A Hungry Bear

Molly Wizenberg wrote about green goddess salad dressing in her Bon Appetit column last month, and I immediately wanted to try it (her writing has that effect on a lot of people I guess).  Until Molly’s article, I thought “Green Goddess” was just a brand of dressing made by Annie’s Organics, but I’ve never tasted it.  She waxed poetic about how great it was on a simple bed of romaine leaves or a piece of fish - so I made both.  I thought it was incredibly good.  The only downside was that it made a bit too much for us to finish, even after having it for 5 days in a row on various vegetables.  Next time I’ll make a half batch, but I’m  including the full recipe here as Molly presented it (adapted from Chez Panisse Vegetables cookbook).

Grocery list: 7 ounces ripe avocado (this was a whole avocado for me, minus a few brown spots I carved out), 3 T white wine vinegar, 1 garlic clove, 1 oil-packed anchovy, 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon fresh lime juice, 1/4 teaspoon sugar, 3/4 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup heavy cream, 3 T Italian parsley, 2 T tarragon, 2 T cilantro, 1 T basil, 1 small shallot.

That’s a lot of fresh herbs in one dressing isn’t it?

This is the bulk of the work - prepping the herbs that will be whisked in to the dressing base.  Let’s get that out of the way first.

Mince the herbs and place in a separate bowl.

Mince the shallot and add to the bowl with the herbs; set aside.

Here’s the anchovy, about to get minced before being put in the food processor. Can you believe that? He doesn’t look so intimidating when you really think about it. Why do most people hate them? I’m coming around. They add so much salty goodness to everything you put them in.  But even if you hate them, just pretend it’s not even there.  You probably eat them all the time in Caesar dressing and don’t even realize it, right?

Scoop out the avocado into the food processor.  Mince the garlic clove, and add it along with the minced anchovy.

Pulse for a second or two, until you have a chunky mixture. Then, measure out 3/4 cup olive oil.

With the food processor running, pour the olive oil in through the feed tube. Pour into a bowl.

Measure a quarter cup of heavy cream.  I cheated and used Sparkman’s Dairy whole milk.  I was at a cooking class taught by 2 Whole Foods executive chefs and they were telling us this particular brand (from right south of Atlanta) takes such good care of their cows that their milk is much creamier than average, and that they’ve started using their whole milk in place of cream…

Whisk the cream or milk into the dressing base.

Finally, whisk in the minced herbs and shallot.

This is the important part - just taste it! You can decide if it needs more salt or pepper. I found I only needed a crack of pepper and that was it - the anchovy imparted the perfect amount of saltiness.

Dress some chopped romaine and toss to coat. Sprinkle a few pine nuts over top if you like (you can add tomatoes, carrots, radishes, cucumbers - this dressing loves all vegetables I bet!). I also just grilled a piece of halibut over the gas grill, and spooned a little extra green goddess right on top.