salsa for galen

"who is galen?" you may ask. and the short answer is a guy i work with. a slightly longer version is that he's a husband, father, photographer, and kick-butt gardener, who even composts himself so that everything that comes out of his garden is completely natural. you can follow his exploits here, though they are mostly over for the year be sure to check back next spring to follow his plantings and adventures in the garden.

anyway, one day i came into the office to this:


he'd brought in several of his beautiful cherry tomatoes for me. they were the most perfect shade of red, and were sweet and juicy. seriously, i don't even eat raw tomatoes and i savored one of these. i knew that i had to write a recipe for them, but i wanted to make sure that it did them justice. i think this does...

ingredients:
a handful of amazing cherry tomatoes from a friends garden or a large package of cherry tomatoes
2 large shallots, thinly sliced
7 cloves of garlic confit, method to make this can be found here
heaping tablespoon of pickled jalapenos, finely minced
1/2 a teaspoon of sugar
splash of balsamic vinegar
splash of olive oil (feel free to use the garlic infused oil from the garlic confit)
sal gris
handful of cilantro leaves, chopped
juice of 1/2 a lemon

directions:
preheat the oven to 400.

quarter the cherry tomatoes and then mix them, the shallots, the garlic confit, the jalapenos, the sugar, the vinegar, the salt, and the oil together and place into a small casserole and pop into the oven. let this roast for about 15 minutes to let the flavors combine. remove from the oven and squeeze in the lemon juice and stir in the cilantro. add more salt to taste. serve warm.

notes:
this is great warm or cold. the heat here allows all of the flavors to mesh together, and the balsamic adds an unexpected sweetness to play against the spiciness of the jalapenos. this is now a hit around our house, whenever it comes time to make a snack the first thing the husband says is "how about that salsa?"

roasted tomatillo salsa

i love snacking...and one of my favorite snacks is chips and salsa. trouble is, i have a low tolerance for heat in recipes. i mean, i eat them, and enjoy them, but they tend to burn my tongue so much that i can't taste what i'm eating. i long ago discovered that i prefer "flavorful" to "hot".
this salsa is a little of both, and if you want to kick it up some, using a few more peppers will do just that. i've adapted this from the black bean tostados with roasted tomatillo sauce from the october 2006 issue of gourmet. most of the ingredients are the same, however, the process is much easier, and therefore, more practical.
enjoy.

ingredients:
8 tomatillos, husked and sliced in 1" chunks
3 serrano chilies (use more if you like more spice), seeded and roughly chopped
6 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
one large sweet onion, roughly chopped
olive oil
salt and pepper

directions:
preheat your oven to 400 degrees. place all ingredients on a baking sheet and liberally coat with olive oil, and then salt and pepper to taste.
bake in the oven for about 15 minutes, then remove and stir. return to the oven and cook for about 5 more minutes. you want the tomatillos to begin to break down, and the onions to caramelize.
remove from the oven and place all ingredients into a food processor, whiz up until the texture you prefer, and then chill. this will probably keep in the refrigerator for about a week...but it's so good that i'm sure it wont be around that long anyway!

notes:
i'm always antsy about "adapting" a recipe...i mean, how much do you have to change something before you can call it your own? i think anyone who has read the "proper" directions for this will agree that it's different enough.
this salsa is slightly sweet because of the tomatillos and the most beautifully vibrant green color...it would be a nice alternative to the standard jarred red salsa at your next get together.