P52 - Week 24 - Firehouse Salsa Verde

I've been hoping the opportunity to share this one would come up so that I could save the recipe somewhere easy to find. So this week, I present to you:

Mama G's Firehouse Salsa Verde


Ingredients
~ 1 1/2 pounds tomatillos, husks removed, split in half
~ 1 medium yellow or white onion, peeled and quartered
~ 4 or 5 chile peppers (I like a mix of Serrano and jalapeño chilies but I use whatever is in season or that I can get fresh), split in half - leave the seeds
~ 2 bunches of cilantro, tough lower stems discarded
~ 1 tablespoon vegetable oil (I use EVOO or grape seed oil)
~ Kosher salt
~ garlic powder
~ cumin
~ black pepper
~ cayenne pepper

Directions

1. Adjust oven rack to 4 inches below broiler and preheat broiler to high. Place tomatillos, onion, and chilies on a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet. Broil until darkly charred and blackened on top and tomatillos are completely tender, 6 to 12 minutes
2. Transfer vegetables and their juice to a blender, food processor, or the cup of an immersion blender. Add 1 bunch of cilantro. Blend in pulses until a rough puree is formed.
3. Heat oil in a medium saucepan over high heat until shimmering. Pour salsa into the hot oil all at once (it will steam and sputter - be careful!). Immediately start stirring and continue to cook, stirring, until salsa is darkened and thick enough to coat the back of the spoon, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat.
4. Finely chop remaining cilantro and stir into salsa. Add spices to taste - this part takes some trial and error. Go easy on the salt at first and add more as needed. I use the following rough quantities: pinch Kosher salt, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1/4 tsp cumin, 1/4 tsp black pepper, 1/4 tsp cayenne. But play around with it to get the flavor that YOU like the best.
5. Let cool, then serve!

I kid you not when I say to be careful on step 3 when you pour the salsa into the hot oil! That is how this salsa got its name - it's not incredibly hot on the Scoville scale, but the first 2 times I made this salsa I spattered a bit too much and we got a flame-up that set off the smoke alarms in my kitchen! My guys love to give me a hard time about that, but the salsa is still a house favorite!

Please note that the heat varies pretty widely based on the peppers. Even if I use 4 large jalapeño peppers, it can be very different from one batch to the next. If you are really worried about burning your taste buds, you can trim out the seeds, but I ALWAYS leave them in and never have I had a batch I would call more than "medium."

Anyway ... hope you enjoy this as much as we do!