http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/ma...ood-t-000.html


November 9, 2008

Recipe Redux

1948: Green Goddess Salad

By AMANDA HESSER

"Nothing sounds more retro than the Green Goddess salad, which calls to mind
the days of Singapore Slings served in Tom Collins glasses, big bands and
simple, arrestingly flavored food. Yet if you take some of today's cooking
staples - anchovies, fresh herbs and salad greens - and add mayonnaise and
vinegar to them, Green Goddess is exactly what you end up with.

The Times's recipe for Green Goddess dressing, which originally ran in 1948,
is a garlicky, demanding mash-up for which the romaine acts as a soothing
counterpoint. You cannot eat the salad dispassionately, because it commands
your attention with welcome lashings of chives, vinegar, anchovies and
cracked black pepper. It's not the salad to have for lunch at work.

The Green Goddess salad was made famous at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco
in 1923 as a tribute to George Arliss, the star of the play "The Green
Goddess." Descendant recipes vary, although most, including James Beard's in
"American Cookery," rely on a foundation of tarragon, anchovies, chives and
scallion. Some include garlic, parsley and chives, some sour cream. In a
recent version by Ina Garten, found on the Food Network Web site, she
replaced the tarragon with basil. The salad remained green, so no harm done.
The bottled Seven Seas version of the dressing, so popular in the 1970s,
went the way of moon boots as ranch and balsamic dressings elbowed their way
onto shelves. Now produced in limited quantities by Kraft, it's sold at
places like the Vermont Country Store - purveyors of "the practical and
hard-to-find" - for about $7.50 a bottle.

The decades-old Times recipe, which came from "The California Cook Book," by
Genevieve Callahan, wanders from tradition by tossing Worcestershire sauce
into the mix and, oddly enough, omitting the tarragon. Jesse Llapitan, the
current chef at the Palace Hotel, still serves more than 50 Green Goddess
salads every day. His faintly modernized version is dense with tarragon and
served over Dungeness crab.

To give the old recipe a thorough shaking up, I sent it to April Bloomfield,
the chef at the Spotted Pig in Manhattan. Bloomfield, who moved here from
England, a land with more polite salads, had heard of the dressing but
assumed the "green" meant it contained avocado. (Which it does in some '70s
variations.) "It's a bit like a Caesar, don't you think?" she asked after
tasting it. A lot like a Caesar - and probably related, as Caesar salad was
also popular in California in the 1920s. "It's very strong, but it goes
really well with the romaine, which is sturdy," Bloomfield added. But salad
wasn't what she had in mind when it came to her own interpretation of the
recipe. Instead she disassembled the salad and worked its components into a
lamb dish.

For Bloomfield's recipe, you spread a paste of anchovies, capers, lemon and
bread crumbs on the fatty side of a browned rack of lamb before putting it
under the broiler. Meanwhile, you simmer peas with onion, garlic and mint,
and toast the tips of the just-wilted romaine leaves in a searing-hot pan.
Although it's a heartier dish than the salad, for every aggressive jab of
the Green Goddess, Bloomfield replies with a graceful tap.


Recipes:

1948: Green Goddess Salad

This recipe appeared in an article in The Times by Jane Nickerson. It comes
from ''The California Cook Book,'' by Genevieve Callahan.

1 clove garlic, minced

1/3 cup mayonnaise

1 tablespoon white-wine vinegar

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

2 teaspoons minced chives

6 anchovy fillets (in oil), drained and finely chopped

1 tablespoon oil from the anchovy tin

Cracked pepper

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

1 large head romaine, washed and thoroughly dried.

1. Place the garlic in a large salad bowl. Using a whisk, blend in the
mayonnaise, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, chives, anchovies and anchovy
oil. Add cracked pepper to taste. Let stand at room temperature for an hour
or longer to help meld the flavors.

2. Just before serving, add the parsley and half of the romaine leaves, torn
into bite-size pieces, to the bowl. Toss until the dressing is well
distributed and coats all of the leaves. Add the remaining romaine leaves as
needed and toss until completely coated with the dressing. Serves 4 to 6.


Recipes

2008: Rack of Lamb With Anchovies, Capers and Bread Crumbs, With Braised
Peas and Romaine


By April Bloomfield, the chef at the Spotted Pig in New York

1 rack of lamb (8 chops), Frenched by your butcher

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon capers

4 salted anchovies, soaked and boned, or 8 anchovy fillets, drained

1/2 lemon

3 tablespoons butter

1 medium white onion, finely sliced

5 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped

1 pound frozen or fresh peas

3 tablespoons roughly chopped mint

1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs

About 4 tablespoons olive oil

1 romaine heart, separated into leaves

2 tablespoons finely sliced chives.

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Season the lamb with salt and pepper and
let rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. Using a mortar and pestle, mash
to a pulp the capers and anchovies. Add just enough lemon juice to moisten
the paste without making it runny.

2. Melt the butter in a large saucepan. When foamy, add the onion and
garlic. Season lightly with salt. Cook over medium-low heat until the onion
is soft and almost creamy, 15 to 20 minutes. Increase the heat to medium,
add the peas and half the mint. Simmer until just cooked through. Season to
taste.

3. Set a cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat until it begins to smoke.
Add the lamb, fat-side down, and sear, turning it until lightly browned on
all sides, about 5 minutes. Transfer the skillet to the oven and cook 10
minutes for medium rare. Remove the lamb from the oven and set on a clean
plate to rest for 7 minutes. Reserve the skillet.

4. Preheat the broiler. Spread the anchovy-and-caper paste on the fatty side
of the lamb and pat the bread crumbs on top. Put the lamb back in the
skillet, bread-crumbs-side up, and broil until golden brown, 2 to 5 minutes.
Transfer to a cutting board.

5. Heat a grill pan over medium-high heat until almost smoking. Add 1
tablespoon olive oil, followed by a handful of romaine. (Break any large
leaves in half before adding to the pan.) Cook, tossing with tongs, until
just wilted and the edges of the leaves are charred. Add to the peas. Repeat
with the remaining romaine leaves.

6. To serve, spoon some peas and romaine on each of 4 plates. Carve the lamb
into chops and lean them on the peas and romaine. Sprinkle with a little
olive oil, the chives and the remaining mint. Serves 4..."


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