
green goddess. when i was a child this was my favorite dressing. it came in a jar from the grocery store and it was expensive so we rarely had it in the house. i never knew what was in it or how it was made, just that it was delicious and creamy and exotic. a delicacy saved for special occasions. when i grew up and switched my allegiance to vinaigrettes i reserved a small nostalgic spot in my heart for green goddess. but i still knew nothing about it's ingredients or it's recipe until i saw
this.
i bought everything i would need and whipped up this batch of beautiful green goodness the next day. i have no words to describe my happiness at tasting this. the mere knowledge that it was waiting in the fridge brought me a secret joy. seriously. it meant that much to me.
first i tossed my boston lettuce and cucumber chunks in the glorious richness. seeing it cling to every morsel so lusciously was a delight. i made mental notes for future meals... this would be good on rice or rice salad, tasty on
wasa with a boiled egg, delicious stirred into pasta salad brimming with fresh veggies - my week's menus were set!
but there was sweet corn on the cob steaming in a big red pot on the stove and it was making the apartment too hot. i opened the window and set the big box fan in the sill to blow the heat out (we have no exhaust fan) and turned to put my camera away. i heard the crash before i realized how windy it was and that i had forgotten to close the window on the top of the fan. it lay on the tile floor, covering two pots of african violets, it's plug yanked from the outlet. the first thing i thought was that i had just washed the darn floor yesterday. but i didn't use the word "darn".
clean up was surprisingly simple. one pot and both plants were salvaged and the dry dirt vacuumed up quickly. the corn was ready and as i tightened the lid on the jar of dressing i thought; be careful. i saw the jar smash in my mind. this sort of thing happens a lot in my head and i try to pay attention. it's called intuition and i believe in it's messages.
of course, you know where this is going... as i turned toward the refrigerator with one hand on the lid and the other around the sweating jar, it slipped from my fingers and shattered across the kitchen floor in dramatic fashion. the horrible sight of thick creamy green goddess-coated shards of glass all over the room was truly not the worst part of my instant shock. not even the fact that i had just five minutes before cursed and cleaned up a separate mess in the same spot. it was the loss of my beloved dressing.
truly. i still feel a keen sense of culinary mourning today.
oh well... let's make more green goddess together, shall we?
ina garten's green goddess dressing
in a food processor, plop 1 cup mayo, 1 cup chopped scallions, 1 cup fresh basil leaves, 2 cloves garlic, 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice, 2 teaspoons anchovy paste (or a few little fishies whole from a jar), 2 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper. blitz until smooooooth. add 1 cup sour cream and blitz again until blended.
store in a jar and handle with care!
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here.