# Roasted Tomatillo Sauce



## JimCook (Jun 22, 2010)

If you're looking for a nice green-chile looking sauce, give tomatillos a shot. Here are the ingredients for the recipe...
1 pound of tomatillos, husked, destemmed
1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
1-2 tablespoons of brown sugar (more if a sweeter sauce is preferred)
3 cloves of garlic, sliced
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 Serrano pepper (or pepper(s) of your choice - see immediately below)


Depending on how much kick you like in a sauce, feel free to add the peppers of your choice. In my case, I use a single Serrano pepper (~5,000-15,000 Scoville units, give or take) that is prepared by removing all seeds and pith and then searing the pepper parts in a small, hot skillet before adding to the blender in the instructions below. 


Preparation


Wash the tomatillos (husked and destemmed) in warm water to remove sticky feeling. Place onto a baking sheet and place onto an oven rack that has been moved as close as possible to the flames (or use a grill in the same fashion). Broil the tomatillos for 1-2 minutes until some charring occurs, then flip and repeat for the other side. Caution - if you cook the tomatillos too long, they will turn into little piles of mushy juice. While the tomatillos may soften a bit and could 'weep' some juice out, mush isn't desireable. 


While the tomatillos are charring, prepare and sear your hot pepper(s).


When both sides have been charred a bit, remove the roasted tomatillos from the oven and turn off the broiler. Put the tomatillos into a blender along with any juice that may have leaked onto the pan. Place a medium skillet onto the stove and turn a flame to medium/medium-high so the pan is getting hot while you are prepping the remaining ingredients. 


To the tomatillos in the blender, add the garlic, hot pepper(s), salt, pepper, olive oil, and brown sugar. Blend for a minute or so until everything is smooth. Caution: The tomatillos will be quite warm coming out of the oven and this will make the blended contents quite warm as well - be careful. 


Pour the blender contents into the hot medium-sized saucepan on the stovetop. (Caution: It will splatter.) Let this cook with moderately-paced bubbling for 2-5 minutes or so. Transfer to a serving bowl and you're good to go. 


This sauce goes well with steak, salmon, or even just tortilla chips and is a great combination of sweet and piquance at the same time. It will look like a green-chile sauce and the seeds in the sauce come from the tomatillos. 


I'll post up pictures the next time I make it (the last batch was a gift for Father's Day this past weekend).


Enjoy,


- Jim


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## Waldo (Jun 22, 2010)

Sounds great Jim. Thans for posting the recipe


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## smurfe (Jun 23, 2010)

Now to find some decent tomatillo's. They have looked like crap the past month around here. Must be the off season for them as they are about a dollar a pound higher in price right now. I really figured they would be fantastic this time of year though. I really just need to plant and grow my own. We use them a lot.


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## JimCook (Jun 24, 2010)

Smurfe,


I just picked up another pound of tomatillos yesterday at a local produce market for $0.98/pound. I'll make some more of the sauce this week. Thankfully, it's a sauce (or perhaps salsa, technically) that stays just fine in the fridge. 


- Jim


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## smurfe (Jun 24, 2010)

They went from around $1.40 a pound here to $2.99 a pound almost overnight. Most all of the peppers went up like such as well. We have a huge Hispanic community. I guess I need to find out where they are shopping. My local grocery used to have a huge Hispanic food selection. They have really scaled it down so the locals are shopping somewhere else I would assume and they have lost business.


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