I’m trying to finish the last round of edits on Eating for Beginners this week, which is my only defense for posting so infrequently (though I’m sure my editor thinks it’s the best defense…). What this means is that in addition to working on the writing, I’m testing out all the recipes included in the book just one last time (though actually I intend to use all of them for the rest of my life since they’re the closest I’ll ever come to being as good a chef as David Shea).
One of the great fringe benefits of working for a year in a restaurant kitchen where they don’t use recipes (in order to get them for the book I had to cobble the ingredients and measurements together either on my own or with some help from David) is that you become less recipe-dependent, which, at least for me has been incredibly freeing. I now forge ahead boldly, and often disastrously, into attempts to replicate dishes I’ve eaten in restaurants or at dinner parties. Sometimes I ask for the ingredients, sometimes I just wing it (see: disastrously).
Back in March, I had the pleasure of eating rack of lamb doused in something herby and incredible that the woman who made it, Lucy Gordon, just called “green sauce.” Lucy is Scottish, but I’m pretty sure this sauce, which is basically a salsa verde, isn’t. What I am sure of is that it is very, very delicious. The minute I tasted it, I knew I had to find out how to make it and then put it on absolutely everything. As I said, we ate it on lamb that first night, but then I made it at home a few weeks later and we ate it on chicken. And then I made it when we were in Stockholm with our friends and we ate it on salmon. After the first bite, our hostess there said: “What’s in this sauce? I could eat it on anything!”
So go ahead, try it! Put it on anything that comes to mind and see if it works. And then let me know.
Lucy Gordon’s Green Sauce
Equal measures basil, mint and parsley (at least a cup of each, more depending on how much sauce you need)
olive oil
lemon juice
anchovies from a tin, rinsed (3 if using a cup each of the herbs, more or less depending on the herbs)
capers
powdered vegetable bouillon
1. Blend the herbs and the olive oil in the bowl of a food processor or in a regular deep bowl using a stick blender until the herbs are well-minced. Start with about a quarter cup of olive oil, add more to get a thick, yet liquid consistency.
2. Now add the lemon juice, anchovies and capers to taste, plus a bit of caper juice if you want. Blend again.
3. Finally, add a pinch of vegetable bouillon powder and blend. Taste, correct for salt, lemon juice, etc.
4. If the sauce is not liquid enough, add water until it reaches the consistency you want.
5. Serve. On anything.
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