This recipe is well over 20 years old!

This is the most delicious and versatile salsa which can be used in almost any Mexican food recipe. You can make it milder or spicier than what this recipe calls for and the amounts are only approximations. Have fun using this salsa with enchiladas, chilaquiles, molletes, tostadas, sopes, flautas, chimichangas, burritos, chalupas, nachos, scrambled tofu, rice and beans… and more!

I had a food blog many years ago and this recipe was a guest contribution from my partner at the time. We would make this salsa together quite often. I remember the first time we tried on our little apartment stove and he tried to burn the tomatoes directly on the electric coils. We were cleaning burnt tomatoes from the stove for weeks. You live and you learn.

He turns 46 today and its probably been over a decade since we last spoke. We may not be in each other’s lives anymore but I can still honour the love we once shared by visiting old memories – and this is a pretty good one.

Ingredients

• approx 20-25 tomatillos (or 2 lbs)
• 2-3 fresh serrano peppers (or jalapenos if you can’t find serranos)
• 1/2 onion (of your choice, this recipe used 3 shallots)
• 3-4 dried morita peppers (soaked in hot water) – or dried chipotle peppers in a pinch
• 2-3 red tomatoes (this recipe used heirloom tomatoes)
• 1 cup of fresh cilantro, coarsely chopped
• 1 tablespoon of coarse sea salt
• 1 teaspoon of oregano
• 2 tablepoons canola oil
• 1-2 cloves of garlic (optional)
• 1 cube of vegetable stock (optional, only if tomatoes are not very ripe)

Yield: 8-10 cups

1) Using a flat, thick pan (could be a wok, cast iron pan, etc that you are willing to stain the surface. DO NOT USE TEFLON), bring the pan on high with NO OIL

2) Remove leafy covering and stems and wash tomatillos and peppers. Peel and cut onion into quarters, placing half the onion, all tomatillos, whole peppers and tomatoes on the hot pan.

3) Let the burn! Don’t be afraid about the smell or the colour, in fact the more they burn the better they taste in the salsa. You will need to turn them once while burning them. Essentially you are burning the outside and letting the inside come to a boil.

4) Remove the peppers first before they become too burnt and place in the blender. When the other ingredients are ready, place in the blender. Do not add water (as tempting as it may be).

5) In addition to the tomatillos, peppers, tomatoes and onion, put cilantro, soaked morita peppers (without water), salt, oregano, and optional ingredients. Blend to your preference of consistency – don’t blend too long or it will be too liquid.

6) Heat oil in a large stock pot on medium. Add the contents of the blender and let boil for 5-10 minutes. Turn off the heat and let thicken in pot.

7) Taste your salsa – if it’s too spicy feel free to add more tomatoes. The reverse, if it’s too mild, this is the time where you could add more peppers, but you need to return at least a portion of the salsa to the blender.

8) Voila! Salsa is served!

NB: There are several substitutions you can make with this recipe – there are many different types of dried peppers and many types of fresh peppers. Dried peppers you can experiment with include: Mulato, pasilla, cascabel, ancho, arbol, negro, etc. Fresh peppers you could try include: cubanelle, guero, jalapeno, thai – do not use bell peppers.