salsa verde

Why do profound insights seem so stupid when you state them? Because they ARE stupid.

Olga handed me a jar that looks like salsa verde and really had me going in anticipation automatically planning a whole series of things around it. It is a great idea. It made me happy. Upon opening the jar at the critical moment it turned out to be brown lentils, what a bummer.

But the brown lentils are fantastic.

I'll make salsa verde myself. I probably have everything. What do I need? Tomatillos. I don't have those.

They're weird.

Tomatillos are not green tomatoes. They come wrapped in a papery covering, a type of protective connected petals with sticky film on them. They are a bit creepy getting at the shiny green firm tart tomatillo fruit inside.

In Southwestern cooking, the type mostly inspired by Mexican home cooks, the difference between green and red salsa is tomato goes in red salsa and tomatillo goes in green salsa. That is the only real difference. This same idea carries over into red and green chili.

That is the insight. You can make a pile of chopped onion, diced garlic, diced green chile, lime, salt and pepper. Then divide the pile in two and double the bulk with diced tomato to one half and double the bulk with diced tomatillo to the other, BAM, two distinct salsas, pico de gallo and salsa verde.

Incidental ingredients that would mark the preparations unique to yourself are; ground coriander, ground cumin, ground Mexican oregano, fresh cilantro, fresh basil, fresh mint, chopped chives, scallions.

This became clear to me only just now. After all this time I was thinking the difference between them would have more to do with the color of grocery chiles used but that is not so. Further, both red and green chiles can be used in both red and green salsas, and chili stews, there is no rule against it, and both tomatoes and tomatillos can be used in all those things too, no rule about that either. It gets down to what is the base for both types.  If the base is tomato, then pico de gallo, if the base is tomatillo then salsa verde.

It is something so simple and now that you know this you can prepare great batches with ease and fill jars of salsa verde, hand them out and spread the joy and excitement of salsa verde love all around. If they don't know what to do with it give them a bag of tortilla crisps.

On breakfast eggs.
On and in omelet
On rice
On potato
... mashed
... fries
...casserole
...scalloped
On hamburger
On hotdog
On pork chop
In taco
On tamale
On tostada
On enchilada

For starters. Here's the thing that impresses me so greatly. Just a few years ago had I looked up salsa verde to see what goes in it there would not be that many good images available. Mostly deplorable dark cell phone snaps. The photographs I look at today are improved tremendously and they keep getting better. People are learning all over the world how to take better photos. It was fun scanning down the results page and seeing how well people arranged their mise en place, a board or a tray with all the elements needed, showing at a glance "what goes in it." Over and over people do very well with no extraneous nonsense cluttering the picture. Interesting angles. Good composition. That is where I saw all the tomatillos piled all over the place in so many pictures all down the page and I was able to see in an instant the essential difference between salsa types.

How does this happen? A crop of tomatoes becomes ripe all at once. What to do with them? Add the usual things. The tomatillo bushes all ripen at once. What to do with them? Add the usual things.

So, now I need to go buy a pile of tomatillos to proceed.

Google Images:
[salsa verde]
[pico de gallo]