Salsa!

Our CSA is now offering tomatillos, hot peppers, and husk cherries, so Andrew was inspired to make salsa! Using our favorite Mexican cookbook by Rick Bayless, Andrew made two different salsas:

1) Roasted Tomatillo Salsa (with husk cherries!):

Following Bayless' instructions, Andrew packed 6 halved tomatillos, several halved garlic cloves, a handful of husk cherries, and a jalapeno into a cast-iron skillet and roasted them on the stove top. When they were nicely roasted, he blended them with some salt and chopped white onion (he left this out of my portion, given my aversion to raw onions), and we ate this with rice, beans, and homemade tortilla chips. The husk cherries added a nice sweetness to the salsa, but did not overpower the tomatillo flavor.

2) Roasted Fresh Chile Salsa:

We have picked a variety of chiles on our farm and they are all pretty mild. For this salsa, Andrew halved the chiles (left in the seeds) and 4 garlic cloves, roasted them under the broiler until the skin began to blacken, and then blended this with 2 tablespoons of lime juice. Yum! The smell of roasting chiles in the kitchen was warm and delicious.

The two salsas mixed together were wonderful, as well, and everything tasted fresh and authentic...and brought back happy memories of home in Berkeley and our favorite restaurant in Chicago, the Frontera Grill.