Blackened Tomatillo and Corn Salsa
We were in Eastern Washington over the weekend. First, in Toppenish for the Murphy family reunion, which is 60 people if everyone comes. 10 Murphy children + partners, kids, and now a fourth generation. When I'm there, I'm a "kid" and always will be. I thanked my Aunt Mary for organizing everything and said how nice it was just to show up. I have to be an adult everywhere else. For better or for worse, isn't that the way it is with family? We're always who we were.
Then we stayed with our dear friends Sarah, Dan, and Baby Micah on their CSA organic beef ranch in White Swan. Wyatt and Yancey got up early to help Dan weigh and measure the cattle, and Wyatt will be talking about it for a year. He was very serious about bringing pants and a long-sleeved shirt so he could look like Dan during chore time. I am in awe of Sarah and Dan's endeavor. Their first grass-fed beef will be ready in August, and they've been so value-driven and methodical in how they have prepared the land and built relationship with their neighbors. Sarah reports that if a subsriber buys beef from one of their cows, they are helping save 4 million gallons of water annually (!!!) because of the sustainable way their cattle are raised compared to conventional beef.
On the way home, we stopped at a produce stand. I got a a big box of corn, tomatillos, tomatoes, peaches, apricots, zucchini, cherries and sweet onions for $23. Is there anything better than driving with a bag of fresh cherries on the console? I don't think so.
We were starving after the 3 hour drive, so I made a huge bowl of corn tomatillo salsa which we had with nachos and guacamole. Then I took the rest of the salsa and tossed it with pasta, black beans, and feta for Yancey's food at the station tomorrow.
Seeing all my family this weekend, I was more aware than ever of time passing. My aunts and uncles seemed ageless to me for so many years, but everyone looked older this year. I suppose some folks might find this depressing, but for me, it's more a reminder of how we have just this one precious life. And, like dear Mary (Oliver, of course!) says, "I don't want to end up simply having visited this world."
Blackened Tomatillo and Corn Salsa
This recipe makes a LOT because I used it for black bean pasta salad afterward. If you don't have those kinds of plans for it (though more and more of you report thinking like The Leftoverist!) you can easily halve it.
10 fresh tomatillos, husks removed
3 cloves whole garlic
olive oil
10 roma tomatoes, finely diced
2 cloves minced fresh garlic
3 ears fresh corn, kernels removed
big handful fresh cilantro, washed and chopped
1 small sweet onion, finely diced
juice of one large lime (or more to taste)
salt
1 jalapeno, finely chopped (seeded if you don't want your salsa spicy)
Place tomatillos and whole garlic in a baking dish close together, and drizzle with olive oil. Broil for about 8 minutes, until blackened in soft in spots. Remove from oven and cool. Then put the mixture into a food processor and pulse a few times until you have a chunky puree. Or you can coarsely chop everything.
Heat a skillet on medium-high, put a Tb. of olive oil in to heat, then throw in corn kernels. Saute for just a couple minutes--you still want them crunchy, but not raw. Remove from heat and cool.
Combine tomatillo mixture, corn, and all other ingredients in a large bowl. Add more of anything to taste.
To make pasta salad with the leftovers: Combine leftover salsa with one pound cooked and drained pasta. I used farfalle. Add a can of rinsed and drained black beans, a few handfuls of sliced green onions, a diced red pepper, some pickled jalapeno rings, and a handful of crumbled feta or cojita cheese. Dress with a little olive oil and more salt. The salsa will have accumulated lots of juice while it sits, so that's the main dressing for the pasta.
July 5, 2009
Reader Comments (11)
Woo hoo for a green salsa recipe! El Sombrero has green salsa (by request only) and I love that stuff - can eat it for days. I also see tomatillos at MacPherson's, so that's next up. Oh, I totally used your lemon curd to make a tart today. Pastry, lemon curd, and topped with sweetened strawberries. I left it for the folks where we were housesitting. They loved it.
Long live the curd! (and I didn't even have any this time!)
Hi pds! If you want just green in your salsa, do the tomatillos and garlic like the instructions here. Then, add lime, jalapeno or serrano, salt, and lots of cilantro. You could also broil some anaheim chiles with the tomatillos or use some canned ones.
Well thanks to The Leftoverist™, I keep cilantro on hand all the time. So it'd be super easy for me to pull this off! YAY!
I heart fruit stands in Eastern Washington, and Green Salsa at El Sombrero!
Love all the pics and story. You really have changed our cooking life since you started this. There have been countless times where I create something out of nothing...remembering tips you have written about. I will say, "We don't have anything around for dinner..." or "What can I make without going to the store?
" Substitutions. Frequently used ingredients that give the food the right zing and flavor that was missing before. Making phad thai last night without sweet chili sauce, but using hot chili paste with brown sugar and a bit of rice wine vinegar and peanut butter. Using bok choy instead of kale or cabbage. Scrounging around in the back of the cupboard for old rice sticks that you assure me last forever. Thank you for all the great recipes and stories. Love you! xo.
What a fun time that looks like! So relaxing and idyllic, too.
Sounds like the perfect weekend. Your salsa and pasta salad look so flavorful!
I was having some of those same thoughts about aging the other day, but in a more panicky way than you are conveying here. There's so much I want to squeeze into this life! What if it doesn't all get done?
I will have to check out your friends' ranch. We bought a 1/4 cow from a grass-fed ranch in eastern Oregon about a year ago. The meat was wonderful. Unfortunately, we stored half of it in our fridge in the garage--the avocado green fridge my husband's family used in the 1970s--only to have the fridge die on use one hot August day. We didn't realize it until it was too late. The meat was literally warm, but my husband refused to believe it went bad so I labeled everything with messages like "death meat" and he eventually ate every last bit of it. He's still with us. That's good.
Loved the pic of the cherries in the console. We just returned from a conference in Minnesota, and we had a big bag of cherries between us the whole way. Love to travel with fresh fruit. New to your blog, but I can tell I'm gonna like it!
I love tomatillo. The salsa looks delectable, but I am jealous of the cherries. Yum!
love the peek of your apron under that bowl of pasta in the last photo. :)