Tomatillos

The little green things that you buy at the store that look like small, unripe tomatoes but are something different altogether. I can't seem to find any information about this fruit on the interwebs, like as far as how best to eat/cook. Just sliced one, with the intention of cooking on the stovetop with red potatoes are yellow onions. Hope I don't get poisoned!

Anyone have any suggestions about how best to prepare and cook these? Do you discard the papery wrapper in which they come enclosed? Maybe leave that on and cook in the oven? Any help is much appreciated!

I realize that a lot of folks typically use these to make salsa verde. Just wondering if they are/can be used in regular cooking.

Do you mean tomatillos?

If so, here's another information page - but try another search with the spelling I used and you should come up with a lot of info.

Tomatillos can be used to made salsa verde or salsa rojo. I usually roast them and blend with roasted garlic and chipotles for a great quick salsa. Also take the husks off and rinse them. They will be sticky, if not rinsed.

A good alternative use that I have found is gazpacho. I usually substitute it directly into your favorite gazpacho recipe for tomato and a more exotic fresh chile for bell peppers. You can roast these first as well.

Then when serving, you can use more Mexican garnishes like peptias, cilantro, avacado, nopales, etc.

Yes, thanks. Correct spelling helps immensely.

msmre wrote:Tomatillos can be used to made salsa verde or salsa rojo. I usually roast them and blend with roasted garlic and chipotles for a great quick salsa. Also take the husks off and rinse them. They will be sticky, if not rinsed.

A good alternative use that I have found is gazpacho. I usually substitute it directly into your favorite gazpacho recipe for tomato and a more exotic fresh chile for bell peppers. You can roast these first as well.

Then when serving, you can use more Mexican garnishes like peptias, cilantro, avacado, nopales, etc.

Thanks for the suggestions -- both of those sound delicious.

I have a salsa recipe here, that I'm particularly fond of. It's thicker and sweeter than the usual salsa verde.

The fruits can be eaten raw, especially the riper, paler ones. They have a flavor somewhat pear-like when they get to the pale golden stage (but the seeds are tougher then). They work well in salads and relishes.

They combine nicely with garlic, cilantro and lime, and can be used well with pork, chicken and fish (not crazy about them on beef, personally).

The general info (it's a curious group of plants) is here. It's hard to find tomatillos in Montreal, but we have a slightly smaller sister called "ground cherry" = "cerise de terre", which is very sweet and has a lovely fruity taste. It's treated like any other small fruit. You might keep your eye out for them, too.

Geo

I make a fairly basic Salsa Verde with tomatillos.

I slice the tomatillos in half, and put them on the grill with some onion, whole garlic cloves, jalapeno peppers(stems removed), & serrano peppers(stems removed). Grill for about 20 mins, and get a little char on all of the items.

I remove them from the grill, and throw them all in the food processor, add some lime juice, cilantro, and salt, and blend. Decently hot with a layers of flavor, and heat.

For a super-super simple salsa with them, I do the following:

4 tomatillos, halved
1 Serrano chile, chopped roughly
cilantro, lime juice, salt, and diced onion or green onion to taste

Add the tomatillos and chile to a blender and blend away. Pour it into a bowl and add the remaining ingredients to your taste.

On a horticultural note, I was surprised that the tomatillos in my garden start small (of course) but are encased in parchment-like shells that are much LARGER than the fruit inside. The fruit is now growing rapidly to fit the big shells, but as you can see from this shot, there’s still a lot of empty space in there. I’m guessing the shell is to protect the young fruit from insect or other predators.



On a generally related note, I woke up powerfully in the mood for fried green tomatoes, which The Wife kindly whipped up. Cornmeal, white flour, egg, some cayenne and paprika.



I ate probably a pound of these this morning. They were so good. As you can see in this shot, the fresh tomato is a layer of first harvest emerald deliciousness, cuddled by crispiness, fantastic.



Wondering if tomatillos could be similarly deployed.

Hammond

DH--what's the coating on those delicious looking things? Got a recipe?

No reason why tomatillos couldn't be used, but choose firm ones, I'd say.


Geo

Geo wrote:DH--what's the coating on those delicious looking things? Got a recipe?

All I saw The Wife use was the cornmeal, white flour, egg, some cayenne and paprika. She pretty much didn't measure anything, but probably 3:1 cornmeal to flour and a 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne and and maybe 1 teaspoon of paprika.

Tnx! We're starting to get some useful-sized green tomatoes up here.

Geo