Fried Green Tomatoes- The fruit not the movie

Green Tomatoes, better known as tomatillos, or 'tomate verde' in Mexico, are a tangy, pale green, small tomato-like fruit usually covered by a papery husk (ours don't have the husk on them). They are related to the gooseberry and are not tomatoes at all.

They are generally a bit on the sour side and so you might want to add some sugar or honey to them. I use them exclusively for Mexican cooking, one of my two favorite cuisines to cook, Thai being the other. Bear in mind they contain natural pectin and so if you cook them they will thicken the sauce once it cools.

In this weather I would recommend preparing a nice salsa or sauce for enchiladas. It just adds such a unique taste to the food you serve it with. I often grow them in my garden and they do quite well in Vancouver weather.

Tomatillos are highly nutritional and very low in calories. One medium raw tomatillo contains only 11 calories. However, it packs 91 mg. of potassium, 4 mg. of vitamin C, 2.4 mg of calcium, 2.38 mg. of folic acid, and 39 IU of vitamin A.

Recipe Ideas:

Salsa Verde (Yields apprx 1 1/4 cups)

I recommend cooking the tomatillos in a small amount of water for about 10 minutes on a slow simmer (bubbles just breaking the surface). Take them and the cooking liquid and blend them adding more water as needed to get a thick consistency. (it's always better to have it too thick as the old tale goes 'you can always add more water but you can't take it out').

1 cup cooked tomatillos
2 serrano chilies- minced (these are smaller than jalepenos and have more heat so use what you want depending on how spicy you like your food) A tip when using chilies is the seeds and white membrane contain a large amount of the heat so you can always remove these parts to tone down your food.
1/4 small white onion, finely diced
1 clove garlic, minced
cilantro- about 5 sprigs finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste

If possible do not use a blender to chop all of your ingredients as food reacts much differently when it is chopped with a sharp knife as apposed to being pulverised by the blades of a blender or food processor.

Take all the ingredients, mix em' together and add more cold water to reach the desired salsa consistency (you can also add a bit of sugar if you feel it is too tart). Try and use it the same day for ultimate freshness but it will keep refrigerated for 3-4 days. The multi-use sauce can be used on everything from burritos, eggs, rice, what have you.


Avacado Tomitillo Salsa (taken from the ReBar cookbook)

8 ripe tomatillos- diced
2 jalapenos, minced
2 garlic cloves- minced
1/4 small red onion, minced
5 sprigs cilantro- finely chopped
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 cracked black pepper
15 ml fresh lime juice
2 ripe avacados- diced

Combine all the ingredients except the avacados and toss in a bowl. About 1 hour before serving add the diced avacado and leave to chill.