including A Cook’s Tour of Mexico and Meatless Mexican Home Cooking, contributed this recipe. It was inspired from her work with Juanita Gomez de Hernández in Tehuacán. Nancy recommends serving it over beans, chunks of steamed green vegetables, or rice dishes. I like it in tamales. (For information on toasting vegetables and roasting large chilies, see page 35.)
6 poblano chilies
1 lb (500 g) tomatillos
4 jalapeños, stemmed, with seeds intact
1 white onion, quartered
4 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
½ lb (250 g) unsalted, raw shelled green pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
¼ cup (25 g) chopped walnuts or pecans
¼ cup (35 g) chopped almonds
2 cups (500 ml) vegetable broth or water
2 teaspoons salt
6 grinds of black pepper
½ cup (15 g) chopped flat-leaf parsley
Toast the poblanos. Peel, stem, and remove the seeds and put them in a blender container.
Husk the tomatillos and wash them. Toast the tomatillos and jalapeños on a comal and put them in the blender. Toast the onions and garlic and put them in the blender. Blend the vegetables.
Toast the pumpkin seeds (they will jump around and pop). Put them in the blender. Toast the nuts. Blend them with the pumpkin seeds and ½ cup (125 ml) water.
In a large, heavy pot, heat 1 tablespoon of oil. Add the seed-nut paste and fry it, stirring, for 30 seconds. Turn the heat down to simmer and add the tomatillo mixture, adding more oil, if necessary. Add the broth, salt, and pepper. Cook until all the broth is incorporated and the sauce is slightly thickened, about 20 minutes. Blend the parsley with enough water to purée and add. Taste carefully and adjust the seasonings. Serves 6.
Salsa Verde (Tomatillo Salsa)
This traditional green salsa is made from tomatillos. Try it with roasted or barbecued pork, scrambled eggs, tamales, burritos, and in tacos. It keeps for about 5 days in the refrigerator. (For more salsa recipes, see pages 127 and 130.)
20 large tomatillos about 1½-in (4-cm) in diameter
1 tablespoon oil
2 or 3 fresh serrano or jalapeño peppers, minced
1 medium white onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
¼ teaspoon sugar
Salt to taste
2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro
Husk the tomatillos and wash them. Put them in a saucepan, add ½ cup (125 ml) water, and simmer them, covered, until just tender, about 5 minutes. Drain, cool, and mince.
Heat the oil in a nonstick sauté pan and add the tomatillos, chilies, onions, garlic, and sugar. Cook the vegetables over medium heat, stirring, for about 5 minutes. Add the salt. Cool, stir in the cilantro, and serve. Makes 2½ cups (625 ml).
Although salsa is often made with tomatoes (left), tomatillo salsa (right) is a tasty— and green!—alternative.
sweet things
With a little imagination, your garden can enrich every meal of the day—and desserts, too! Sweet edible flowers and herbs can be used to add an exciting new dimension to sugar or honey and make delicious flavorings for fancy treats like jelly and flavored whipped creams.
Lavender Sugar
Making fragrant lavender sugar takes about a month. Use it to flavor cookies, lemonade, and hot or cold teas.
½ cup (15 g) dried lavender leaves and flowers
2 cups (450 g) superfine sugar, or finely ground granulated sugar (sometimes called baker’s sugar)
In a jar with a tight lid, mix the dried lavender and the superfine sugar. Shake it occasionally to equally distribute the sugar. After about 3 to 4 weeks the oils of the lavender will have flavored the sugar. Sift the mixture through a large strainer to remove the lavender. Store the sugar in its jar for up to a year. Makes 2 cups (450 g).
Rose Petal Honey
Robin Sanders and Bruce Naftaly of Le Gourmand restaurant in Seattle use this honey to make baklava, transforming an already delicious dessert into something divine. They also suggest using this honey in other desserts, meat glazes, and tea. When using rose honey in your favorite baklava recipe (Joy of Cooking has one; eliminate the orange water, though), also sprinkle a few chopped honeyed rose petals on the nut mixture and use fresh or candied roses as garnish.
Petals from 10 unsprayed roses, preferably the fragrant old-fashioned types, such as ‘Belle of Portugal,’ any of the rugosa roses, damasks, and the eglantine rose
1 cup (250 ml) honey
Rinse the rose petals briefly in cold water and dry them in a salad spinner. In a nonaluminum pan, slowly heat the honey until runny. With a wooden spoon stir in the rose petals, cover, and steep over extremely low heat for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and let cool for 15 minutes. Strain the honey through a fine sieve, and reserve petals for another use. Makes about 1 cup (250 ml).
Quick Rose-scented Geranium Apple Jelly
This is a creation of Carole Saville, author and herb expert. If you want a more strongly flavored jelly, add another scented geranium leaf to the recipe.
¼ cup (30 g) fresh raspberries
3 large rose-scented geranium leaves
One 10-oz (285-g) jar apple jelly
Petals from 18 rose-scented geranium flowers
In a pretty jar, rose petal honey can be a wonderful gift.
Place the raspberries in a strainer placed over a small bowl. With the back of a spoon mash the berries against the side of the strainer to extract the juice. Set the juice aside.
Wash and thoroughly dry the geranium leaves. Finely chop the leaves and tie them in a square of cheesecloth.
Pour the apple jelly into a saucepan and quickly bring it to a boil. Stir in the reserved raspberry juice, then add the bag of geranium leaves. Stir the mixture for 1 minute, then cover tightly, and remove from heat. Let the jelly cool for about 20 minutes. Uncover the pan and, with the back of a spoon, press the bag of geranium leaves against the side of the pan to extract all the juice. Discard the bag of geranium leaves. Stir in the geranium petals. Pour the still-warm jelly into a hot, sterilized jar.
