I LOVE TOMATILLOS
It also helps that they LOVE my garden. Living in St. Louis I deal with Hot hot HUMID summers with dry soil. Turns out these conditions are steroids for tomatillos.
St. Louis has a very small hispanic population. They do have some great authentic (and some really amazing not authentic) Mexican restaurants. My middle-of-nowhere home town in northwest Iowa has some incredible Mexican food (considering the total town's population is 15-20% first generation hispanic). This fostered my love of tomatillos.
Sadly, high quality tomatillos are not easy to find in midwest groceries, at least not over the past 6 years. This led me to planting them in Wisconsin when I was living there. They were hearty enough to produce a decent harvest and made some incredible salsa verde. So when I moved to Missouri and found a discounted pack at a nursery, I planted them.
Three weeks later, I had two giant tomatillo BUSHES. Pretty sure I got laid that summer twice just because of the flavor euphoria my salsa verde imparted on all who ate it.
This year, I had a very hard time finding tomatillo seedlings. The nursery that had them the year before was no longer carrying them and every nursery I requested them from acted like I was a weirdo. Fortunately, early on in the season I realized I had about 30 volunteers sprouting up in my garden bed from last year. I went from no tomatillos to a full field in the matter of a week. I transplanted a few to a second bed a thinned the original volunteers to 6.
Even now with cool and wet conditions this summer, I still have a consistent harvest every 5 days form my 9 plants. With this abundance I have fallen into a tomatillo rut. The peppers this summer have not been great, making salsas sub par. I have forayed into tomatillo stir fries and pureed marinades. Due to the cooler weather, I have had much sweeter tomatillos without the strong tang that I'm accustomed to. Cooking to this flavor profile has been a challenge.
I had done the typical Google searches for creative and authentic ways to use tomatillos, but with very little result. It was all the general salsas, enchiladas sauces, chutneys, and a "surprise" addition to guac.
Due to pure laziness and refusing to go to the grocery store one evening, I created an insanely straightforward tomatillo sauce that had a drop dead flavor.
Simply made of: tomatillos, red onion, garlic, and lime.
In my second attempt to recreate this sauce, I decided to use it as a base for a broth to cook mussels. The flavors just made sense in my mind. BOOM. This created some of the best mussels I have ever had the pleasure to consume. (And you should know, steamed mussels are in my top ten favorite meals).
So here you are, the recipe for the original sauce and the instructions of how I modified it for the mussels. Enjoy and consume with no regrets!
Tomatillo Garlic Sauce:
This recipe came about from an over abundance of garden fresh tomatillos and the need for a super low calorie meal. (Stress eating is a bitch).
Ingredients:
Red Onion
Garlic
Tomatillos
Neutral high heat oil (grape seed, rice bran, etc.)
Salt
Lime
Dice garlic and onion into tiny pieces. Slice the tomatillos into 8ths or smaller. place in medium to high pan with oil and salt. Stir to coat, cover and simmer. Stirring every 5 minutes to keep from browning. Cook until completely softened and sauce has formed. Add lime while still warm but finished cooking.
Optional: When onions start to become transparent, add diced chicken. Great served over rice.
Steamed Mussels in Tomatillo Broth:
Red Onion
Garlic
Tomatillos
Neutral high heat oil (grape seed, rice bran, etc.)
Salt
Lime
Cilantro
Ground Coriander
Champagne or Rice wine vinegar
Chile flakes (or fresh chiles sliced thin)
Water
Mussels
Cook garlic sauce by directions above. One sauce is cooked, place in blender and puree. Add to deep sauce pan or pot with rest of ingredients other than the mussels. Cover and bring to a boil. ( i add half a squeezed lime, face down to the broth while it comes to a boil to infuse extra citrus. Discard before you add mussels). Add mussels and cover for a few minutes, until mussels pop open. Serve. - Remember to not eat the mussels that don't open fully.
Buttered, thin, toasted, crusty bread slices are the best vehicles for this broth.
YUM.
PS. Sorry there are no measurements. I have consumed far too much wine to accurately chronicle numbers. Just use your best judgement :) I use a shit ton of garlic. <----- standardized measurement
