My family and I have always loved Mexican food, and I believe our appreciation for it stems from our temporary foreign migrant workers who assist us on our farm annually. Our workers come from Mexico, and they’ve been working on our farm for longer than I’ve been alive; our one worker, Salome, has been with us for roughly 35 years, and he has quite literally seen my sister and me grow up. These guys are family to us, and they often prepare authentic Mexican dishes for our family to sample and enjoy; I think it makes sense that we enjoy Mexican cuisine as much as we do considering it has been in our lives for a while.
Every year, our workers plant tomatillos in our garden. For the longest time, when I was a child, I couldn’t figure out what the hell they were – I just knew they were damn sticky based on my experiences picking them. It wasn’t until I was in my teenage years that our workers prepared some tomatillo salsa and asked us to try it, and I swear to God, my world was forever changed.
Tomatillos, for anyone unfamiliar with them, are referred to in Mexico as the Mexican husk tomato. The plant itself belongs to the nightshade family, and the plants produce small, round fruit known as tomatillos. Tomatillos originated in Mexico and were cultivated in the pre-Columbian era, based on what I read about its origin via Wikipedia.
When tomatillos are used in salsa, the salsa itself is usually referred to as salsa verde, which translates to green salsa. Tomatillos are green in colour, so the name tracks.
The taste of tomatillos varies depending on their ripening process; if they’re consumed early on during their harvest, they have a bit of a sour flavour, and this is when they’re used to make salsa verde. If you allow them to ripen further, they become sweeter in taste.
If you’ve never had the pleasure of sampling tomatillos, please consider this your sign.
Photo by Kim Daniels on Unsplash
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