Roasted Tomatillo & Chile Morita

This is a promised post. I was negative on someone’s salsa without putting out my own and contributing to the sub. As an apology, here goes.

I usually make salsa as a condiment for dishes such as tacos, gorditas, memelas, tostadas, roasted meats, grilled fish, and so forth.

That is, as opposed to “chips and salsa” style concoctions. When I do those I usually opt for a simple pico, guacamole, or I add fresh chopped white onions, lime juice, and cilantro to a condiment style salsa to “chunky it up” for maximum chip-age.

As such, this salsa assumes that lime, cilantro, and fresh white onion will accompany during dressing and therefore isn’t included in the sauce itself.

De-seed a handful of chile moritas. Toast them in a heavy pan until the aroma fills the kitchen and the flesh turns lighter. Maybe 20-30 seconds. I press them down with a spatula and do them in batches, starting with the inside-down and flipping once to then toast the outside. Soak them in hot tap water for 30 minutes. I used a ramekin filled with water to weight them down.

Start the broiler on high and adjust the top rack to a notch below the top.

Remove the husks from the tomatillos and rinse them well in a collander. Place the tomatillos, white onion, and unpeeled cloves of garlic on a sheet pan. I usually eyeball about a 3:1 tomatillo to onion ratio. For this batch I wanted the brightness of the tomatillo and the smoky heat of the chile morita to be the star, so I only added a couple cloves of garlic.

These were very small tomatillos so I broiled for 4 minutes, the flipped everything, and finished for another 4 minutes. I put everything in the blender except the onion. I put the onion back under the broiler for 4 more minutes until it was done.

Blitz. I added back about 3/4 cup of the Chile soaking liquid. I add the soaking liquid and salt in 3 doses until I reached the proper seasoning and consistency. Sometimes it takes more or less.

I included the picture of the blender vs. molcajete to call out that you can go either way. This was a very smooth salsa, by design, so I chose the blender. When I’m making a chunkier, more rustic salsa I’ll go with the molcajete. If I am going that route I will say that dicing the onions, after roasting, will make the job much easier.

It’s super simple but very flavorful. It’s spicy without crippling heat.

I was lucky to find raisiny, leathery, beautiful moritas today at the market. That’s not usually the case in my area. When you find them stock up- they’ll maintain well in a Mason jar for about 6 months without drying out.

We’ll enjoy this batch tonight with enfrijoladas. Later in the week we’ll have chorizo black bean tostadas, and if there’s anything left by Friday we’ll drizzle it over a grilled pork loin. I’ll add a bit more roasted garlic, re-blitz, and fry/reduce it in a pan with manteca for the pork loin. If it lasts that long.

If you want it “hot-hot” throw in 3-4 chile de arbol, or really, as many as you like. The chile de arbol will also bring out the brightness of the tomatillos.