In the Supermarkets: Tomatillas for a Green St. Paddy’s Day

Story by Paul Tuorto | March 13, 2010 | Tags: cary, Food, nc, Recipes, Supermarkets

Editor’s Note: CaryCitizen is thrilled to welcome Paul Tuorto as our food writer. He’ll be traveling around the local supermarkets, looking for the unusual and exotic, and putting together some recipes to add a little variety to our dinner plates. Who knows – maybe over time, we’ll come up with a “Cuisine de Cary”.

Cary, NC – My mission as the CaryCitizen Food Adventurer is to look through the supermarkets in search of delicious and exciting items the day-to-day shopper may overlook or, more often, just not know what to do with.

My first expedition brought me to one of the best known stores in Cary, Lowes Foods in Preston Corners.

One of the produce bins caught my eye -  it held a cornucopia of exotic Latin ingredients including Choyote Squash, Unique Fruit (a type of citrus), and my personal favorite, Tomatillos.

SOMETHING GREEN FOR ST. PATRICK’S DAY

Seeing as St. Patty’s Day is coming up, I thought these bright green gems would be an excellent maiden ingredient to transform into something simple and outlandishly scrumptious.

More closely related to gooseberries than tomatoes, tomatillos are a staple in Mexican cuisine but can be transformed into an array of dishes since they resemble tomatoes in texture and taste.

With the sun shining, I brought these little babies back to the homestead and posted up at the grill to transform the tomatillos into a quick and irresistible salsa verde.

THE RECIPE – ROASTED TOMATILLO SALSA WITH SHRIMP

Here’s a different spin on something green for St. Paddy’s Day. It’s so simple and quick – very little prep, no special ingredients, takes no time to cook. Fire up the grill and you’re good to go.

• 4 Large Tomatillos
• 2 Garlic Cloves (peel on)
• 1 Jalapeno Pepper (or habanero if you like it hot)
• 1/2 Sweet Onion
• Handful of Cilantro
• Salt, Pepper, and Olive Oil

Turn your grill on high. Peel the husk off the Tomatillos (that’s the papery outside) and rinse. Cut the onion down the center to create two onion-ring sized cuts.

Coat the tomatillos, onion slices, jalapeno, and garlic with oil and salt and place on the grill. Watch the garlic carefully, allow it to get a little soft, remove and peel. Remove the onion when seared on both sides. Remove the tomatillos and jalapeno once their skin has charred and allow everything to cool.

Peel the charred skin off the tomatillos and jalapeno (and remove the seeds from the jalapeno) and place in a food processor with the onion, garlic, cilantro, and salt and pepper to taste. Blend with a drizzle of oil until the consistency of your liking, I prefer my salsa chunky.

This recipe takes all of 30 minutes and is very easy on the wallet since tomatillos are often priced $1.99/lb or less! The salsa also works as a wonderful marinade for meats, or in my case, beautiful NC Coast shrimp (also available from Loews).

Simply peel and clean the shrimp, cover in the salsa and allow to marinate for at least 30 minutes. Skewer and grill on very high heat, about 3-4 minutes each side. Serve with some extra salsa for dipping.

For a step-by-step version of this recipe and more, stop by my blog GiustoGusto.

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