The greens goddess makes green goddess

Those of us who are of a certain age (and you KNOW who you are: I do, too), will recall the craze of bottled salad dressings. There were actually two, parallel streams of salad dressing craze, in the 60s through the early 70s. One involved buying a cruet (not a bad looking one, I might add), together with a packet of dried salad dressing ingredients. You brought it home, and mixed it with your own oil and vinegar. It was, I guess, designed for people who REALLY needed help in the kitchen (my mom was one of them: we had cruets everywhere).
The second stream was the bottled prepared stuff. Mostly, these were thicker, colored dressings. Like Russian (very deep orange red), or French ( a lighter orange), or... the one that most intrigued us: green goddess. How to describe this color? Hmmm. Think of Pepto Bismol, yet green.

And yet... we bought it. We raved about it. We found new ways of using it. There were contests to see who could use these salad dressings the most creative way possible, and bread bowls were filled to the brim with soft cream cheese, mixed with dressing. Chicken was baked after it was coated with the dressing and breaded. And so on, and so forth.

Then, one day, while Annalena wasn't looking, many of these dressings disappeared. You can still buy some of them, but others, like green goddess, have to be special ordered.

As a joke, Annalena did in fact buy a couple of these once, for a dinner party. And watched, in abject horror, as her guests took the bottles and squeezed the stuff over her beautiful organic greens with white wine vinaigrette dressing salad.

Well, it IS a way to get people to eat their greens, I guess.

Anyway, for years, since the publication of one of Annalena's favorite books ("Chez Panisse Vegetables,"), she has been both attracted, and repulsed, by the recipe for green goddess dressing in that book. Perhaps it was memories of that bottled stuff that caused the repulsion, but I think perhaps it was the use of anchovies. See, Annalena did not (note past tense) like anchovies. So anything that used them, was avoided, even though restaurant chefs would assure her "oh, don't worry. It doesn't taste like anchovy pizza," and they were right.

Well, following the use of the anchovies in the shrimp gruel of a few entries ago, Annalena began to think "maybe they're right. " TAke that with a memory of a wonderful salad of soft lettuces and cucumbers, with green goddess dressing, from the "temple" in Berkeley (Chez Panisse), and the recipe came out again.

I have now made it twice. Let's not kid ourselves about it: this is RICH RICH RICH stuff. It is also, GOOD GOOD GOOD. It makes a lot, and you can use it for at least a few days, a little at a time (of course, you can also drown a salad in it and go into a fat coma, but that's your choice). I highly recommend this on salads, and perhaps you will find other ways of using it. For example, when you see the final product, you may thing "tartar sauce." And indeed, I believe it would work beautifully with a piece of fish. A coating for chicken? Well, let's see.

Very well, ragazzi. Here we go. You need half an avocado (use the other half in the salad you make), a half cup of heavy cream, 3/4 cup of olive oil (good stuff), and about 1/2 cup of chopped green herbs. These can vary, but if you look back at the prior entries, they too should be 'soft' herbs. Parsley (the flat leaved kind) is a must. You can then choose from things like cilantro, dill, tarragon (which Annalena has also begun to love), chervil, savory, and so forth. Use some judgement: you can use more of herbs like parsley and dill and cilantro that have somewhat muted flavors, and you must use less than that of the stronger flavored ones.

Put all of this aside, as you begin to make a dressing. In a bowl larger than you think you will need, put a chopped up shallot together with about 2 tablespoons of white vinegar, and the juice of half a lemon (you can add some lime if you like, but I find it unnecessary and, while we all probably have a lemon in our refrigerator somewhere, not everyone has limes).

Let the shallot sit in the acid for about ten minutes. Now the anchovies. Ten oil cured filets, please, with the oil cleared from them (just let it drip off). Chop them, and then add them to the vinegar/lemon juice mixture. Stir it with a fork, until the fish dissolves (and it WILL dissolve. I was dubious, but it does). Now, add the half avocado, and mash it into the liquid. Keep mashing: you don't want guacamole, you want soft MUSH. Keeping your fork going, stir in the cream. You will be amazed at how it incorporates, and then add the olive oil. Again, you will be amazed at how this all comes together. The avocado is almost a sponge. Now stir in the herbs, and know what? You are done. Sort of.

What do we do now? Sue has her hand up. We taste. And we probably add salt.

And we have two cups of the lushest salad dressing imaginable, in a beautiful green color, that will look beautiful on a salad. We ate it last night with purslane , beets and avocados, and the colors were really quite something to behold if you are into that kind of thing. If you're not, just eat. You may finally have a salad that you will like.

I designed this salad for my friend Ken, who unfortunately, did not get to taste it, due to illness. As he recovers, I keep this in mind, ginger, and we will sit to it, and so many things, when you are back on your wonderfully big feet and your gorgeous red hair is towering above me again.