Fresh chile piquin salsa! How fortunate I am to have friends that remember me and share hard to find food ingredients with me? One of them being fresh chile piquin peppers. If I could bottle this fresh chile piquin salsa, I would have. I enjoyed every single spoonful and savored every bite of food that I garnished it with!
How was I lucky enough to have this fresh chile piquin you ask? My beautiful and generous friend and fellow food blogger, Mely Martinez! I know many of you know her and love her blog .
Mexico in My Kitchen is the name of her blog. It’s my go to source when I am researching authentic and traditional recipes of Mexico. A few years back, Mely and I worked on a brand campaign together and we were able to meet in person. Since then we have become very good friends and take any opportunity we can to visit each other. On this occasion, Mely traveled to NYC and brought me a few special things like fresh chile piquin and the beautiful bowl that I served it in. One of the perks of food blogging is connecting with people and making lasting friends. I am thankful.
Fresh Chile Piquin Salsa
Ingredients
- 1 pound of tomatillo milpero or regular tomatillo
- 30 fresh green chile piquin stems removed
- 2 cloves of garlic skins on
Instructions
Directions
- Remove the husk from the tomatillos and rinse off under lukewarm water. Tranfer to a pot of simmering water. Cook just until the tomatillos turn from bright green to an opaque olive color. Remove from heat and let stand while you prep the rest of the ingredients.
- Dry roast the chile piquin and garlic on a comal at medium heat. Remove the chile as it blisters and blackens in spots. Roast the garlic for 10-15 minutes.
- Remove skin from garlic and transfer to the blender with chiles and tomatillos. Add about 1/3 cup of the water left from cooking the tomatillo and salt to taste. Blend on high until smooth.
- Preheat a small sauce pan with 1 tablespoon of oil to medium heat for a few minutes. Pour in the salsa from the blender. Cook at a light simmer for at least 10 minutes. Cooking the salsa helps to break down some of the natural pectin found in tomatillos. This will prevent your salsa from congealing or clumping up once refrigerated.
While we were in the city(NYC), Mely and I searched for different Mexican or Hispanic markets where we would hopefully find some specialty or hard to find ingredients to take home with us. Thankfully, her son, David, didn’t mind driving us all over the city and beyond to find all these places. Lol! We had such a good time, shopping and eating and eating!
One of the food ingredients I found was tomatillo milpero! Tomatillo milperos are smaller, sweeter and more flavorful than the more popular large tomatillo used for salsa verde. I remember my Mom talking about the tomatillo milpero and how tasty it was for salsa verde. I only purchased 1 pound, but really wished I could have brought home 10 pounds! The tomatillo milpero is the size of a large cherry tomato with a husk and is widely used in Mexico for various recipes and especially for salsa verde.
For today’s recipe, I decided to keep it very simply. I added the washed tomatillo milpero to some water and lightly simmered it just until it begin to turn color. You never want your tomatillos to boil and burst open. The myth is that this will make the salsa bitter tasting. Plus you will lose some of that wonderful pulp inside and I wasn’t going to chance it. I make a habit to lightly fry my blended salsa for at least 10 minutes or so. This will cook out the natural pectin that you find in tomatoes and tomatillos. So that when you refrigerate your salsa it does not congeal of clump up.
I have a special love for chile piquin! My abuelos, Ismael and Sara Garcia, owned a big ranch in Higueras, N.L., Mexico. It is still in the family and my cousin’s still get to enjoy it. Two things that are abundant there at the ranch are Mexican oregano and chile piquin!! It’s been years since I have been able to enjoy any chile piquin from the ranch, but I was lucky enough to enjoy some of the oregano a few years back. I used it sparingly in different dishes and loved every bit of it!
There is just something about the bright and spicy flavors of chile piquin that no other chile pepper has! Want more chile piquin salsa recipes? Click the link below!
https://pinaenlacocina.com/chile-piquin-salsa-recipes/
A saved a few fresh chile piquin to enjoy with our food! I decided to pickle a small jar of them as well. I will share that on a future post.
What’s the first thing or food I enjoyed this tasty salsa with? Pork tamales!! I had fresh pork tamales at the time and I could’t wait to be enjoying brunch on this day!!
Guilty pleasure #1 is tamales with salsa verde, egg on top and more salsa verde!!!!!!!!!!!
So why not just call it salsa verde with chile piquin? Because for me the key ingredient in this salsa is that chile piquin!
I could have just enjoyed them with the fresh chile piquin salsa, but no! Lol!
This picture reminds me that I have tamales in my freezer!!! I see a tamal brunch in my near future!
Need some pork tamales for brunch? Click the link here to see my Chile Colorado Pork Tamales on site! https://pinaenlacocina.com/chile-colorado-pork-tamales/
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I am in texas and found a large bush of bird pepper they are all different shades of red can I use these
Absolutely you can use those!