Cooking

Tomatilloes

When we were shopping for a produce box supplier, I distinctly wanted a farm that didn't let us choose which produce we would get. I wanted the surprise as well as the potential challenge of cooking with something I rarely use.

So I was excited when a bag of tomatilloes showed up, looking like bright green tomatoes encased in papery leaves. What would I do with them? What was the best way to prepare them? I don't ever buy them, because the cuisines that influence me are mainly French and Italian, not Mexican.

I looked up tomatilloes (which Melissa tells me are pronounced "toe-muh-tea-yos") in Elizabeth Schneider's Vegetables From Amaranth to Zucchini, an invaluable reference for dealing with "unusual" vegetables. Schneider (no relation) says that despite the name and the look of the firm fruit, they actually aren't that closely related to tomatoes. They're sort of their own thing. According to her, they can be used raw but are most often cooked, either by poaching until tender or by roasting.

I wish I could claim I did something really creative with my bag of tomatilloes, but I did what pretty much everyone does: I made salsa. In particular, an adaptation of the tomatillo, grape and mint salsa Schneider mentions. Correcting for taste with such a recipe can be dangerous, however. I made it way too hot (spicy) for my sensitive palate. To keep it edible, I added more grapes to bump up the sugar and liquid. Then, when I served it atop some pan-seared salmon the next evening, I also served some yogurt, borrowing the idea of an Indian raita and letting the yogurt mellow the heat of the salsa.

Melissa called the salmon one of the best combos I've ever come up with (I'm sure she meant to say "one of many great combos"). I laid the salmon atop a bed of fried asparagus, dredging the stalks in flour, buttermilk, and then flour again before plunging into hot oil. I garnished with fleur de sel and shredded cilantro and mint. Even I have to grudgingly admit that it was all pretty good. Figuring few wines would stand up to the heat of the salsa, I opted for beer, Saison Dupont from the exquisite Brasserie Dupont. Beer handles spice well: it's not a coincidence that diners in the tropical regions that tend to favor chiles prefer to drink beer with their meals. That, and the fact that beer is served cold and that grapes don't fare well in tropical climates.

Anyway, it was fun to cook with a brand-new ingredient. I'm even tempted to pick up some more tomatilloes soon.

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Cooking