Monday, October 19, 2009
When Life Hands You Green Tomatoes...
I had lots of green tomatoes! I could have let them ripen, but I was craving chilaquiles con salsa verde. Since we don't grow tomatillos, the green tomatoes were the closest thing I could get. When living on the Island, we make due with what we have...or we drive two hours to get whatever it is that we need/want! Some days, a day trip is fun, but other days I'd rather just make due and improvise!
Living on the Island has really taught me the difference between WANTS and NEEDS. We can basically get whatever we need on the Island. The people who own the grocery stores or the hardware stores will always order things for you if they don't have what you need. We can also order things online and get them delivered to us. It's no big deal, really. Contrary to popular belief, the Island isn't really in the boonies. It isn't isolated. It isn't in way up in polar bear country either. Oh, and yes...we do have internet access and we do have postal service.
Now, for the Salsa Verde!!!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 lb tomatillos (I used green tomatoes)
- 1/2 cup chopped white onion
- 1/2 cup cilantro leaves
- 1 Tbsp fresh lime juice
- 1/4 teaspoon sugar
- 2 Jalapeño peppers, seeded and chopped (I used 4!)
- Salt to taste
2. Place tomatoes in a pot and cover with water. Cook tomatoes.
3. Once cooked (but not completely mushy), pour out hot water and rinse with cold water.
4. Remove skin from tomatoes. This is probably the most tedious part, but you don't want sharp pieces of the tomato skins in your sauce.
(You can roast the tomatoes or boil them. Roasting gives more flavour, but I
5. Place tomatillos, lime juice, onions, cilantro, chili peppers, sugar in a food processor (or blender) and pulse until all ingredients are finely chopped and mixed. Season to taste with salt. Cool in refrigerator.
I actually prefer green salsa over red salsa. I like dishes that are a bit tart. You can serve the salsa verde with tortilla chips or as an accompaniment to Mexican dishes. I always serve salsa verde with my chilaquiles!!
Oh, one other thing you can do with green tomatoes is...
It tastes JUST like apple pie, but with a bit of tartness! We had it for the first time at our friends' house the other evening. Our friend cooked up a spectacular feast and then baked a very unusual yet scrumptious pie! My friend baked an apple pie, and when she said "Oh, it's an apple-green tomato pie", I can only imagine what the expressions on our faces looked like!
I'm one for trying out new things and decided to take a chance. There's nothing I can't stand more than closed-minded people. What's the worst that can happen? If I don't like it, I don't like it. Right? Anyway, as odd as the combination sounds, the pie was DELICIOUS! I'm not going to post my friend's recipe, but here's one I find online. The photo has raisins in it. My friend's pie didn't include raisins, but I if you really like raisins, they would taste great in the pie too.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
From Our Farm to Your Table
Farmers Feed Cities
You Can Find Me Here!
Affiliates
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
Brand Ambassador for
For Fellow Bloggers
|
|
 |
 |
Proud Recipient
About the Blog Author
City girl moves to the country, falls in love, and marries a farmer. She tries to incorporate her city ways with her new country lifestyle and blogs to keep in touch with friends, family & students who live far, far away :) Can this city girl go country? Watch as she learns all sorts of exciting things about life on the farm and in a small rural community. *UPDATE* We are now parents! Our baby girl was born on Nov. 11, 2008 (at 28 weeks gestation- 12 weeks premature, but she's quite the trooper)!!!
Les Boutons!
Let's Connect
Subscribe To
Posts
Comments
Support
15 comments:
I tried the green salsa when you took me to Casa Mexico after work a few years ago- very different from red salsa! I don't know how you come up with all these recipes and dishes to make. How's the baby's birthday plans coming along? I can't belive she is almost a year old.Gimme a shout, I get home from work around 6 pm. Layta!
yummy! the green salsa looks really delish!
the pie looks good but i may be hesitant to try it just because...although i've eaten a lot worse over the years- live octopus comes to mind and some of my cooking these days
oh, my lantas! i don't even like pie and that looks and sounds deeee-lish!
T:
Yes, Casa Mexico in Toronto!! :) Love it! I remember...you had the enchiladas and I had the chilaquiles!
B-day plans for the baby are going great. I still cannot believe she'll be a year old in three weeks! :( Sorry I couldn't call you tonight! I just got home!!! I was out in the field this evening doing corn silage with Hubby. Flat tire, breakdowns, cows in the corn. I think I'll have to write a post about that! LOL! I'll call you tomorrow! XO
Dina:
You ate LIVE octopus!?!? Oh, my! Even I'M not that daring! LOL!
