil fishies for about 4-5 minutes, then flip and continue cooking until done. Usually just a couple minutes more.
Serve each fillet topped with mango salsa.

Chicken and Summer Vegetable Tostadas with Salsa Verde

I came home from a visit to my aunt's dairy in Colorado with 2 large bags full of her homegrown fresh veggies. Besides being inspired to start some kind of produce garden myself, I had to make sure I used every last veggie in something wonderful! One night we roasted the "fake out" peppers (look like jalapenos, but no heat) just like my Aunt Susan made them for me. Split in half, deseeded, broiled, then cheesed with a pepper jack and broiled some more. So yummy!
I roasted the baby eggplant too...again quite delicious. But the killer recipe was to follow when needing a use for her tomatillos and zucchini. I made Cooking Light's recipe for chicken, corn and zuke tostadas that called for store bought green salsa and instead used Simply Recipes' green salsa recipe.
I cooked up a batch of black beans and made a quick salad for a wonderful meal.
This was my first time (I think...) making green salsa and it was really easy.
At first the salsa as made was incredibly spicy, but it mellowed by the next day in the fridge to just the right heat level for us. I'd make it the day before next time, since I ended up putting less than the amount called for in the tostada mixture so as to not overwhelm the flavors of the veggies with heat.

The best part about making this recipe is that the next morning you get to eat migas with the leftovers! Just gently reheat the chicken veggie mix in a skillet and then add as many eggs as you want (I used 2 whole eggs and 3 whites). Then melt in as much pepper jack cheese as you want and serve with the leftover tortillas and beans. Topped of course with more of your fab green salsa!
I also had some leftover boiled red potatoes so I smashed them gently and fried them up in a skillet until golden brown on both sides. So make sure you have some just sitting in your fridge from a couple nights before too!

Chicken and Summer Vegetable Tostadas:
(Cooking Light)

1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoons canola oil
12 ounces organic chicken breast tenders
1 cup chopped red onion (about 1)
fresh corn kernels from 2 ears of corn
1 cup (or more) diced zucchini
1/2 cup green salsa (I used only ~1/4 since it was so spicy when first made...recipe follows)
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro, divided
4 (8-inch) flour tortillas (we used Central Market's multigrain tortillas)
Cooking spray
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese (we used a pre-shredded Mexican cheese blend)

Preheat broiler.

Combine first 3 ingredients, stirring well. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle the spice mixture evenly over chicken. Add chicken to pan; sauté for 3 minutes. Add onion, corn, and zucchini to pan; sauté for 2 minutes or until chicken is done. Stir in salsa and 2 tablespoons cilantro. Cook 2 minutes or until liquid almost evaporates, stirring frequently.

Working with 2 tortillas at a time, arrange tortillas in a single layer on a baking sheet; lightly coat tortillas with cooking spray. Broil 3 minutes or until lightly browned. Spoon about 3/4 cup chicken mixture in the center of each tortilla; sprinkle each serving with 1/4 cup cheese. Broil an additional 2 minutes or until cheese melts. Repeat procedure with remaining tortillas, chicken mixture, and cheese. Sprinkle each serving with remaining cilantro. Serve immediately.

If you're only cooking for 2 then you'll have plenty of chicken/veg mixture left for your morning migas! :-) It's hatch chile season around here, so I chopped 3 roasted chiles to add to the mix too.



Tomatillo Salsa Verde:
(Simply Recipes)

If you like a milder salsa, you might just add one of your cooked serranos at a time when you blend the salsa. Keeping in mind that it does seem to mellow out quite a bit after a day in the fridge.

1 1/2 lbs of tomatillos, papery outer leaves removed, washed and left whole.
3 serrano chiles, top cut off to expose interior and to remove stems, but otherwise whole
2 cloves of garlic
1/3 cup chopped white onion
1/4 cup chopped cilantro (packed)
1 tsp salt or to taste

Put the tomatillos and 3 serrano chile peppers in a sauce pan and cover them with water. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer.

