Selfie Does Papa Jose's Famous Salsa Verde
Note: When this originally posted, I was on a work trip and my phone just fully died on me so I had to do this from memory. Thankfully, the cloud exists and I actually did back all this up so this is the updated and originally-planned version.
With the whole Florida family in town this week, I decided to take advantage of one of Papa Jose’s classic still-pretty-secret-due-to-the-readership-of-this-blog recipes: his salsa verde. I have generally been reticent to make this recipe because unlike other tried-and-true recipes that I can make in my sleep, this one includes tomatillos which I would generally describe as weird, green, sticky tomatoes. But this salsa *kisses fingers to lips like a cartoon chef * is so delicious that I have previously, maybe*, politely requested that my father schlep said salsa from Orlando in his suitcase. Because the expert was on-site**, he gave us all the tricks and tips needed to not be intimidated while making this amazing salsa verde.
Tips:
S: What are we looking for when we’re looking for tomatillos?
PJ: When looking for for tomatillos, we’re looking for ones that are full in the skins. There are some skins that are more empty, they are very green. The sauce comes out a little bitter. The lighter the tomatillo and fuller the tomatillos, the sauce comes out a little sweeter which is what I like. The cooked tomatillos should look yellow.
S: What about color?
PJ: A lot of people don’t use as much onion which gives it this lighter color. I prefer this color and the taste.
S: Any other tips?
PJ: Yes, make sure not to add the cilantro until after you’ve fried the sauce and always keep some of the boil water to add to the blender. Very important not to blend it too thin. (We used the chopped salsa setting on our blender). Make sure to let things cool down between boiling and putting in the blender or you can damage the blender.
Another of Papa Jose’s tips is to use regular table salt. He really hates using kosher or sea salt because it’s too big. Legitimately, he will go out and buy different salt to cook at our house.
Papa Jose’s Famous Secret Recipe Salsa Verde
2.5 lbs of tomatillos, skins and tops removed***
2 Jalapenos, whole
1/2 medium onion, large pieces
5 cloves of garlic
1/4 cups of oil (I always use olive oil and definitely less than this. PJ normally uses vegetable oil and uses a sizeable amount of oil but he disagreed with my estimate)
1 cube of chicken bouillon
Handful of cilantro
Salt to taste -
Directions:
Remove skins and wash the stickiness off the tomatillos. You can leave them whole but you need to look the stems and the skin. Basically, it should look like a tomato.
Cover the tomatillos, jalapenos, garlic and onion in water and set to boil. Boil for 15 minutes.
Remove vegetables from boiling water to let them cool (for about 5 minutes). Save the water separately. And you can reuse the that same pot to fry the sauce.
Add vegetables to the blender and enough of the boil water for your blender to actually blend/to your taste for texture. PJ says he uses almost all of what he uses to boil, I feel like it might be about half of that but again, you’re looking for the consistency that you like so add a little and then add more. Use the water to “rinse” the blender to make sure you get all of the vegetable mixture our of the blender.
Heat oil and add blended vegetable mix back to your pot or a new pan to boil again. Once it boils, add a chicken bouillon cube in the middle and then taste after adding the chicken stock. Boil about 10 minutes. Papa Jose says just to make sure the whole pan is boiling and that’s enough.
After it has boiled, turn down the heat and add your handful of cilantro (the leafy part). Make sure to salt to taste. Papa Jose notes that we also use salted tortilla or corn chips^, so don’t make it super salty.
And that’s it! Seems intimidating but it’s super straight-forward. I always like to eat this salsa heated up and while it could last for up to a week, it never makes it that long in our house.
Let me know if you try out this recipe and what other recipes you’ve been intimidated by and maybe we can make them easier!