Roasted Tomatilla Salsa

Chip with roasted tomatilla salsa:

Seconds later:

There is something extremely appealing about green salsa: Its light, pretty color. Its delicious flavor. Its all around divine goodness.

These are the things that make tomatilla salsa great. Especially if it has been roasted.

Guero's Taco Bar here in Austin, has a killer tomatilla salsa. Their salsa was my inspiration. When I asked the waiter at Guero's what went into the sauce he said, "Tomatillas, limes and chiles." Except he said it in a very chill, cool Austin-hipster-waiter way.

I don't really know anything about salsa, or non-baking-related-cooking in general, so I went with a Gourmet recipe.

This recipe is a little involved, there's lots of onion and garlic and serranos and other lovely edibe things.

Also, the recipe didn't call for limes, but I added lime juice anyway, because I'm very adventurous.

Roasted Tomatilla Salsa

Adapted (barely) from Gourmet Today

2-3 serrano chiles

4 garlic cloves, left unpeeled

2 pounds fresh tomatillos, husked and rinsed under warm water OR 3 cups canned tomatillos, drained

3/4 fresh cilanto springs

2 medium onions*

2 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

Several generouse squeezes of lime juice

Preheat oven to 500 F.** Put chiles, garlic, and fresh tomatillos, if using, on large pan/cookie sheet/ tray, cook for about 10 minutes.

Peel garlic. Discard stem of chiles. Puree tomatillos, garlic, and chiles with remaining ingredients, in 2 batches if necessary, in a blender until almost smooth.

*2 onions simply seemed like too much, especially since they were uncooked. Use 2 onions if you aren't onion averse.

** The original recipe suggested using a broiler. By all means use one if you have one. According to Gourmet Today, "Broil two inches from heat, turning once or twice, until softened and charred, about 8 minutes.