Awesome Tangy Tomatillio Salsa Verde

This is a pretty traditional restaurant style green salsa or as a zippy tamale smothering sauce. If you're a heat fanatics, you can scale up the pepper count—I usually make it with three jalapeños and a habenero.

Prep time: 1 cocktail

1.5 pounds tomatillos, with husks left on

4 Jalapeños (or other hot peppers), whole

5 medium-sized cloves of garlic still in husks

¾ cup onions, chopped coarsely

10-12 sprigs fresh cilantro

Juice of 1.5 limes

½ tsp salt

20-30 fresh oregano leaves (or 1 tsp dried)

A good amount of fresh cracked pepper

Preheat oven to broil. Place tomatillos on a cookie sheet or baking pan. Pan should be big enough so that tomatillos aren’t too crowded. Broil tomatillos until the skins blister and they begin to expel some of their juices, about 10-15 minutes. Let cool a few minutes and remove husks.

Heat a dry frying pan over medium to medium high heat. Add peppers and garlic. Stirring occasionally, pan roast them until they blacken and blister a bit. The garlic will take about 6-8 minutes, the peppers will take a bit longer (it’s impossible to over-char your peppers, so don’t worry too much).

Remove garlic husks and chili stems. Put everything except the onion in a food processor or blender and puree. Once it’s relatively smooth, add onions and pulse a few times to break the onion up into little chunks. Adjust salt and pepper.

Refrigerate and serve. Flavor gets even better after a day or two.