Sunday, January 9, 2011

Gorgeously Green Tomatillo Cream Sauce for Beef, Chicken or your Chip Bowl



I made this up a few years ago to serve with Filet Mignon on Christmas Eve because I needed a backup for my mushroom mascarpone sauce (one of my nephews detests mushrooms.) I was panicked looking around my sister's pantry for something to make a sauce out of when I came across a huge can of tomatillos. I pretended I hadn't seen the expiration date (the tomatillos were as old as Jesus) and went with it.

The weird thing is this sauce is delicious served warm as an accompaniment to grilled or roasted meat as well as cold, straight from the fridge, as a dip for tortillas chips. But no matter how you prefer to eat it, it tastes even better when made ahead and chilled for a few hours (or even overnight.)

Pretty. Versatile. Improves with age. If this recipe were a woman I'd have to kill her.

Tomatillo Cream Sauce:

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil or butter
1/2 cup chopped onion
salt and pepper, for seasoning
1 (28 oz) can tomatillos, well drained
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 cup dry white wine or vermouth
1/2 cup sour cream
2 heaping tablespoons chopped cilantro or flat leaf parsley
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions:
Add the olive oil or butter to a medium heavy bottomed dutch oven and put over medium heat. Let heat through for 1-2 minutes until warm and add the chopped onions. Season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally for 5-6 minutes until softened. Add in the tomatillos and cook them in the onions, stirring occasionally for 12-15 minutes until the 1 or 2 of the tomatillos 'bursts' releasing its seeds into the pan OR until some of the onions begin to brown and stick to the bottom of the pan. You don't want them to start burning but some good browned bits are lovely. Add in the coriander, garlic powder, and white wine or vermouth and bring to a boil over high heat. Use a wooden spoon to stir the mixture, being sure to scrape up any sticky or browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Let boil away stirring occasionally until the majority of the wine has evaporated and the mixture is beginning to thicken - about 8 minutes.

Remove from the heat and let cool for about 10 minutes before adding to your blender to puree. Blend until the tomatillos and onions are all broken down, then add the sour cream, herbs and salt and blend again.

Taste to see if you need more salt or pepper, make any adjustments, blend again and serve. Sauce can made ahead and stored up to 3 days in the fridge in a tightly sealed container. Either serve cold if using for dip or reheat as a sauce over a low flame on the stove.

7 comments:

Siri said...

Thank you for ignoring expiration dates and admitting it. I think I love you.

Unknown said...

Ok...that sounds seriously good! You know me though, I'm a sucker for sauces!! And don't hate me, but I have yet to work with tomatillos!! AAAAA!!! I know, right? Well, maybe this will be the recipe that changes that!!

Brownieville Girl said...

I have never seen tomatillos for sale over here - but when I do .... top of the list.

Emily said...

This is fabulous! I love tomatillos, but never even considered using them for anything other than salsa verde.

Unknown said...

Tomatillos is on my list of must use ingredients, thanks for sharing!

velva said...

Isn't it great when you can search the pantry in hopes of making something work, and it works! Yeah!!! your tomatillo sauce is ingenious.

Cheers.
Velva

Mary Bergfeld said...

What a beautiful sauce. One of my favorite dishes is chicken in poblano cream sauce and your recipe is similar to the sauce used there. I hope you are having a great day. Blessings...Mary