gourmet babble: Roasted Tomatillo Sauce

1/2 - 1 lb tomatillos, husked
1/2 onion, peeled and quartered
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 - 2 jalapeno, poblano, and/or Anaheim green chiles, stemmed
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
1 1/2 cups vegetable stock
1 tbsp olive (or other vegetable) oil
1 tsp cumin, ground

Preheat oven to 400°. Place tomatillos, onion, garlic, and chiles in a roasting pan and roast for 12 to 15 minutes. Remove and transfer the roasted vegetables and any juices to a food processor; deglaze the pan with a small amount of water or stock and reserve. Optionally, remove the seeds from the chiles before adding to food processor. Add the cumin and cilantro; puree in food processor.

Heat a saucepan with the oil to medium. Pour puree and deglazing liquid into pan and cook, stirring constantly, until sauce darkens in color (approximately 5 minutes). Add stock and lower heat. Simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, until sauce thickens (approximately 30 minutes).

Notes: I didn't remove the seeds (sort of an off the cuff, on the fly decision), and I used one organic jalapeño and one organic poblano. The sauce ended up being spicy, almost disturbingly so; I actually gave myself a small bout of capsicum poisoning. I also got thrown off with the timing and failed to put the cilantro into the processor (I simply minced it by hand and added it to the simmer) and did not end up grinding any cumin (so I simply skipped it, which I rationalized by saying "it's already too spicy").

Notably, this was the first application of my organic vegetable stock. Also, I put a little heavy cream in the bottom of the pot after I had filled the storage container with the sauce. I mixed it those little bits of sauce that the spatula had missed. The resulting cream sauce/soup was still very spicy, although modulated to edible range, and was incredibly tasty. So the sauce can clearly be used as a base for a "Spicy Tomatillo Bisque"; however, when I tried the sauce straight with rice crackers, my palate started twitching. Perhaps an overnight cooling in the fridge will help (though I'm not terribly hopeful about that).

We'll see what happens as this unfolds. It sure smelled good on the stove, though, and besides the destructive spice levels (I know, I'm a wuss), it had a great flavor.

Posted by on November 19, 2006 10:38 PM | Permalink