The pie was really delicious! You can't even notice the green tomato! In fact, if my friend didn't TELL us there was green tomato in it, we wouldn't have noticed. The tomato just acted more as a filler than a flavour to the dish.
Deb:
I'm not a pie person either...which doesn't bode too well here in the countryside! LOL! Seems like all the farmers' wives bake pies. Apple pie, raspberry pie, blueberry pie, pumpkin pie, chocolate pie, strawberry-rhubarb pie...
I have another confession...I'm not a bread fan either! Yet another NO-NO here! LOL!
That pie sounds divine. I would serve it and not tell a soul what was in it=)
love the green tomatoes, I hope i have some left as that sounds yummy, although i may eat too many nachos=)
Now, I love me some maters....but green maters????
And ya made a frikkin mater pie???
Next yer gonna tell me ya made a mater cake wid ketchup icing???
Now,seriously.....I'll take your word for it but it just doesn't sound right?
Jackie:
I thought of you when I posted this. I remember reading a post you wrote about a green tomato recipe you used. It's crazy how you can't even taste the green tomato in the apple pie! It's delicious! Who would have ever thought?!
Jimmy:
LOL! I had a feeling you'd say something like that! ;) I was a bit scared to try it too! I wanted Hubby to try it first! LOL! I got daring and curious, so I took a bite. It was soooo good! It does sound so odd and so wrong though, doesn't it? LOL!
Hmmmmmm...ya got me to thinkin'
Tomato....fruit or vegetable????
Wouldn't you know politics got involved!!!!!
According to Wiki....
"Botanically, a tomato is the ovary, together with its seeds, of a flowering plant: therefore it is a fruit. However, the tomato is not as sweet as those foodstuffs usually called fruits and, from a culinary standpoint, it is typically served as part of a salad or main course of a meal, as are vegetables, rather than at dessert in the case of most fruits. As noted above, the term vegetable has no botanical meaning and is purely a culinary term. Originally the controversy was that tomatoes are treated as a fruit in home canning practices. Tomatoes are acidic enough to be processed in a water bath rather than a pressure cooker as "vegetables" require.
This argument has had legal implications in the United States. In 1887, U.S. tariff laws that imposed a duty on vegetables but not on fruits caused the tomato's status to become a matter of legal importance. The U.S. Supreme Court settled the controversy on May 10, 1893 by declaring that the tomato is a vegetable, based on the popular definition that classifies vegetables by use, that they are generally served with dinner and not dessert (Nix v. Hedden (149 U.S. 304)).[39] The holding of the case applies only to the interpretation of the Tariff Act of March 3, 1883, and the court did not purport to reclassify the tomato for botanical or other purpose. Tomatoes have been designated the state vegetable of New Jersey. Arkansas took both sides by declaring the "South Arkansas Vine Ripe Pink Tomato" to be both the state fruit and the state vegetable in the same law, citing both its culinary and botanical classifications. In 2006, the Ohio House of Representatives passed a law that would have declared the tomato to be the official state fruit, but the bill died when the Ohio Senate failed to act on it. However, in April 2009 a new form of the bill passed, making the tomato the official fruit of the state of Ohio. Tomato juice has been the official beverage of Ohio since 1965. A.W. Livingston, of Reynoldsburg, Ohio, played a large part in popularizing the tomato in the late 1800s.
Due to the scientific definition of a fruit, the tomato remains a fruit when not dealing with US tariffs. Nor is it the only culinary vegetable that is a botanical fruit: eggplants, cucumbers, and squashes of all kinds (such as zucchini and pumpkins) share the same ambiguity."
word verf. herbilly
Jimmy:
LOL! Fruit/vegetable politics! So, if tomato can be considered a fruit, then it would be okay to combine it in dishes with other fruits, right? LOL! I used to be weird about not liking fruits and veggies together in dishes, but now I kind of like pairing certain fruits and veg.
I LOVE watercress and mango salad. I LOVE cranberries, strawberries, mango or pear in some salads. Pork chops are great with applesauce.
Funny word ver! Herbilly reminds me of hillbilly! My word ver is: gropries!
Oh wow those look so yummy C!
The salsa verde looks yummy, but I'd be the only one eating it here. I did make green tomato relish with my greenies though.
I will have to try the pie, that sounds like a great idea.
I like red salsa with my chips, but green salsa on my enchiladas. :) And that pie...I'm intrigued!
And not like pie? Who doesn't like pie? You and Deb are insane. Now cake I can live without, but pie rocks!
I think that technically, cucumbers are fruits as well. Maybe Jimmy can look it up for us. Makes me wonder about bell peppers...