Chef Lupita
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Salsa de Tomate Verde con Chile Perón
Created by
Michoacán's Meseta P'urhépecha salsa, built from boiled tomate verde and floral chile perón, martajada in a molcajete until it tastes like Pátzcuaro, Uruapan, and a wood-fire kitchen.
Sauces & Condiments
Mexican
Weeknight
Batch Cooking
Comfort Food
10 min
Active Time
12 min cook•22 min total
Yield2 cups
Michoacán, especially the Meseta P'urhépecha and the lake country around Pátzcuaro, owns this salsa. Tomate verde and chile perón grow in a climate that knows cool nights, pine smoke, milpas, and avocado orchards. This is not a generic salsa verde with any green chile thrown in. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
The chile perón is the authority here. Yellow to orange, thick-fleshed, with black seeds and that floral citrus smell that belongs to Capsicum pubescens, it is not jalapeño and it is not serrano. Those chiles will give you heat, yes, but they won't give you the highland perfume of Uruapan and Pátzcuaro. If you substitute them, say what you lost. No me vengas con atajos.
The women who taught me this in Pátzcuaro boiled the tomate verde and chile perón first, then worked them in a molcajete until the salsa stayed rough enough to cling to corundas. One señora served it in black burnished clay from Capula beside uchepos and a pot of beans. She watched my hand on the tejolote and told me, without smiling, that the blender was for people feeding fifty. For the family table, the stone knows better.
This salsa belongs with corundas, uchepos, pescado blanco when you can find it, roasted squash, beans from the olla, and warm tortillas from the comal. It is weeknight food, but do not confuse weeknight with careless. La cocina no es decoración, es trabajo.
Tomate verde, a domesticated Physalis species, has been part of central and western Mexican cooking since pre-Columbian times, long before the Spanish brought onions and garlic into the pot. Chile perón, also called chile manzano in other regions, is Capsicum pubescens, a cool-climate chile with black seeds that adapted strongly to the highland growing zones of Michoacán, including the Uruapan and Pátzcuaro area. The wood-fire cooking practices of the P'urhépecha kitchen were central to the Michoacán paradigm cited when Traditional Mexican Cuisine was inscribed by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2010.
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Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
tomate verde (tomatillos)
Quantity
1 pound
husked and rinsed until not sticky
fresh chile perón
Quantity
2
yellow or orange, stems removed
white onion
Quantity
1 small
quartered
garlic cloves
Quantity
2
unpeeled
cilantro leaves and tender stems
Quantity
1/2 cup
chopped
kosher salt
Quantity
1 teaspoon, plus more to taste
cooking liquid
Quantity
2 to 4 tablespoons
reserved from boiling the tomate verde
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| tomate verde (tomatillos)husked and rinsed until not sticky | 1 pound |
| fresh chile perónyellow or orange, stems removed | 2 |
| white onionquartered | 1 small |
| garlic clovesunpeeled | 2 |
| cilantro leaves and tender stemschopped | 1/2 cup |
| kosher salt | 1 teaspoon, plus more to taste |
| cooking liquidreserved from boiling the tomate verde | 2 to 4 tablespoons |
Equipment Needed
- •Volcanic stone molcajete and tejolote
- •Small heavy pot for boiling the tomate verde
- •Slotted spoon
- •Clay cazuelita or Capula black burnished clay bowl for serving
Instructions
- 1
Rinse the tomatillos
Pull off the papery husks from the tomate verde and rinse them under running water until the sticky film is gone. That film can make the salsa taste muddy. Choose tomatillos that are firm and bright green, not yellow and tired. If the market tomatillos are poor today, make another salsa. Pregúntale a las señoras del mercado.
- 2
Boil the vegetables
Put the tomate verde, chile perón, quartered onion, and unpeeled garlic in a small pot. Cover with water by one inch and bring to a gentle boil. Cook 8 to 10 minutes, just until the tomatillos turn olive green and soften. Do not boil them to pieces. You want their acidity alive, not washed out.
- 3
Peel the garlic
Lift everything from the pot with a slotted spoon and save the cooking liquid. Peel the garlic. Let the chile perón sit for one minute so you can handle it, then decide your heat. For a full Meseta salsa, leave the black seeds in. For a calmer table salsa, split the chiles and remove half the seeds. The chile perón is floral and citrusy before it is hot. That is the point.
- 4
Work the molcajete
In a volcanic stone molcajete, grind the salt and peeled garlic first until you have a paste. Add the chile perón and crush it against the stone until the skins tear and the juices run. Add the onion, then the tomate verde, one or two at a time, pounding and dragging the tejolote until the salsa is martajada, rough and spoonable. A smooth green puree is not the goal here.
A blender works for a larger batch, but pulse only a few times. The molcajete gives you bruised chile skin, crushed tomatillo flesh, and a texture that holds onto corundas and uchepos. The blender makes it thinner. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade. - 5
Season and rest
Stir in the chopped cilantro and 2 tablespoons of the reserved cooking liquid. Taste for salt. Let the salsa rest 10 minutes before serving so the chile perón opens up into the tomate verde. It should taste sharp, green, floral, and direct. Serve from the molcajete or a small cazuelita de barro. Así se hace y punto.
Chef Tips
- •Buy chile perón that feels heavy for its size, with taut yellow or orange skin. Wrinkled chiles have lost water and aroma. The smell should be fruity and sharp when you cut the stem.
- •Do not replace chile perón with jalapeño or serrano quietly. Serrano makes a useful salsa verde, but it lacks the floral, almost citrus peel flavor of chile perón and the thick flesh that gives this salsa body.
- •If your molcajete is new, cure it before using it. Grind raw rice in it until the rice stays white, then grind garlic and salt. Stone grit in salsa is not tradition, it is laziness.
- •For batch cooking, pulse the boiled vegetables in a blender for 2 or 3 short bursts, then finish by stirring in chopped cilantro by hand. Do not run the blender until the salsa foams.
- •This salsa should be bright and tart. If the tomate verde tastes flat, add a squeeze of lime at the end, but only after tasting. The market decides first.
Advance Preparation
- •The tomate verde, chile perón, onion, and garlic can be boiled up to one day ahead and refrigerated with a little cooking liquid. Grind and season the salsa the day you serve it.
- •Finished salsa keeps refrigerated for three days. The chile perón aroma is strongest the first day, so serve it fresh when the salsa matters.
- •Do not freeze this salsa. Tomate verde turns watery and dull after thawing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 60g)
Calories
25 calories
Total Fat
1 g
Saturated Fat
0 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
1 g
Cholesterol
0 mg
Sodium
290 mg
Total Carbohydrates
5 g
Dietary Fiber
2 g
Sugars
3 g
Protein
1 g
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