Roasted Tomatillo and Wild Mushroom Sauce

This sauce goes with the pork tenderloin with mushroom spice rub, but it's a great sauce that would go great with all sorts of things—tamales, tacos, maybe even a dip for chips.

Tomatillos are sticky, and dry roasting them makes a real mess.  In our book, it's worth it for the flavor, but we feel compelled to warn anyone afraid of scrubbing (and scrubbing) a pan. Alternatives might be a covered gas grill using mostly indirect heat, or... ?  Really, we tend to think the flavor of this sauce is worth scrubbing the worst pan you've ever seen.  

This recipe makes about 2½ cups.

INGREDIENTS

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
  
• 2 cloves garlic
  
• 4 ounces wild or domestic mushrooms, sliced
  
• ½ teaspoon salt
  
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  
• 1 pound tomatillos, husked and rinsed
  
• 3 canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
  
• 1 tablespoon adobo sauce (from the canned chipotles)
  
• 1 cup cilantro leaves
  
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
  
• ¼ teaspoon sugar
  

DIRECTIONS

Heat the oil in a saucepan and sauté the garlic over medium heat for 2 minutes. Remove the garlic, season the mushrooms with salt and pepper and sauté until tender. Set aside.

In a separate sauté pan or skillet, dry roast the tomatillos over medium-high heat for about 20 minutes, turning often until they are browned all over.  Transfer to a food processor or blender, add the chipotles and adobo sauce, and pulse for 2 or three minutes, until the mixture has a fine texture.  Let cool, and stir in the cilantro, lime juice, and sugar. Adjust the seasoning and, if necessary, thin with a little water.  Transfer to a saucepan and fold in the sautéed mushroom mixture. Don't keep the sauce over heat once it's warmed through or the cilantro will turn dark.