Simmer until the tomatillos are cooked, and have changed color, but are not mushy, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
Use a slotted spoon to transfer tomatillos and serranos to a blender. Add 1/2 cup of the tomatillo cooking liquid to the blender, as well as 2 cloves of garlic, chopped onion, and cilantro and 1 tsp salt.
Purée until completely blended, 15 to 30 seconds.
Taste and add more salt if necessary. Pour sauce into a skillet, bring to a simmer and let simmer for 5 minutes. Then remove from heat.

Steak Salad with "Salsa"

Well...that's the last time I follow Central Market's reheating instructions blindly. Tasty, but way overdone steak! Grrrr.

This recipe assumes that you might have gotten 10 bucks of "free" (gotta spend 40 to use the coupon!) food from Central Market's chef case. Faced with a number of goodnesses and no plan, I selected some basics...sliced flank steak, cooked rare so it could be reheated and some green beans almondine. I pulled from my pantry and fridge chickpeas, tomatoes, roasted red pepper, roasted fresh corn, chopped basil and lemon and they came together to make an Italianesque salsa to top the steak with. The whole works was laid on a bed of arugula and baby spinach simply tossed with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.
You really don't need a recipe for this after I just mentioned all the ingredients...but just for the sake of wasting more time before having to go to the gym, here it is anyway.


Steak Salad:

chickpeas, drained and rinsed (I used ~2/3 of a can)
corn from one large cob, roasted
chopped roasted red pepper, or in my case piquillo pepper since I had an open bottle
~6 large basil leaves, chopped
1 tomato chopped
lemon juice to taste
a couple glugs of olive oil
kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
arugula, baby spinach, or a combo
cooked flank steak, sliced

Combine chickpeas through salt and pepper and set aside to perk. Actually, I added to the chopped tomatoes to the salsa at the last minute, but whatever.


Cook your steak if you don't happen to have any already cooked steak hanging around your fridge. Put a big pile of greens on each plate, and toss with a little more lemon, olive oil, salt and pepper. Lay the steak on the greens and top with salsa.

Salmon with Mango Chili Salsa

Tonight we'll be having a great salmon recipe that I got from Epicurious.com. I'm making it exactly as written, but for the grilling. I bake the salmon on a foil-lined sheet instead. I also took them up on their suggestion of serving with a cumin flavored pilaf and grilled zucchini (used a stove top grill pan for this). I'll try to remember to take pictures before we scarf it up.


Salmon with Mango Chili Salsa:

Servings: Makes 2 servings; can be doubled.

1 10-ounce mango, peeled, pitted, diced
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup chopped red onion
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
2 teaspoons minced seeded serrano chili
1 teaspoon grated lime peel
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil ( I might have forgotten to put this in the salsa :-) . Don't think I put quite as much oil on the salmon as they did either. )
2 6-ounce salmon fillets

Preheat oven to 450. Combine first 7 ingredients in small bowl; mix in 1 1/2 tablespoons oil. Season salsa with salt and pepper. Brush salmon with remaining 1/2 tablespoon oil, season well with fresh cracked black pepper and kosher salt. Bake on foil lined baking sheet for 12-15 min. dependent on thickness. Serve topped with salsa.


Cumin Pilaf:

Servings: Makes 6 servings.

~1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 large bunch scallions, white part thinly sliced (1/4 cup) and enough greens finely chopped to measure 1/3 cup
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cups quinoa
2 cups water
salt to taste
pepper to taste
~1/3 cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Cook quinoa, cumin seeds and white part of scallions in 1 tablespoon oil in a 2-quart heavy saucepan over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, until scallions are softened. The quinoa will start to pop, about 3-4 min. Add water and cook as per quinoa box instructions, simmering covered for about 15 min. (I had to pour some water out at the end of cooking...so you might cut the water by a 1/4 cup). Fluff with a fork and add salt, and pepper, green onions tops, parsley, and a remaining TBS olive oil.


Grilled Zucchini:

I just sliced the zukes into slightly less than a 1/4 inch lengthwise planks. Dabbed with olive oil, sprinkled with salt, garlic powder and a tiny little bit of oregano and grilled in my oiled stove-top grill pan until done.